Review of The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

If there is one word that comes to mind after reading Aryn Kyle's novel, it is "hushed." The God of Animals is the story of a young girl, Alice Winston, growing up on a horse farm in Colorado. Alice's life is far from easy-- her older sister has run off and gotten married, her depressed mother stays upstairs in her bedroom, and her father tries to keep money coming in and his home and business in order.

Alice is an unusually observant and smart girl. The novel opens with her recollection of a classmate's death. How she spins this death to her advantage was an interesting part of the book. It was also interesting to see how she dealt with social issues that came up at her school, how she tried to deal with her mother's illness, and how she tried to soldier on in light of so many troubles at home.

The quietness of this novel was one of its strong points, but I thought it moved too slowly. I would have liked to see a bit more action-- most of it came in the form of horse riding and training.

Kyle is a lyrical writer, and I thought the novel flowed nicely. She created an utterly believable narrator in Alice Winston and clearly has first-hand knowledge of life on a ranch.

Just One Pink gives The God of Animals a 7.5.