I kinda wish The Truth About Horses by Christy Cashman wasn’t titled The Truth About Horses. And I also wish the cover were different. Though it almost looks self-pubbed and the title is lackluster and maybe even cheesy, the book is pretty solid. Despite some rather specific things I will find to complain about, overall it’s a good experience with older MG/earlier YA literature. Especially if you like horses. But it’s true: you don’t have to be a horse person (I’m not) or even a teen (I’m not) to enjoy this story and the fairly deep issues that the realistic characters are dealing with, though I think teen horse-lovers are the ones who will appreciate it most. Maybe not ground-breaking, but something I could see a lot of people liking and quite a few appreciating for its subject matter.

Reese is 14 and is rooting for her family’s horse, Trusted Treasure, to win the Black Elk. But when Treasure takes a spill, it’s only the beginning of everything falling apart for Reese. A year or something later, everything has changed and while trying, alone, to put together the pieces of her life, Reese meets Wes, a man who refuses to speak (as in he’s mute) while he deals with his own trauma, and who is new to town and the owner of a horse stable. Reese inserts herself into the barn and into Wes’s life in her quest to get her horse back and find some sense of happiness and purpose… and Wes isn’t sure this is such a good idea.

I read this book as an ARC, which actually happened two months after its publication by the time everything washed out. And then I was doing Nanowrimo and then I was sick and then the holidays were a mad scramble. By now, the book has tens of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, and people are loving it, for the most part. I am not paid to read ARCs, but I like to give a positive review as well as an honest one. I can do that with this book, even though my review is already just one of many.

Let me get something over with, like ripping off a Band-Aid; I was uncomfortable, at times, with Reese’s relationship with Wes. I don’t think Cashman meant to create sexual/romantic tension between Reese and a man who it would clearly be statutory for her to be in a relationship with, but the tension was there, especially since Cashman failed to clearly define his age. At one point, Reese says he could have been twenties and he could have been thirties, and I think this was a bad idea because then the questions start swirling in the readers’ heads. Is he 20? How old is Reese at this point? 16? I am actually dealing with this in the novel I am currently writing, and I ended up aging one character up and the other down so that the romantic overtones weren’t creepy. Again, though I don’t think Cashman meant to do it, I was occasionally creeped out and worried by the relationship as it developed, and I just wish she would have nipped that in the bud early by telling us how old this (preferably middle-aged) man was or given Reese some stated aversion to him in that way. (I mean, he was young, talented, and handsome, basically her dream man, and they went through so much together.)

I suppose it was also kind of long, but that might have been due to the printing, like the paper type and font size and all that. It came with a list of glowing recommendations from everyone from Joyce Carol Oates to Carly Simon (and Harry Connick Jr.). I also found it to be a little bit rough around the edges at times, and I don’t mean that about the writing—which was pretty clean and painted clear pictures—but about the characters, especially Reese. The book was a blend of something Hallmark-y with some very strong feelings of anger and quite a bit of cussing. And conversations about her dad sleeping around with the women around town. Not that this stuff isn’t realistic, but it felt, to me, like an odd mashup between the lighthearted, overall presentation and then the grit and mess. The same things made me wonder about Reese’s age, about the age of reader the book was intended for… on one hand it was very YA in subject matter and on the other, very MG in tone. I also had some random issues with little things, like a scene where the reader was set up to believe one thing and then it was not what had happened, or like the actions of one of the side characters being a little cryptic and odd. The first person POV is appropriate for the story.

It is Cashman’s first novel, and I think it possible she could write a lot more in the YA and MG arenas and hook some repeat readers, a la Jacqueline Woodson. This could also be the only story she has to tell, and she’ll end here (with other careers in her life). There will always be kids and teens (and adults) who love horses, and a pastoral in the modern times is a breath of fresh air that is reminiscent of both Judy Blume and books like Where the Red Fern Grows or Sign of the Beaver, at the same time.

The Truth About Horses is both what you expect and not. It has strong characters, realistic situations, growth, a whole lot about horses and a girl’s love of them, sweeping vistas, and other things to keep the pages turning. I would say the writing is adequate and there is some tweaking Cashman may learn to do as she writes more books, which I’m kinda assuming she will. If you have a teen in your life who is either a) into horses or b) going through some stuff, this is an accessible, small-town-agrarian-warm-feeling book that they can probably see themselves in. Really, all of us can see ourselves as struggling against the loss and injustice in our life, and Reese is an honest character to walk us through some of that.

As I said, this is Christy Cashman’s first novel. She also has a couple of children’s picture books. She was first an actress and a producer and has been in a bunch of movies. She lives between Ireland and Massachusetts and actually has horses as well as a lifelong love of horses. Her website is HERE, where there is a nice trailer for The Truth About Horses.

“I don’t like being a stranger in a place that’s put its giant thumbprint on me” (p46).

“I think Wes has already figured out that stringing a bunch of sounds together is way less useful than we think” (p58).

“’When a horse charges, you have two choices. You stand your ground, or you stand your ground’” (p91).

“Crying about a stupid thing you’ve done is something horse people should do on their own time” (p92).

“I sleep like a baby. Literally. I’m awake every couple of hours and I’m restless and I want to cry. I realize that making an effort to go to sleep is making sleeping even more difficult” (p101).

“Even if Lexi spent twice the time working on her personality as she spends putting on her makeup, she’d barely make it to tolerable” (p192).

“He said most people use their vision to strengthen their fear, not to overcome it” (p222).

“Since humans aren’t great at dealing with pain, fear takes over. And we want to, you know, give a face to that fear” (p227).

“’It’s so hard to lose someone who’s died, but maybe it’s just as hard to lose someone who’s standing right in front of you’” (p312).

“But that night, it’s like we started to see each other again. And it seemed like we had both changed some and we had both stayed the same some” (p333).

“…once dreams are reached, they’re meant to turn to dust, giving you a chance to dream again” (p354).

The book is new and she’s a new author and it’s not exactly spreading like wildfire, so I don’t see any movies or shows in the works. However, Cashman is a producer, so maybe she’ll make a movie or show of The Truth About Horses as her next “pet project?” I think it would actually work really well as a movie or a limited series, maybe even better than the book.