Post by tintin on Mar 7, 2012 14:16:12 GMT 1
Now this was a hard book to review.
I will be frank. I disliked all the characters on a spectrum from mild annoyance to seething irritation, even the horse.
Phantom horse, though gifted, is a bit of a brute – headstong, unpredictable and a first class pain in the ****, although he is rather pretty. If I had a daughter I would n’t let her ride him and if I had a wife or sweetheart I would be on my knees begging her not to ride him and to sell him at the first opportunity. Social workers would describe him as “challenging”. Horse dealers would probably call him “spirited – not novice ride”
The heroine of the story is even more annoying being petulant, self centred, rude and unable to take the wider view. Perhaps they are well matched.
The father is also very annoying as he is superficially very strict then caves in at any even moderately determined opposition. There are men like that and they leave a disciplinary chaos in their wake (which they often never see and others have to clear up).
The other characters spend a lot of time insulting, patronising or otherwise annoying each other. I would n’t want to spend my time with them.
Now as to the book review
Phantom, the wild Palomino captured in Phantom Horse, owner has to return to the UK from Virginia. Originally the horse cannot go with her, but deploying techniques of management by tantrum she ensures that he can. Phantom, however, succeeds in injuring himself, but our heroine triumphs over adversity and the family are re-united with each other. Horse and rider then go on to triumph in competition under the eyes of their neighbours from the US who come to visit them.
Very hard for me to grade the book as I got more and more irritated by the characters, but this must show that it was well enough written for it to be real enough for me to care.
On a practical note, although never mentioned explicitly, is he a stallion? Both me and my Dad thought he might be – his adduction of mares in the first book and general bad, un-co-operative temper tend to point in that direction. “Shame he was n’t ‘cut’ when he was young” was my father’s gut response.
Will our heroine mature? Will Phantom calm down?
I am afraid I can’t make myself hang around long enough to find out.
I will be frank. I disliked all the characters on a spectrum from mild annoyance to seething irritation, even the horse.
Phantom horse, though gifted, is a bit of a brute – headstong, unpredictable and a first class pain in the ****, although he is rather pretty. If I had a daughter I would n’t let her ride him and if I had a wife or sweetheart I would be on my knees begging her not to ride him and to sell him at the first opportunity. Social workers would describe him as “challenging”. Horse dealers would probably call him “spirited – not novice ride”
The heroine of the story is even more annoying being petulant, self centred, rude and unable to take the wider view. Perhaps they are well matched.
The father is also very annoying as he is superficially very strict then caves in at any even moderately determined opposition. There are men like that and they leave a disciplinary chaos in their wake (which they often never see and others have to clear up).
The other characters spend a lot of time insulting, patronising or otherwise annoying each other. I would n’t want to spend my time with them.
Now as to the book review
Phantom, the wild Palomino captured in Phantom Horse, owner has to return to the UK from Virginia. Originally the horse cannot go with her, but deploying techniques of management by tantrum she ensures that he can. Phantom, however, succeeds in injuring himself, but our heroine triumphs over adversity and the family are re-united with each other. Horse and rider then go on to triumph in competition under the eyes of their neighbours from the US who come to visit them.
Very hard for me to grade the book as I got more and more irritated by the characters, but this must show that it was well enough written for it to be real enough for me to care.
On a practical note, although never mentioned explicitly, is he a stallion? Both me and my Dad thought he might be – his adduction of mares in the first book and general bad, un-co-operative temper tend to point in that direction. “Shame he was n’t ‘cut’ when he was young” was my father’s gut response.
Will our heroine mature? Will Phantom calm down?
I am afraid I can’t make myself hang around long enough to find out.