The Yonahlosse Riding Camp For Girls (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
The commercial reviews use words like "lush" and "sexy". I found nothing lush or sexy in the fact that the sex in the book occurred between teenaged cousins and and teenager and a 30-ish year old man. It might have redeemed itself if in the end she finds a man who truly loves her. It started out pretty strong but was just a mess by the middle and I stopped caring about any of the characters. I admit I could not even finish it but I read some of the spoilers to find out what happens. I think I lost all patience with the line "I lay back on my bed and peeled them [stockings] off, surprised by the feel of my bare legs against the quilt." Talk about melodramatic! How can a 16 year old be surprised by the feel of a quilt?!? Up until then the writing quality hadn't seemed too bad but at that point I just couldn't take it, and I couldn't read one more encounter between Thea and Mr Holmes. It's interesting how much a reader's opinion of a book is colored by their expectation. After seeing a smattering of low ratings when I added this to my 'currently reading' list, I set the bar low for this story. Surprisingly, I ended up really enjoying this read.And at the start, there wasn't much to recommend. The author kept obtusely alluding to the scandal that sent our protagonist to camp, although it was quickly very obvious what had happened. The protagonist herself seemed like an unreliable narrator, as there was no concrete sense of time passing. All this lent to a weirdly dreamy quality to the novel. At some point though, as I accepted that this was a slice-of-life story about a hormonal, moody, lonely teenager... then the story became more lovely to read. This was helped by the beautiful flowing prose; there were entire paragraphs that I re-read aloud. This is not to say that I agree with the protagonist's actions or her soundness of judgement; but I can accept that this was just part of her nature.In addition, having grown up in Florida myself, it was a treat to read about how it was like so many years ago.
What do You think about The Yonahlosse Riding Camp For Girls (2000)?
I'd give this 2.5 stars, really. It dragged on a bit without much happening to justify it.
—Alenka
A coming of age book that is a little too shocking.
—shane
