Leah
Written on Nov 21, 2014
Catherine Ryan Hyde has been one of my favourite writers since I read When I Found You back in 2009. Since then I've read all of her subsequent novels, bar one and she's an author whose books I look forward to - she writes such compelling novels about families you love to get to know, and situations that should be dire but somehow end up working out for the best, and I think it takes quite an author to manage that, and she nails it each and every time.
The Language of Hoofbeats is one of the most compelling books this year - and that says something, considering I've already read two other Catherine Ryan Hyde books this year. All the same, but all so different, if that even makes sense. In The Language of Hoofbeats, we meet a family - Paula, Jackie and their adopted/foster kids Quinn, Star and Mando. They're moving to a new place, for Paula's work, and immediately offend their neighbour Clementine when Star takes a liking to Clementine's horse, Comet. The two end up running away together, and it somehow bonds the neighbours together, which when you first meet Clementine, you'll hardly believe.
There is something about Catherine Ryan Hyde's writing that gets me time and time again. Novel after novel, I end up caring so, so much about the characters and getting to meet Paula and Jackie and their kids was such a pleasure. It's so nice that Catherine's novels always foster the best of a bad thing - Quinn, Mando and Star have all had rough lives, but they get a second chance with Paula and Jackie; Clementine is an angry, angry person, but despite that, Paula and Jackie don't just leave her to rot by herself; there's always hope, even when you feel it's lost. I especially liked how it was young Quinn who helped Clementine to see the error of her angry ways. He was so perceptive, so intuitive, so honest where adults would not be.
It's a relatively simple novel, as novels go. No complicated love story, no useless fighting or threats, and I was so absorbed by the novel. I'm a dog owner, but I'm not one for thinking animals can talk, but I loved the relationship between Star and Comet. It just felt right.
There's nothing for me to write here. I spent over a week reading the novel due to work getting in the way (pesky work), and I just loved coming back to it, time and time again. I just wanted to sit in a corner and get to its conclusion as fast as I possibly could, and take it all in.
I loved it. What else? I love everything Catherine's written that I've read. She can make me feel things no other authors can feel, and write stories that are so simple but so absorbing. I was taken in from the very beginning and, sure, Clementine wasn't the easiest character to love, but there was just something about her that was so compelling. Yes, she was mean, but she was also clearly hurting and using her meanness as a coping mechanism. And as for Jackie, Paula, Star, Quinn and Mando, I adored them completely (although perhaps I was wary of Star, she never really gave herself away), especially young Quinn. Catherine Ryan Hyde writes kids SO well and always manages to make me want to take them home with me. I now sit, waiting patiently, for her next novel...{Leah Loves} http://leah-loves.com http://leah-loves.com/language-hoofbeats-catherine-ryan-hyde/