A Good Animal by Sara Maurer

 

My thoughts

It's hard to believe this is a debut. It is so beautiful and heartfelt. A story that will capture your heart.

Do you remember what first love felt like? Was it good? Was it heartfelt? Hopeful? Did you end up with that first love? Or was it a bad experience? Sad? Hurtful? This story is so full of love and hope. Hope for a future. A first love that is told from the young man's point of view. From his feelings. His heart. And what a story it is. 

Everett met Mary during the summer before their senior year in high school. Mary had just moved to  Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and couldn't wait to leave. She only had one year left and she could do whatever she wanted. She had plans to move to California and be an artist. 

Everett was a farm boy. A young man who loved everything about being a sheep farmer. He had big plans too. To buy his own sheep and make his life as a farmer. Then he met Mary. He feel hard and fast. They were young and threw caution to the wind. It was such a pure and sweet time for them. 

Mary told Everett from the very start that she was not staying. She told him about her plans and she meant every word. But Everett truly thought he was in love. And possibly he was. Sometimes first loves are the strongest. The deepest. The most intense. But something went wrong. Something unexpected. 

This book is truly beautifully written. It's just one that will keep you turning the pages. I cried so much reading this book. I did laugh a few times too but mostly it brought tears to my eyes. Not just from the love between a boy and a girl but from what happens to sheep. Things I didn't know that happened when you show animals. 

I learned a few things reading this book. All about sheep, but still I did learn some things. This author knows sheep and she knows what that first love feels like. From a boys POV at that. 

This book was a quick read for me. 

I received an audio arc also and have to say that the narrator, Michael Crouch, did a fantastic job of making this book flow just right. Of bringing each character to life. Of giving it the feeling it needed. 

Thank you NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Macmillan audio, for the arc. Also it was my BOTM last month. 

4.75 stars... 

About

A heart-wrenching coming-of-age debut novel by a stunning new voice in fiction, for readers of Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett.

In the farm country outside Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan—a border town where life moves slow and dreams run fast—most kids want out. Not Everett Lindt. He’s set on staying put, rebuilding his family’s sheep farm, and carving a future from the land he loves.

Then he meets Mary, a new girl in town with restless energy and bigger plans. When their relationship reaches a crossroads, Everett sees a life together; Mary, however, is desperate to find a way out. Together, they make an impulsive choice—one that will change everything.

Tense, lyrical, and deeply felt, Sara Maurer's unforgettable debut breathtakingly captures the ache of first love, the beauty and brutality of rural life, and how one decision can echo through generations and shape who we become.