May 15, 2018
English's debut views a girl's coming-of-age through the lens of her relationship with the thoroughbred her father leaves behind when her parents split up.It's the summer before Teagan starts high school, and tensions between Robert and Susanna French are evident--and skillfully rendered from the anxious, bewildered perspective of their daughter--even before he moves out to live with another woman. Teagan decides to go to a girls boarding school with a riding program not far from the family's home in rural Virginia; that way she can get away from her shellshocked mother without cutting herself off entirely. She navigates the social complexities of her new environment while grappling with Ian, a headstrong, "seasoned foxhunter" bought to assuage Robert's midlife crisis and not the easiest horse for an adolescent girl to handle. Short, brooding first-person interpolations from Teagan many years later suggest that things are not going to turn out well in the main narrative, which appears to take place in the late 1980s. Indeed, even as Teagan develops a rapport with Ian, her new friendships are faltering, her schoolwork is slipping, and her mother is worried enough to send her to a psychologist, caustically dubbed "the vampire" by Teagan. English's stripped-down prose works well to convey Teagan's increasing alienation as she decides not to go back to boarding school and pulls further away from her father after he announces he's marrying the new girlfriend. But this spare style also gives the novel an oddly distanced quality; none of Teagan's relationships have much emotional force, with the notable exception of her complex bond with Ian--which makes the impulsive decision that triggers the denouement all the more jolting. It doesn't seem to fit what until then has been a fairly typical coming-of-age tale, and an epilogue set in Arkansas is simply baffling.Very well written but alternately predictable and jarring.

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June 11, 2018
In English’s uneven debut, high schooler Teagan French lives an idyllic life at Blue View, her family’s Virginia farm. Her days consist of riding horses; campfires in the woods with her best friend, Grace; and outdoor dinners under cloudless skies. Teagan lives with her mother, the strong-willed, horse-loving Susanna;
her older brother, the kind but distant Charlie; and her hard-to-please father, Robert. However, Robert seems less like himself every day. When he brings home an obstinate new gelding, Obsidian, and then abruptly leaves his family for another woman, Obsidian is christened Ian and given to Teagan. As her family crumbles around her, Teagan chooses a new path for herself at an equestrian-focused boarding school a few hours away. She deals with pain and heartbreak there with a new cast of roommates and friends, all the while battling to train the strong-willed Ian, hoping to find something she can truly trust amid the turmoil. With short, punchy chapters and both first- and third-person narration from Teagan, the novel moves well, but the story can feel unfocused; scenes of boarding school antics are highly detailed, while major moments—like the abrupt and dramatic ending—are vague. English is a talented writer whose strong, striking sentences compensate for the weaker aspects of the story.

September 1, 2018

This striking first novel from award-winning poet English portrays the French family on the brink of disintegration. School principal Robert, wife Susanna, and their children Charlie and Teagan live on Blue View Farm, where they keep horses, one of which is Obsidian, or Ian, Robert's beloved stead. Soon, however, horse and family take second place when Robert begins an affair and moves to town. With Susanna showing little emotion and Charlie one step from entering college and resigned to the way things are, Teagan alone struggles with her father's betrayal. Susanna thinks it will help if Teagan attends a superb boarding school with an equestrian program so that she can bond with Ian and compete in shows. Instead, Teagan fails most of her classes and has difficulty with the easily spooked Ian. Her only alternative is to return home, leaving Teagan with nothing but painful memories. VERDICT English presents an original, often lyrical story of a teen girl and her horse as she finds her way in a world full of false friends and traitorous adults. A solid choice for thoughtful readers interested in stories of families and relationships. [See Prepub Alert, 2/19/18.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

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September 1, 2018

When her father abandons the family, Teagan steadies herself by training Ian--that is, Obsidian, her father's head-tossingly, fiercely beautiful, stubbornly independent-minded horse. Not your average girl-with-horse saga; English is an award-winning poet.

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Starred review from July 1, 2018

When Teagan, the 14-year-old protagonist of this fine debut novel, shops for two cats at the local animal shelter with her older brother Charlie, she asks to see the felines on "death row." "We want something that doesn't care about people," she explains, choosing a shy tabby missing half an ear and a tomcat with no teeth. Thus Slinky and Gums join a menagerie of horses and dogs living in Virginia at Blue View, a few acres that Teagan and her family are hanging on to, just barely. The members of this household love animals but can't communicate with one another. When Robert, the father, abruptly walks out, he leaves his thoroughbred gelding Obsidian, nicknamed Ian, behind. Robert's absence greatly impacts Teagan and her mother, Susannah. Teagan's mastery of the willful Ian progresses even as she flounders, unable to let Robert back into her life when he settles nearby. Slowly Teagan learns to trust her instincts about Ian-and herself. Constructed as a series of vignettes, this quiet, restrained novel downplays emotional catharsis, allowing teens to read between the lines, much like Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. VERDICT A shining debut for coming-of-age collections focusing on promising young authors. Recommended for serious readers and animal lovers alike.-Georgia Christgau, Middle College High School, Long Island City, NY

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