The night before her wedding, seventeen year old Pell Ridley runs away from home, taking with her horse and her mute brother Bean. She’s running from the restrictions of marriage and childbearing, heading towards goodness knows what. Along the way she loses everything, gains a whole lot more, and perseveres through hardships that would take most people a life time to cope with.
I enjoyed reading this and the book rattled along in delightfully short chapters that made it a perfect before bed read. When I was younger, I would have adored the horsey elements of this books which were charmingly well observed, and it was Pell’s ability and talent with horses that was part of what made her such an attractive character. Her ability to just keep going through all her losses and her compassion for her animals and siblings made her quite unforgettable.
I worry though that I wouldn’t have enjoyed this book half as much when I was younger. Before my very late teens, there was no way that I could have appreciated what it was that Pell was running from. Considering what she suffers, I would have urged her to return to Birdie, get married, live happily ever after with the horses. It’s only since seeing friends settle down and lose themselves (however temporarily!) to being wives and mothers that I can fully grasp why she ran. The way that so many loose ends were tied up also grated with me a little. It was all a little too neat, with Esther and the revelations about her connections to the Ridley family just taking it a step too far for me.
A lovely read but I’d struggle to recommend it to many people, which seems a really pity. One of those books I feel a bit guilty for not loving.
Miss A.
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