Early Review – Some Kind of Animal by Maria Romasco-Moore (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Mystery
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: August 4, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1984893543
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Jo lives in the same Appalachian town where her mother disappeared fifteen years ago. Everyone knows what happened to Jo’s mom. She was wild, and bad things happen to girls like that.
Now people are starting to talk about Jo. She’s barely passing her classes and falls asleep at her desk every day. She’s following in her mom’s footsteps.
Jo does have a secret. It’s not what people think, though. Not a boy or a drug habit. Jo has a twin sister.
Jo’s sister is not like most people. She lives in the woods–catches rabbits with her bare hands and eats them raw. Night after night, Jo slips out of her bedroom window and meets her sister in the trees. And together they run, fearlessly.
The thing is, no one’s ever seen Jo’s sister. So when her twin attacks a boy from town, everyone assumes that it was Jo. Which means Jo has to decide–does she tell the world about her sister, or does she run?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I got through NetGalley for review.
Story (3/5): Jo lives in a small Appalachian town with her aunt. Jo’s mother disappeared fifteen years ago and the mystery of this casts a shadow over Jo. Unfortunately, no one knows that Jo has a secret that is causing her day to day life to fall apart. She has a sister who lives in the woods, a sister who desperately wants Jo to join her in the woods. As Jo struggles to unravel the mystery behind her family she gets drawn deeper into her sister’s world.
This was an interesting mystery but the whole thing just ended up feeling kind of anti-climatic and unfinished to me. By the end I just felt like, “Uh, okay….so what?”
Characters (3/5): Jo was okay but I was pretty frustrated with how long she had kept her sister’s secrets. I get that she couldn’t trust many of the adults in her life, but she never really tried to trust them either. I also didn’t understand some of the side characters, like her “love interest” Henry, why was he even in the story? Then there is her wild sister Lee, another interesting character but not well developed. All the characters felt kind of selfish and confused and made a lot of bad decisions which was frustrating.
Setting (4/5): I enjoyed the setting in a small Appalachian town and the forest surrounding it. The author did a good job making this sleepy small town setting really come alive for the reader.
Writing Style (3/5): This was a bit of a mess overall. I never felt like there was much propelling this story forward. Yes, there was the mystery about Jo’s mom but I never felt like it really mattered. Also there was Jo’s sister but I never felt like there was a good outcome for her and the way it ended was very non-committal. The writing was okay and the descriptions of the surroundings were good. Everything else felt really under developed and unfinished to me.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was an interesting idea and I loved the description around the settings. However, the story didn’t have a lot to drive it forward. I also felt like the characters and the resolution were unfinished. It was an okay read but I didn’t love it and wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. If you have a particular interest in children that grow up literally wild, you might enjoy this.
