I am not sure what I was expecting when I picked up The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls by Anton Disclafani but this sure was a surprising book. Set in the 1930's between Florida and North Carolina, the story is about Thea Atwell. Thea is a teenaged daughter. You can read the book and think Thea is extremely selfish or you might think Thea is extremely brave. When I read the book about Thea my thoughts were about her parents. What were they thinking? Did Thea's parents think at all because if they did, they would have known what was coming. Later in the story I think Thea is taken advantage of by an authority figure and that upsets me. Later I learn that that encounter helped Thea in a way when no one else was there to help her. He helped her recover from her crazy family and survive and flourish during her life. The descriptions of the Florida heat (before the days of air conditioning), the citrus groves, the oncoming economic depression, and the mountain of North Carolina were excellent. The author does an excellent job of describing what it would be like to come from an extremely isolated citrus farm in Florida and navigate the complicated social network of a boarding school for girls. This was an excellent book that keep me enthralled every chapter.
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