Book Review: The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls

On a citrus farm in Florida, we meet Thea Atwell, a 15-year-old girl with a fraternal twin brother, Sam, living an idyllic, but incredibly sheltered life.  Thea and Sam live in a grand home with their parents and are regularly visited by their aunt, uncle, and cousin, Georgie.  Outside of these visits, the children have very little contact with the outside world and are completely shielded from the Great Depression that has crippled the economy of the country and forced thousands of families into poverty.

Thea is shipped off to the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls in North Carolina after a scandal that’s unknown to the reader.  At camp, she befriends her cabin mates, and through a series of flashbacks, we slowly learn the reprehensible chain of events that led to Thea’s banishment from home.  Though she was sent to camp to learn from her mistakes, Thea again does the unspeakable, and the reader can do nothing but despise the novel’s protagonist.

DiSclafani’s writing is beautiful and evokes an almost dream-like sentiment as you quickly turn through the pages of this coming-of-age story.  However, with the way Thea’s transition from girl to woman was depicted, I assumed that the novel was written by a man.  After a bit of research, I learned that DiSclafani is a woman, which was a letdown as I found some of the scenes out of touch with reality.  That critique aside, Yonahlosse is a summer reading must.  I tore through the pages, eager to learn what it was that Thea did to get herself into trouble.  I’ll admit that I’m a very judge-y woman, and I absolutely loved judging Thea from the first to the last page.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp For Girls
Anton DiSclafani
Released June 4^th, 2013 – 400 pages

What I’m Reading Right Now:

This month’s book club selection:

The Other Typist
Suzanne Rindell

An NYPD typist in the 1920’s becomes enamored with a new co-worker, spending the day typing criminals’ confessions, and the night indulging in the underground world of prohibition-era speakeasies in a mysterious black comedy.

On my nightstand:

The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern

Two magicians, fated to battle one another to the death since childhood, work together at a peculiar traveling circus, and fall in love in this popular novel.  I admit that it’s been on my nightstand for a few months now and I was having a little trouble getting through the story, but after finally hitting the halfway point, things are picking up and are getting exciting.

I’m struggling with:

Going Clear:  Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Lawrence Wright

In this highly regarded expose on Scientology, we learn about the religion’s origins through a history of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and get a detailed account of a number of celebrities’ involvement with the church, including John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Paul Haggis.  You’ll find that I have a proclivity for studying what I deem to be “cult religions.”  I try to read as much as I can about these religions (namely Scientology and Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints).  Unfortunately, I read Inside Scientology a couple years ago, and there is a lot of duplication between the two books.  If you like to read about cult religions, I recommend reading one of these two books.  The religion is fascinating.  I don’t think you need to read both though…I am forcing myself to finish Going Clear.

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