“A strange grave, the lion and the lamb together. In the end, I thought, the dirt gets everything.”
I read Sara Maurer’s debut novel, A Good Animal (St. Martin’s Press 2026) and I have “feelings” about it. If you don’t want it spoiled, stop now. Seriously. I’m going to spoil the stuffing out of this one.
There are a lot of pretty words that make up a pretty horrible novel. Maurer can craft a beautiful sentence, but her character development is sorely lacking. That aside, I found the plot left MUCH to be desired. I honestly don’t understand why there aren’t more negative reviews. Did we read the same book? Let’s just say I’m really glad I didn’t buy this one. (We all know how I’ve been burned lately on these BOTM picks.)
It’s the mid-90s in a Midwest farm town when a good ole farm boy falls head over heels for the dark-haired beauty who is counting the days to graduation so she can escape. It’s a classic boy meets girl, two different worlds, coming of age story. The sheep and showing in 4-H is something I wish Maurer had highlighted a bit more because there are a lot of life lessons embedded in there that our dear Everett should have learned but they get lost in the sauce.
As far as our protagonist, Everett Lindt is not a good guy. He’d like for you to think so. Most readers would probably think so. But he’s not. He’s a hot-headed, irresponsible, irrational, selfish, horny boy. He says he cares about the livestock. He says he cares about Mary. But does he? I mean really? He consistently makes decisions to the detriment of the things he loves. I could get around that if there had been more character building, more reflection from the adult Everett, but that just didn’t happen. Then there’s the SA, which is what that was. While he wasn’t “stealthing” and she knew he wasn’t wearing a condom, he’d agreed to pull out. And he didn’t. At least subconsciously, he wanted to get her pregnant to trap her; an idea put in his head by his best friend.
If that isn’t enough, he injects her with a livestock drug because he can’t afford the abortion she wants and finding a responsible adult just isn’t a possibility. (This was a real life issue in the 2000s, I think, with teens using readily available cattle drugs to perform “at home” abortions.) To make matters worse, the drug he used on her is intended for his family’s livelihood – the sheep have to be flushed and rebred in order for the lambs to be ready for showing, which is where the family gets their money. But again, Everett doesn’t think.
Mary deserved better. Fluff deserved better. Katie deserved better. Everett’s mom (who had some of the best parts of the novel – her hands? Come on!) deserved better.
And I am in the minority here, but I don’t recommend this one.
A Girl Named Tommi 