The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls

A Novel

By: Anton DiSclafani

Narrated by: Adina Verson

“This summer’s first romantic page turner.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Named a most anticipated book for Summer 2013 by The Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly and USA Today, NPR, and People summer reads pick

From the author of The After Party, a lush, sexy, evocative debut novel of family secrets and girls’-school rituals, set in the 1930s South.

It is 1930, the midst of the Great Depression. After her mysterious role in a family tragedy, passionate, strong-willed Thea Atwell, age fifteen, has been cast out of her Florida home, exiled to an equestrienne boarding school for Southern debutantes. High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with its complex social strata ordered by money, beauty, and girls’ friendships, the Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a far remove from the free-roaming, dreamlike childhood Thea shared with her twin brother on their family’s citrus farm—a world now partially shattered. As Thea grapples with her responsibility for the events of the past year that led her here, she finds herself enmeshed in a new order, one that will change her sense of what is possible for herself, her family, her country.

Weaving provocatively between home and school, the narrative powerfully unfurls the true story behind Thea’s expulsion from her family, but it isn’t long before the mystery of her past is rivaled by the question of how it will shape her future. Part scandalous love story, part heartbreaking family drama, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is an immersive, transporting page-turner—a vivid, propulsive novel about sex, love, family, money, class, home, and horses, all set against the ominous threat of the Depression—and the major debut of an important new writer.

Love this story!

I fell in love with Thea and her weaknesses, mistakes and her love of her horse and her family. The sexual content didn't bother me as I read other reviewers struggle with the content.

Flows beautifully. Typical coming of age story!

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Does not have a exceptional ending. No real twists.

What does Adina Verson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator is wonderful. She makes the words flow so beautifully.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

This book was beautifully written and the words seemed to flow together. The reason I gave it a three and not higher was I was very much not in the mood for a book like this. This book kind of reminds me of 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. It is a typical coming of age story. It shows the confusion and lack of understanding of the world as seen through a 15 year old girls eyes. If you like to read coming of age stories this book is for you. Like I said earlier, the words seem to flow and it has details that make the story quite beautiful.

intriguing story

loved the story but did not care for narrator. the story goes between the present and past but does it very well

Addictive, Shocking, Lovely

One of the few good horse books that doesn't drive a true horse girl crazy. However, it goes so much more beyond that. The performance couldn't be more perfectly executed and the story is masterfully woven.

To another War Eagle fan…

I enjoyed this book except for the sexual content…I think it could have used a little less explicitness without harming the story…
That said I was pleasantly pleased to learn that the author was a professor at Auburn…which holds a special place in my heart…and I wish her good luck on future books…which I plan to real