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I try very hard not to be the kind of person who says that white people should not write from the POV of POC, but really, if this is the best you can do, white people should not write from the POV of POC.

"Horse" is a pretty mediocre novel that I would normally give three stars. There is nothing in this book that stands out as particularly excellent except maybe the research that went into it. Characters are bland, the plot is predictable, pacing is slow and dull. There is nothing particularly offensive about it, but there is nothing all that amazing about it either. This book is far more of a horse book than it is about race issues.

Then we get to the interactions between Jess and Theo and I wanted to drink myself into oblivion for how poorly they were written. The initial meeting between the two starts with a mix up because the two of them own the same bike. Jess overreacts, Theo handles himself like an adult and the two briefly go their separate ways. Then Jess spends literal chapters obsessing over how traumatized and embarassed she is by her own racism. Yes, because SHE is the person we should be focusing on in this incident. Afterwards she spends her time being hyper aware that Theo is a *gasp* Black man.

I feel like I could point to this book as a manual for all the things racist white liberals do that irritate me short of that white savior nonesense. Fortunately there were few white savior incidents to be found in this book.

In short this is a book about race written by a white woman for other white women. Take that as you will.