Title- Water for Elephants
Rating– 4/5
Genre- Women’s fiction or drama maybe
POV- First person, past tense
Trope- circus, scandal
Similar Books/Comps– Salt of the Sea, The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary
My emotions- Intrigued, fascinated
Characters–
Jacob Janowski- orphaned, penniless, with no direction in life even though he was a vet student
Marlena- equestrian star
August- brutal animal trainer
Rosie- untrainable elephant
Plot/Blurb-
Jacob landed on a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was the Great Depression and for Jacob the circus was both his salvation and a living hell. There he met Marlena (though she was married to August). And he met Rosie, who was the great hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this group of misfits was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
Best part-
Rosie and the climax scene
What I’d change-
Animal abuse is hard to read about
Quote-
“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
“I want her to melt into me, like butter on toast. I want to absorb her and walk around for the rest of my days with her encased in my skin.”
Cassie Swindon 