Dark Horses

Starred review from September 21, 2020
Mihalic’s taut, bracing debut takes a daringly understated approach to its exploration of sexual abuse. Fifteen-year-old Roan Montgomery is hoping to ride her way to an equestrian Olympic championship, like her father before her, who serves as her coach, trainer, agent, and publicist. He’s also been sexually abusing her since she was 10, which she’s done her best to convince herself is a necessary evil in order to have the life she otherwise relishes. Compartmentalizing this aspect of her existence gets more difficult after she grows attracted to classmate Will Howard, a development that causes her father to become even more controlling. Mihalic has a firm grasp of the intricacies of competitive riding, and she grounds her narrative in a sense of the day by day, or even minute by minute, decisions involved in negotiating its dangers, which gives a reader an understanding of why Roan might hope the danger her father presents can also be contained and navigated. As the dread the novel evokes grows increasingly overwhelming, the reader is torn between that perspective and the knowledge that, from an objective point of view, Roan is dealing with a monster. The novel takes every narrative hurdle as nimbly and astonishingly capably as Roan does the courses she rides. This is a powerhouse.

Starred review from December 1, 2020

DEBUT Ruthlessly controlled by her Olympic Medal-winning father both inside the ring and at home, talented 15-year-old rider Roan Montgomery knows that their relationship is inappropriate yet tamps down her dark secret as she aims for the Olympics. Mihalic astutely builds her absorbing debut novel, showing Roan's father upbraiding her for letting her attention slip or taking a course too fast, then revealing his sexual abuse of Roan in scenes that are increasingly harrowing but never exploitative. Meanwhile, Roan's wealth-obsessed mother knows what is happening but doesn't intervene; she's actually jealous of the relationship between her husband and daughter and soon takes her leave. Roan isn't supposed to have any involvement with boys, but she starts slipping the noose to meet with sympathetically drawn classmate Will, who faces tragedy of his own. Their burgeoning relationship gives her strength as she finally faces the need to free herself from her father in a narrative that reaches shattering heights. VERDICT Deftly sketching the relationships here (including the relationship between horse and rider), Mihalic gives a powerful and insightful account of Roan's abuse and her path to freedom.--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2020
A complex portrait of sexual abuse set in the world of pre-Olympic equestrian competition. Debut novelist Mihalic takes us inside a life of extreme privilege, equestrian "eventing"--a kind of horse-based triathlon--and sexual predation with Roan Montgomery, a feisty 15-year-old Olympian-to-be who confides her story in a cleareyed narration. From the outside, Roan's life looks too good to be true. She's the youngest competitor in her high-stakes equestrian world, attends a ritzy prep school, and lives on the sprawling grounds of her family's Rosemont Farms in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley, complete with an extensive staff, multiple horses, and a father-cum-trainer who's working to make her the next Olympic gold-medal winner in their family. Look closer, though, and the cracks appear. Her mother's an addict/alcoholic with no bandwidth to care for Roan, sleeping with the headmaster at her daughter's school. Her father, meanwhile, has been sexually abusing her for years. From the moment Roan gets to know Will Howard, one of her classmates, and feels the first tug of genuine connection, the fireworks start. Her father wants to keep Roan all to himself, and Roan craves her father's undivided attention and the goals he's set for her while also wanting to escape his abuse. To the author's credit, this is no poor-little-rich-girl story. Rather, Mihalic complicates the narrative at every turn, creating a disturbing and flinty picture of what abuse, psychological control, and rage look like. The emotions Roan feels toward her father are multilayered and confusing, speaking to the gnarled nature of their relationship. When he tells her before an interview to "Just be yourself," she knows that's code for inhabiting the persona he's created. Though the narrative occupies taboo terrain, it does so with great heart and thereby honors Roan's love-hate experience in all its bewildering and inscrutable nature. A searing examination of love and lust, power and control, as the narrator's rising sense of self yearns to take the reins.

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Starred review from November 1, 2020
This skillful debut takes a righteous spot on the shelf next to recent novels like Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa (2020), unpacking childhood sexual abuse with complicated and nuanced lenses. Roan Montgomery is 15 and poised to reach the Olympics as an equestrian under the controlling "coaching" of her famous father. She's learned to respond to his cues and moods almost as if they are a second language. Things change when Roan connects with a boy her own age, making what she has tolerated her whole life--sexual assault by her father for as long as she can remember--increasingly intolerable. Roan's first-person voice is wise and interesting, clear and observant. Readers will also learn with fascination the workings of a horse farm and of eventing. Folded into their shared loved of this sport, the tension between father and daughter reaches a breaking point as Roan offers increasing resistance to the power dynamic between them. Mihalic is an expert in creating narrative drive; the urge to keep reading is powerful. Readers will encounter descriptions of sexual abuse and should be forewarned, yet Mihalic guides readers in looking deeper and considering what might make a victim misunderstand her own "consensual" participation. A provoking and needed book.

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