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White Horses: A Novel by [Alice Hoffman]

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Alice Hoffman

White Horses: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Alice Hoffman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

73 ratings

A story about the fairy-tale fantasies of girlhood and the realities of growing up by “one of our quirkiest and most interesting novelists” (Jane Smiley, USA Today).

When Teresa sleeps—sometimes for days at a time, the scent of roses surrounding her—she dreams of the Arias, outlaw riders on white steeds, who roam the desert at night. She was told about the dark-eyed horsemen by her mother, Dina, who left her own bedroom window open at night in the hopes that one would take her away from her parents’ house in Santa Fe.

Teresa, who cannot find a cure for her mysterious sleeping sickness, has one true ally: her brother, Silver. Wild and handsome, Silver exerts an irresistible force over everyone he meets—women especially. He pursues a life of crime and danger, and the older he grows, the more reckless he becomes. Teresa wants to break free but is drawn back to her brother again and again, pulled by the belief that he is the night rider of her dreams. Only when she realizes that she has the strength to save herself will she finally be able to open her eyes and walk away.

A lyrical blend of the mythical and the real, White Horses has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as a book that “will reverberate in readers’ imaginations for a long time.”

Print length

324 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Open Road Media
Publication date

September 23, 2014
File size

2257 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Haunting . . . Alice Hoffman is a daring and able writer.” —The New Yorker

“As powerful as anything I’ve read for a long, long time.” —Tim O’Brien

“Mysterious and believable.” —The New York Times

“Hoffman’s writing has never been so lyrical.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Sexually charged . . . Almost hypnotic.” —Publishers Weekly

“Remarkable . . . Her young heroine is entirely believable and so real and vulnerable you can reach out and touch her as she touches you.” —Marge Piercy

“Alice Hoffman is the American Brontë.” —Michael Malone

About the Author

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island. She wrote her first novel, Property Of, while studying creative writing at Stanford University, and since then has published more than thirty books for readers of all ages, including the recent New York Times bestsellers The Museum of Extraordinary Things and The Dovekeepers. Two of her novels, Practical Magic and Aquamarine, have been made into films, and Here on Earth was an Oprah’s Book Club choice. All told, Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty languages and one hundred foreign editions. She lives outside of Boston.

ASIN : B00N5E57CE
Publisher : Open Road Media (September 23, 2014)
Publication date : September 23, 2014
Language : English
File size : 2257 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 324 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #307,239 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3,352 in Coming of Age Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #5,134 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #6,157 in Family Life Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
73 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		29%
4 star		19%
3 star		25%
2 star		19%
1 star		7%

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Top reviews from the United States

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P. Carson

Alice Hoffman 1982

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2016

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I have read many of Alice Hoffman's novels, including two of the most recent - THE DOVEKEEPERS and THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS. This novel, THE WHITE HORSES was published much earlier, in 1982, and has quite a few shortcomings - an unsatisfactory ending that contradicts most of the flavor of the book, characters and sub-plots that don't add to the story or are left unresolved, and semi-magical elements that are also unexplained. Also, the story of a brother and sister who become lovers is very melancholy and sordid. Nevertheless, I liked the author's understanding of this family's dynamics and the passing of one generation's delusions to the generation that follows it. The idea that you will meet someone magical who can do no wrong, who will rescue you from everyday life, is very destructive, if it leads you to place all your hopes on one person. Often, even magically endowed people are flawed and can not substitute for a well-established sense of your own worth.

14 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Spoiler**

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

I can't past the way she romanticized incest. Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite writers. He words bring what she's describing to life. If this story was about two random people and their love story, I would have loved this book. But it's about the love between a brother and sister and no amount of beautiful words can make me look past that. I was disturbed through the whole thing. I wanted this book to end so badly. I only read to the end in hopes that there would be some explanation. Maybe they weren't really brother and sister. Maybe it was a sick dream. Sadly, that didn't happen.

2 people found this helpful

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Kathleen Valentine

Beautiful writing...

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2012

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This is one of Alice Hoffman's early books and it certainly shows her beautiful gift for lyric writing and graceful prose. Though I enjoyed reading it I didn't find the two main characters, Silver and Teresa Connor, as sympathetic as I have other characters. Both f them are the product of a very dysfunctional family. Their mother Dina is a dreamer who married or all the wrong reasons and their father, King, is something of a jerk but he's also dealing with a wife for whom nothing is good enough. There is a third child in the family, Reuben, but he escapes early and is never heard from again.

The heart of the story is the relationship between Silver and Teresa. Silver is beautiful, exotic and wild. To his younger sister he is an "Aria," a romantic, cowboy-like mythical figure that her mother dreamed up when she was a child. Teresa's passion for her brother is boundless and when her mother dies, Teresa goes to live with Silver and his wife and new baby.

The theme of incest has been discussed by other reviewers but I did not find it off-putting or even unusual. I am of the opinion that sibling incest is far more common than most people realize. I got annoyed with Teresa because she was like a stray cat, just wandering in and out of people's lives with no concern or interest in how her behavior effected anyone.

The most sympathetic character in the story is Bergen, the private detective who fell in love Dina. An almost unbelievably kind man. This is beautifully written book and in it we can see the beginnings of the writer who went on to create far more magical characters and prose.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Did Not Like This Book! It has incest.

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

The story keeps your attention because you want to find out if the 2 women living in a fantasy ever get in touch with reality. The women are pathetic and I’m not a fan of incest and spoiler alert-there is incest, So if that’s an emotional trigger for you skip this book.

One person found this helpful

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C. Mcconnell

Neither the best or the worst book you've read

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2008

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White Horses is a book worth reading if you are an Alice Hoffman fan. It is because it is written by Alice Hoffman that it is worth reading, and is the main selling point. This book, true to form, has her beautiful and lyrical style of writing that sweeps readers up and carries them along. Even more than making us feel that we are there - she makes us feel like we are privileged to be there.

That being said, it is useful to know that it isn't an especially happy book. It's difficult to relate to any of the characters - they are all forlorn and (by varying degrees) shallow. While we as the reader want the best for them, we don't really expect that they will get it, and they don't. Sometimes it isn't clear where the book is going, and there are many parts of the book that aren't developed. The reader is left wondering why it was put there to start with. Other themes are overly developed to the point of being repetitious. This books lacks the enjoyment we received from Practical Magic and Turtle Moon. Ironically, if you know all this from the beginning, you will very likely enjoy it more.

We like to read books by our favorite authors, and we recognize that not all books will be of equal quality. Because of this, fans will still want to read this book.

3 people found this helpful

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Cynthia Ray

Barely ok

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2017

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The three stars are entirely because I love Alice Hoffman's writing style and the story is beautifully told, but the story itself wasn't very satisfying. I was never able to care anything about the characters. They were all equally hopeless.

One person found this helpful

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Kat Pharis

A slow read...

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2018

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I started reading this book, put it away, then started all over weeks later. It didn’t draw me in as quickly as most books do, but I kept at it. Not sure if I would read another by this author - until I saw one of her books was an Oprah book pick.

Helpful

Pat Kane

Not my favorite Hoffman

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

I am an avid Alice Hoffman fan, so I grabbed this when I saw it. I was a little disappointed. The writing was excellent, of course. But I found it just a little too depressing for my taste. And the last minute change in her outlook seemed forced to me. Sorry, Alice. Still a fan.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

jude

Misprints

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2013

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This kindle edition had the most misprints of any book I have ever read! I am sure the author would be very disturbed if she knew! It destroyed the flow of the writing completely, as the incorrect words often bore no resemblance at all to the words intended....making it very confusing and extremely annoying.

A refund would not go amiss!

2 people found this helpful

Girl Well Read

Girl Well Read's Review of White Horses

Reviewed in Canada on October 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

For those of you who read my reviews, you know how much I love Alice Hoffman's words. Hoffman could teach a master class. You know those online seminars that you see advertised on social media sites? Well, Alice Hoffman should lead one.

Teresa's mother, Dina, fills her head with bedtime stories of an Aria—a dark-eyed fearless hero on a white horse who would come and rescue her. Aria's are rule breakers and so is her brother, Silver, who Teresa comes to believe is one of these fabled men. Instead of a fairytale, Teresa and Silver's relationship is dark and dysfunctional, not unlike her mother's relationship with her father, King Connors. The women in this story are swayed by myth and folklore instead of realizing that they can rescue themselves and be their own hero. It doesn't help that women can't seem to resist Silver, this only fuels Teresa's belief of him being an Aria.

This story may not sit well with all readers due to the incestuous relationship that is the underlying current of the novel. There is so much more going on here, Hoffman explores when when fantasy collides with reality and its repercussions. Teresa must change who she loves and rewrite her story into something real and not forbidden and taboo before she loses herself in myth and fantasy.

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