Wild Horse by Kyle Richardson
A Young Adult Superhearo Novella
Publisher: Meerkat Press
Publication Date: July 30, 2019
About the Book
Grady has found a crack in the wall—a crack to the outside world. But all he knows about life outside the compound comes from books, magazines, and a photograph of a creature that no longer exists. Things change when he meets a girl with raspberry-yellow hair, and a secret that could lead them to a world beyond the walls. A world where their abilities could change everything … or lead them both to ruin.
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Grady finds it in the spring, when the leaves are sprouting from the trees in tiny pink-green buds. There are no trees in the courtyard, there's only dirt and rocks and other kids that look like Grady—their heads shaven, their clothes loose and gray, the skin under their eyes a creamy blue and red. But Grady has found a crack in the wall, a crack that wasn't there before—a crack that isn't supposed to be. Whenever the guards aren't looking, he leans his face against the wall and peers through the crack at the world outside. He does this with his left eye first. Always his left eye first. The gap is so tiny it's like squinting through a nostril. But in that nostril there's the sky, purple as a bruise, and beneath it there are scrawny trees with tiny pink-green buds. Today the trees bend and sway, like they know Grady's watching. Like they're dancing just for him. And his cracked lips spread until he's smiling, big and dumb.
This is when he hears the voice. "What're you looking at?" The voice comes from behind him, small and smooth and wild, like the picture of the horse taped to the ceiling above his cot. It knocks something loose in him, something that tumbles free, something that falls but doesn't seem to ever land. Whatever it is, it just keeps on falling, lost somewhere inside him. Grady frowns and squirms, but the stupid feeling doesn't quit. "Go away," he tells the voice. He doesn't bother to turn. "I'm looking at spring," he adds, "but you wouldn't know what that is."
The voice that's like a wild horse, it tells him, "I do too know what spring is. And I know that you're mean and I don't like you." Then the voice is gone, and a guard walks by, and Grady looks away from the wall as if the crack isn’t there at all. And stomping away from him straight across the courtyard, like she's trying to knock the world off orbit with the weight of her footsteps alone, is a skinny girl with loose gray clothes and raspberry-yellow hair.
Grady raises his eyebrows. Whatever that thing is inside him, it tumbles even faster.
Format: Ebook
Source: From the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.
Rating:
Review:
This was a very interested novella about a dystopian world where kids with powers are kept locked in. Grady and Cassie are some of those kids and it happens that they are able to escape into the outside world and live together for a while. This novella is a bit odd, but it is beautifully written and it seems like a run to the finish line so it is pretty fast paced and leaves the reader wanting more. It has a few themes, the dystopian society, the powers, but it is also about falling in love and learning about those feelings and how they can change as you change.
I enjoyed following along with Grady, and really felt for him and wanted to help him fight his way through everything. And while he felt for Cassie, she seemed too aloof for my liking, it might be because of her powers, but she never really seemed committed to anything.
As noted, this was a short work, but it had me pretty invested from start to finish. If you like dystopian worlds, and scifi/ fantasy, this is a great quick read.
About the Author
Kyle lives in the suburban wilds of Canada with his adorable wife, their rambunctious son, and their adventurous daughter. He writes about shapeshifters, superheroes, and the occasional clockwork beast, moonlights as an editor at Meerkat Press, and has a terrible habit of saying the wrong thing at the most inopportune moments. His short fiction has appeared in places such as Love Hurts: A Speculative Fiction Anthology and Daily Science Fiction.
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