The God of Animals: A Novel, the breathtaking debut by Aryn Kyle, is a beautifully-crafted coming-of-age tale. Twelve-year-old Alice Winston lives on a horse ranch in Desert Valley, Colorado. Her father is struggling to make ends meet, her mother has not left her bed since Alice was a baby and her sister just ran off and eloped with a rodeo cowboy.

Things aren't looking bright for the Winstons until Joe, Alice's father, starts to allow wealthy women to board their horses, and a privileged girl begins riding lessons. The lives of these diverse individuals become inextricably linked and threaten to break up the Winston family.

Meanwhile, young Alice struggles with the pains of growing up. She has grown out of all her clothes, but the family cannot afford new ones; she becomes fixated on the drowning of a classmate and she tries to find her place in the family and on the ranch. Alice also develops a crush on her English teacher, conducting late night phone conversations with him revealing intimate details of her life - but borrowing facts from the lives of the wealthy boarders to replace her less-than-perfect reality.

The God of Animals pulses with a girl's loneliness and vulnerability. Although Alice is occasionally a precocious narrator, her introspection allows the characters and the scenery to really come alive. Kyle has a way with words that transports readers to the ranch, seeing firsthand the pain of the Winston family, their tough love and the at-times terribly brutal nature of working with horses. A poignant story, The God of Animals is mired in misery and lack of hope, refusing to turn away from the messiness and ugliness of life.

- Ashley