The book follows the life of Bobby, who is a girl, I should point that out early on. Oh, did I mention Spoilers? Sorry. Anyway, so here I am once more, having read yet another book written in the first-person. It’s getting old, really. At least The Book Thief still had an omniscient, albeit first-person narrator. But I digress.We follow Bobby through her life in her home in California; how she met Mister Boots, the title character, who is a horse but is also a man, but is really a horse; how Bobby and her father reunite; and how she, her father and sister, and Mister Boots travel around the country performing magic tricks.Let’s see. The character is ten, so the narration’s in the voice of a child. But don’t let this mislead you into thinking that it’s a children’s book. No, sir. There’s certainly overt themes within the book that are not for a child’s as of yet uncorrupted soul.These themes being Death, Domestic Violence, and Violence in general. Credit for the latter two can be given to Bobby’s father, the illustrious Mr. Lassiter, magician and class-A asshole. He has no qualms beating up his wife and two children, not just with his hands but by other implements designed to make the normal hiding a much more painful experience.What’s interesting in this book, aside from the quite mature themes, is the consistency of duality in the characters. First we have Mister Boots who, as I’ve mentioned before, is a horse that is also a man, but is really, when you get right down to it, is a horse. Then we have Bobby, who everyone (even her father) mistakes to be a young boy. Her real name’s Roberta, by the way. Then we have Robert Lassiter, Bobby’s father, who is a mighty powerful advocate of violence, towards his wife and children and possibly anyone who crosses him. But onstage, with his black-and-white suit, he is the master showman, full of charisma and magic, able to sway the crowd into a cheering, laughing organism. Another is Secrets. Bobby has to keep her identity as a girl secret to avoid the ire of their father. She has also hidden a huge amount of money for herself, a sum earned by her sister and mother, and has told nobody about it. Mister Boots’ secret that he is really a horse. All of this explode, almost literally, in their faces somewhere in the book.But what I found disappointing is the rather lack of exposure for the title character, Mister Boots. Throughout the whole story, we barely get to know him more than what the narrator tells us about him. Yes, his origins as to how he became a man have been fairly revealed, and his childish philosophy clearly established all throughout his conversations with the other characters, but reading the book, you get the feeling that the story is really about Bobby and her father. I find myself disappointed by this.Overall, let’s see. I’d say it’s a cute story, what with the dash of real magic mixed in with the tricks, but not a great one. And although it lacks oomf, I still find myself interested to know what will happen next. I read this while traveling to my grandmother’s house in the province, and it was light enough a story to keep me entertained. So yeah, three stars!
Did I enjoy it? I did. I waffled between 3 and 4 stars for this, so I suppose my rating is really a 3.5 rounded up.Would I read it again? Meh, probably not.Who would I recommend it to? I don't actually know. Fans of Carol Emshwiller? People who like fantasy books set in the 1930s and featuring a magician and his children? People who are looking for something pretty short but engaging to fill the time between when they finish a book and when they go to the library to get a new one?Any other thoughts? This was an interesting book, not even 200 pages long it read very quickly and seemed like it probably started out as a short story of some kind. Bobby has grown up with only her mother and sister for company on the outskirts of a small farming town in California. Her mother raised her as a boy because her father, an abusive man, wanted a boy so badly that he refused to believe that she might be a girl. Even after he leaves the family when Bobby is 3, her mother continues to treat Bobby as a boy most of the time. This leads Bobby to being pretty confused herself about her own gender. Bobby eventually meets Mr. Boots, the title character, who is a horse but is also a man, but is really a horse. After their mother dies, Bobby and her sister's father returns and takes them, and Mister Boots around the country to perform magic shows. Bobby is a ten-year old, so the narration’s in the voice of a child, but I would definitely not class this as a children's book.Overall, this was a cute story. There's a lot of emphasis on duality: boy vs girl, man vs horse, magic vs illusion, etc. and on secrets, all of which come together in the end. It wasn't a fantastic read, but it was engaging and I enjoyed it in the end.
