Misty's Twilight (Misty, #4)

Maybe I just went in with the wrong expectations, because a title like “Misty’s Twilight” and knowing this is the fourth and last book of the series led me to believe that this would be all about Misty’s golden years, rather than a completely different horse. Oh well.

This book was written decades after the third installment, and it’s about a dermatologist dragging her kids to Chincoteague to fulfill her childhood dream of owning an island pony for herself. The entire first third of the book plays out as a bizarre “remember when?” of the characters pointing at things and saying something along the lines “wow, remember when this happened in the book?”

Gone is Henry’s descriptive style - “Misty’s Twilight” reads as cold and clinical by comparison. I had to double check to make sure this was the same author. It’s just so passionless.

The worst part is that the protagonist, Sandy, represents the worst kind of horse owner (aka stinking rich). She sends Twilight to a trainer for three weeks without doing any kind of background check, nor does she bother to make visits or check in on how things are going. Big surprise, Twilight ends up traumatized and emaciated by abusive training methods. A completely avoidable situation that Sandy only blames the trainer for.

It’s weird to read about a couple kids visiting taxidermy Misty in the fourth book of the Misty series, right? I’m not the only one who thinks that’s weird?

A childhood favorite re-visited.

Is the story as good as I remember? – Yes

What ages would I recommend it too? – All ages. Children will enjoy the single storyline; while adults enjoy an easy afternoon read (especially while waiting on a bus, show, doctor, or other appointments).

Length? – Reasonable for an afternoon.

Characters? – Memorable, several characters, though a bit confusing in the beginning.

Setting? – Real world, Recent times (1970′s and 1980′s).

Written approximately? – 1992.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Yes! At the beginning, it moves extremely slowly as it retells the original “Misty of Chincoteague” story. The “As you know, Bob” style of writing. The fist third of the book could have been made into a one page prologue for those who either had not read, or not recently read “Misty of Chincoteague.” Seemed dull at first. Finally, once it got to the story, it jumped around a bit, and leaves the reader wondering where the twelve years disappeared to. Also, what happened to Chris?

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? – Not at present.