Book Review: Horse Show by Jess Bowers

*This is another review I did for The Historical Novel Society. It is an outstanding collection of short stories that was selected as an Editor’s Choice.

This amazing collection of short stories looks at the equine from many perspectives, from 19^th-century London to New York’s Coney Island in the early 20th century to Hollywood movies and beyond. The majority of the stories are set from the mid-19th through the mid-20th centuries and mostly in various parts of the United States.

“The Mammoth Horse,” set in London, is a sad look at the abuse of animals in the circuses and follies of the 19th century. “Shooting A Mule” tells of the violent execution of a mule with explosives at a military base in Willett’s Point, NY, in 1881. “The Lost Hoof of Fire Horse #12” tells the story of a lone horse’s hoof that now gathers dust in the Smithsonian. “One Trick Pony” describes the abuse of stunt horses during the 1939 movie Jesse James.

I was so impressed by “Two on a Horse,” set on the Steeplechase ride at Coney Island in the early 20th century. Although the horses were made of wood, they were part of a harrowing ride, and Bowers describes the personal stories of the riders in vivid detail. From the first lady to attempt to ride the Steeplechase astride to a sexual assault occurring during the ride itself, the story has a strong impact, and the reader can see and feel the violence of the ride as well as the trauma of the riders.

Equally fine is “Of Course, Of Course,” which on the surface is about a young newlywed couple who discover a horse abandoned on their new property. However, underneath lurks a saga of a wife awakening to her own abandonment, abuse, and neglect in 1960s California.

These perfectly crafted tales create a tragic picture that will have an emotional impact on the reader. Highly recommended.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (FROM HER WEBSITE)

Jess Bowers lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she works as an Associate Professor of English at Maryville University. But she’s originally from York, Pennsylvania, the first capital of the United States (so they claim) and hometown of the 90s rock band Live (that one’s true).

Her debut collection, HORSE SHOW, was published by Santa Fe Writers Project, and recently named one of “The Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collections of 2024” by Electric Literature.

Her short fiction has also appeared in The Portland Review, cream city review, Redivider, StoryQuarterly, The Indiana Review, Zone 3, Oyez Review, and other journals, been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net Award, and other honors. She won Laurel Review‘s Midwest Short Fiction Prize and the Winter Anthology Prize, which was pretty cool.

She’s also a co-editor at Cartridge Lit, an online journal publishing literature about video games, which she’s loved since she first played Fishing Derby on her Atari 2600.

Bowers holds a B.A. in English and creative writing from Goucher College, an M.A. in the same from Hollins University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Missouri, where she studied fiction writing, film, and 19th-century literature and visual culture.

In her free time, she thinks about the hungry ghosts of silent Hollywood while riding her little yellow pony through the woods. She also watches far too much T.V.

PURCHASE LINKS

*Click on the cover to buy on Amazon.