I should probably not write this review, but in all fairness, not all readers like all books. I actually did not complete this book. I dnf'd it in the first chapter. Definitely not for me and I have decided that I don't want to force myself to continue with a book that is not for me.

What a curious story. I was quite certain, at the start, that we were looking at a tale of hallucination, manifestations of Jo's internal wildness. What we have instead is a novel that serves as a reflection on the nature of humanity. What makes humans different from other animals and how far are we from reverting to animalistic behaviors There's a strong element of poverty and desperation at play, that idea that society is not always civil and desperation can untether us from civility. It's not that far of a leap to near feral living. Compare to Winter's Bone.

I was intrigued by the reference to Sadie and the idea of a feral child in the blurb. But, I just didn’t quite ever really believe that the twin existed, but would rather be a split personality or something. The story didn’t quite come together for me as a fully fleshed, credible narrative.

**Review**

This book was so interesting and crazy. I was highly entertained from start to finish.

First we meet Jo who was raised by her aunt after her mother goes missing and is never found, just after she is born. I loved Jo's story and how she would always escape into the night to run the woods with the sister that no one ever knew existed and never believed was real. You almost don't really know if her sister is real through most of the book since everyone, including her aunt and best friend, keeps telling her she is crazy and to stop makin up stories.

Lee, has been living in the woods since she was born. She sleeps, eats and survives on her own. She never even knew she had a sister until she was five years old. She just showed up one day.

Aunt Aggie, her grandmother and the rest of the town has always believed that Jo's mother was murdered by her ex boyfriend and brother. They turned on the brothers even though there was never a body and never proof of what happend.

I won't give away the rest of the story, but I loved how the girl's stories unfold and the truths that are found out on everyone's part. Even the Pastor, who is always trying to "save" Jo from turning out like her mother.

This story is heavy and sad at times, but learing the truth and watching them find their way was well worth the crazy up's and down's. My heart raced and ached for these girls. But my heart also filled with joy at the unconditional love they had for one another.

**Audiobook Review**

Jenna Lamia was the perfect narrator for this story. I felt she portrayed the girls perfectly as far as age and the different voices she used for them. She also used different voices for other characters that really brought the story to life.

Lamia knew just when to up the anti and was a huge reason I enjoyed the book so much. Though I think my heart would have been pounding from the book alone, Lamia knew how to liven up the action and make you feel as if you were right there in it.

I look forward to listening to other books narrated by Jenna Lamia in the future.

Title: Some Kind of Animal
Author: Maria Romasco Moore
Genre: YA
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Jo lives in the same town where her mother disappeared fifteen years ago. Everyone knows what happened to Jo’s mom. Now people are starting to talk about Jo. She’s barely passing her classes and falls asleep at her desk every day. She’s following in her mom’s footsteps. Jo has a secret — she has a twin sister. Her sister is not like most people. She lives in the woods, wild and free. Night after night, as often as she can manage, Jo slips out of her bedroom window and meets her sister in the woods, where together they run, fearlessly.

When Jo’s twin attacks a boy from town, the people in town assume it must have been Jo. Now Jo has to decide whether to tell the world about her sister or to run.

The basic premise of this novel was so far-fetched to me as to make the rest of the story a bit questionable: I just don’t see how a fifteen-year-old girl has lived in the woods her entire life—and has been sneaking into town every night for years—and no one suspects her existence but her twin sister. You just can’t tell me a child would have been capable of that kind of stealth on a regular basis.

Frankly, the town in question—and its residents—was an ugly, mean place. I’m sure places like this exist, but it had no redeeming qualities—and no nice people living there, either. Jo’s family was awful. Her life was awful. Even her best friend was awful. Jo herself wasn’t the greatest/brightest, even keeping in mind she’s only fifteen. The writing was solid and evocative, but if the basic premise of a story isn’t believable for me, it casts doubt on the entire novel.

Maria Romasco Moore teaches writing. Some Kind of Animal is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Jolene or Jo as the reader comes to know her, is a backwards born young woman . At 15 all she thinks about , is 3 more years till she and her twin sister can leave this god forsaken place. . Jolene and Lee live is a small Appalachian mining town . Full of drugs , drinking , sex , abuse and murder. Jolene’s mother was murdered or did she disappear ? Jolene lives with her aunt Aggie while Lee runs the woods at night ...
A wild feral thing . Skin and bones , yellow teeth , but a predatory animalistic instinct. Lee is protective of Jolene to the point to attracts a boy who lives in town .
This starts a downward spiral . Can the secrets be kept ? What happened to jolene’s mom? What really happens at night ?
A twisty , atmospheric rural story . Plot surprise but a lot of unfinished story lines . I believe it had a lot of promise , but could have been fleshed out more .
Thank you for the advanced reading copy .

Jo has a secret. Her secret is a twin who lives in the woods. For 15 years no one knew about Lee, until the day she attacks a boy from town. Now the sisters are on the run. How far will they go to protect each other?

It's hard to know where to start with this review, so I'm just going to jump around a bit, don't expect a single cohesive thought here.

Some Kind of Animal is primarily a book about running. Running for pleasure and running to stay alive. Running towards a new life and running from the past.

The plot almost seems to be rambling a bit as the book goes on, but I actually found that to be a benefit to the book. Our main character's life is officially out of control and the writing really makes you feel that. Jo has no idea what's coming next for her and neither do we.

The story ends on a hopeful note, which can almost make you forget that so much is left unresolved. What will become of the character's Romasco-Moore has just spent so much time making us care about? Well, I guess that's up to the reader, because the book certainly isn't telling!

This is a very strange read, but also a pretty enjoyable read.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this book. The premise intrigued me enough to pick it up, but what I found was so much more than a thriller - SOME KIND OF ANIMAL is a wild, raw, evocative read filled with twists and turns that will keep you guessing all the way to the end. Moore weaves a tight, emotionally moving narrative that ties themes of survival, sexuality, family dynamics and toxic religion into a compelling, unique mystery that unravels gradually, tantalizingly, at just the right pace.

This book deals with difficult, misunderstood, and deeply relatable themes in a masterful, deliberate way - from surviving emotional abuse to accepting who you are, there’s something in this book that will likely resonate with anyone who reads it. The plot is unconventional and held my attention very well, and the characters were interesting and real - I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I am excited to read more from this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley, Maria, and Delacorte Press for an advance copy of Some Kind of Animal.

Don’t you get so bummed when you love a book and read through the reviews and you’re like, “…did we even read the same book, what is wrong with you people?!” because that’s how I felt about this four star debut.

Some Kind of Animal follows Jo, who lives in a small low-income town in Ohio, and the relationship she has with the people around her as well as her secret relationship with her twin sister Lee who lives in the woods surrounding the town.

I was immersed in this from the beginning, The cover is fantastic and speaks to the entirety of the book. There were some flaws, which I’d like to acknowledge prior to singing it’s praises. Ending on a high note is always a good thing 🙂

One thing I was not a fan of was the repetition, which I’ve come to find is common among debut novels. There were several times where I thought to myself, “wait did I go backwards, I swear I read this sentence already” and it wasn’t necessarily things that needed to be reiterated. The other was that we were introduced to several characters that, while not main characters, we never get a resolution about. It’s not an open ending, per se, but there are side questions that I didn’t get answered which is a little annoying.

Now, the good stuff! It was atmospheric and creepy. Not really a mystery, but has a thriller/mystery feel. I love small town drama, everyone involved in everyone else’s business, everyone knows (or thinks they know) everything. This book did a good job at realizing those aspects. It was also a family drama, turmoil between the MC and her sister, her aunt, and her grandmother. The mystery of her mother and who knows what and why they won’t tell her if they do know something. There was a good friendship storyline with Jo and her best friend Savannah and the typical drama that goes along with high school friends. There were a few times I was totally thrown for a loop, didn’t see what was coming or felt misdirected into thinking something was what it wasn’t which added to the creepiness.

It doesn’t quite fit YA, in my opinion. The characters, yes, 100%. But the plot itself is much more of an adult book, it’s not your standard YA action, action, action. While it does move along well, I just don’t think the typical YA reader will enjoy it as much as someone who enjoys adult thrillers/mysteries.

Overall I really enjoyed it, a great mix of YA and adult thriller and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys both of those genres.

Creepy. It's just creepy and good in a way that makes it hard to turn away. Who knows how we're going to react to what we're reading? Reading is emotional and everyone sees something different in what they read. I enjoyed it a lot more than what I thought I would. Take a look. You might too. Happy reading!

Thought this was along the lines of the typical genres I usually read when I read the blurb but once I started reading the book itself I learned that it definitely was not like the thrillers & suspense that I am used to reading. There was plenty of interesting mini plots within the larger one to keep my mind wanting to know what was going to happen and the characters were definitely interesting as they were developed and there was some stereotyping within the story about small towns and the people within them but it helped to build up the story.

I was intrigued by the blurb of the book. It sounded extremely interesting. And it was. The book was a decent read. I kind of liked it but did not love it.

Jo lives in the same town where her mother disappeared fifteen years ago. Everyone knows what happened to Jo’s mom. Now people are starting to talk about Jo. She’s barely passing her classes and falls asleep at her desk every day. She’s following in her mom’s footsteps. Jo has a secret — she has a twin sister. Her sister is not like most people. She lives in the woods, wild and free. Night after night, as often as she can manage, Jo slips out of her bedroom window and meets her sister in the woods, where together they run, fearlessly.

So going by the above blurb the story was extremely interesting and intriguing. However, it did fall flat for me in a lot of places because I felt that it was kind of repetitive and also a little unrealistic which made me question the motives and the story overall and left me wanting. The end of the book also left a lot to be desired.

Having said that I want to add that I would definitely read the author's next book because at the end of the day the premise was really good, there were parts I quite liked, characters that were interesting. So I will definitely want to read more from the author.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

This book focuses on Jo and her secret twin sister Lee. Lee has always lived in the woods with Jo sneaking out to be with her at nights. When Lee hurts someone in town, the townspeople assume it was Jo, and from there she was to decide what to do to keep herself and her sister safe.

I really enjoyed this book. It was super fast paced and I didn't want to put it down. I had to know what was going to happen, and I definitely wasn't expecting the different twists and turns that the story took. I felt connected to Jo, and I loved getting to know Lee and see her personality come out a little more as the story went on. I especially liked how dark and gritty the story was...again, it was unexpected and I really enjoyed that.

My only complaint was the ending, I feel like it was a little rushed. I also feel like there were a few things that happened that should've been taken more seriously, but were kind of brushed over. But again, I really enjoyed this and I would definitely recommend it for it's uniqueness and it's quickness.

I didn't struggle with the pacing of Some Kind of Animal but it just left me wanting and the content seemed a little extreme from what I was expecting. I would put this book in a similar vein as The Hiding Girl by Dorian Box but that story felt a little more complete than this one. It was a little bit difficult to connect with Jo and her reactions to the events of her life and it made me feel distanced from the story. Only towards the very end of the novel do we really learn much about Lee, her sister; how she's been living, what she's gone through, etc. I despised girls like Savannah in high school and apparently, my feelings on that haven't changed. The stuff chosen to bring into the woods irked me a bit - at 15 I would have thought the girls would be a little bit smarter about the items chosen. I think that if the entire premise aside from Jo & Lee being twins was just inside Jo's mind - that would have blown it away for me.

This book contains quite a few sensitive subjects and profanity of all kinds. Mainly underage drug use, addiction, teen pregnancy, murder, death of a parent, physical punishment, and neglect (although no one believed Jo about her sister). Jo is 15 years old, resides in a small neglected mining town in the Ohio Appalachian Mountains where the rules for kids are more lax, and the residents are more old school in their approach to raising children.

As a parent, I would have a hard time letting my kid of the same age as Jo read this book. I know that many of these situations exist in the daily lives of children and I believe stories like this one need to be read too - but if it were my daughter reading it I would choose to buddy read this one. This book was an interesting concept but was very morally gray. I would be selective in recommending it and definitely to an older young adult audience who enjoys thrillers. Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this dark and twisty thriller as a digital ARC - all opinions are my own.

Some Kind of Animal is the story of Jolene (Jo) and her twin sister, Lee. Jo lives with her aunt above the bar that she owns, and Lee lives in the woods, alone. Jo visits her at night, and they spend their time running around the woods together. No one knows about Lee, except Jo. One night while Jo is out by the bridge with some friends, Lee attacks while Jo is alone with the boy she likes. Now Jo has to prove that she didn't injure him, instead it was her twin sister that no one believes is real. She also has to figure out how to keep her wild sister safe, because if people find out about her, she'll be sent off to be studied or cared for in a mental hospital.

This book had an interesting premise, but the story itself kind of fell flat. I didn't feel like the description given by the publisher was very accurate to what the story was actually about. The characters were kind of one dimensional, and to be honest I had a hard time getting to know them and understanding the decisions they made. They were mostly unlikeable. Some of the storylines also just kind of withered and died with no explanation, and the climax was decidedly anticlimactic. I didn't HATE it, but it wasn't anything special.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Netgalley in return for my honest opinions and review

Unfortunately, I don’t think I was the intended audience for this piece. The plot seemed to grow very thin about a third of the way through and I found it hard to stay motivated. The writing style itself, however, was pleasant and it was an easy read.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book! A more comprehensive review will be posted on social media closer to the date of release.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children for sending me a copy of Some Kind of Animal for an honest review.

Some kind of Animal is about Jo who's mother disappeared 15 years ago. Jo who lives with her aunt truly believes she has a twin sister who lives in the woods. Every night 🌙 Jo meets her sister for a run which causes her to be really tired and suffer in her grades. One day things go really wrong and Jo and her twin are on the run.

There are some books that are purposefully strange. Grasshopper Jungle, for example, is weird fiction: strange in its premise, strange in its execution. I don't think this is meant to be that type of book; I think the intent was to have a slightly strange and unbelievable foundation but make everything sort of make sense. However, every single plot development and character choice just made the book even stranger. It was like Jo's motto as a character was, "Well this might as well happen. My life is already so weird."

The characters were fairly clearly written but often didn't seem that deep or real and overall weren't particularly interesting. The small town Ohio setting seemed suitably grim, gray, and hopeless. The writing itself was pretty engaging, though it took a while for me to get into it and there were frequent points where the plot seemed to lag or go in circles for a while.

The strong wilderness element might appeal to readers of survival fiction, and it's certainly a different kind of read, but I'm not sure that makes it a worthwhile one.

I thought that this book could have been really interesting if it had played with the concept of the unreliable narrator a bit more, but as it was SOME KIND OF ANIMAL was far more straightforward than I anticipated. And unfortunately, that straightforwardness didn't really work for me with the story as it was. First of all, I didn't think that any of the characters were terribly well drawn or explored, and were fairly two dimensional because of it. The backstories are there for most of them, and the setting of the poverty riddled small town has lots of potential for giving them hardships that shape their lives, and while that plays some part I still didn't feel like I got to know any of them terribly well. I also had a really hard time suspending my disbelief that Lee would have been able to survive and function as long as she did with minimal help, or that Jo would have gone as long as she did without revealing that she had a twin to someone who MIGHT listen. Throw in some random twists and reveals that aren't well explored, and an ending that left me once again unable to suspend my disbelief AND frustrated about a lack of accountability, and SOME KIND OF ANIMAL really didn't gel with me. I will say that I liked Jo's aunt Aggie, though. She felt like the most realistic character in the entire story.

SOME KIND OF ANIMAL didn't work for me. It's a shame, as I felt like it had a lot of potential.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I got through NetGalley for review.

Story (3/5): Jo lives in a small Appalachian town with her aunt. Jo’s mother disappeared fifteen years ago and the mystery of this casts a shadow over Jo. Unfortunately, no one knows that Jo has a secret that is causing her day to day life to fall apart. She has a sister who lives in the woods, a sister who desperately wants Jo to join her in the woods. As Jo struggles to unravel the mystery behind her family she gets drawn deeper into her sister’s world.

This was an interesting mystery but the whole thing just ended up feeling kind of anti-climatic and unfinished to me. By the end I just felt like, “Uh, okay….so what?”

Characters (3/5): Jo was okay but I was pretty frustrated with how long she had kept her sister’s secrets. I get that she couldn’t trust many of the adults in her life, but she never really tried to trust them either. I also didn’t understand some of the side characters, like her “love interest” Henry, why was he even in the story? Then there is her wild sister Lee, another interesting character but not well developed. All the characters felt kind of selfish and confused and made a lot of bad decisions which was frustrating.

Setting (4/5): I enjoyed the setting in a small Appalachian town and the forest surrounding it. The author did a good job making this sleepy small town setting really come alive for the reader.

Writing Style (3/5): This was a bit of a mess overall. I never felt like there was much propelling this story forward. Yes, there was the mystery about Jo’s mom but I never felt like it really mattered. Also there was Jo’s sister but I never felt like there was a good outcome for her and the way it ended was very non-committal. The writing was okay and the descriptions of the surroundings were good. Everything else felt really under developed and unfinished to me.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was an interesting idea and I loved the description around the settings. However, the story didn’t have a lot to drive it forward. I also felt like the characters and the resolution were unfinished. It was an okay read but I didn’t love it and wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. If you have a particular interest in children that grow up literally wild, you might enjoy this.