Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Jo has lived with her aunt since her mother disappeared when she was a baby. Living without a mom is hard enough, but worse when you have a twin sister no one else knows about that lives in the woods. Jo runs with Lee at night, trying to get to know her and learn more about her mother's mysterious disappearance.

This book was weird. It was long, and at times really dragged on. None of the characters were particularly likeable, and the longer the book lasted, the more outlandish things got. There are lies, murder, betrayals, and it all happens to fifteen year old girls, on an ever growing scale.

Honestly, I don't know if I liked this book or not. More than anything, I'm really confused about it.

This book was not what I thought it would be, and not in a good way. If it was fantasy, or allegory, or just an unreliable narrator (which is the expectation that the blurb and the whole first half build up) that would be one thing, but instead it's all meant to be taken literally, which is just too silly. I guess it's true that children can have some very unrealistic ideas about things, but the range of horrible things the main character allows to happen and the horrible things she causes to happen are wildly out of proportion with their consequences, and not even in an interesting way, just in a way that makes the reader scoff. The ending for these characters is undeserved.

**I received a copy of via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Maria Romasco Moore does an excellent job introducing the characters and showing us this dysfunctional family Jo is apart of. The forest and atmosphere that’s created is really fun to read. I liked the relationship Jo had with her strange sister Lee. Jo has a pretty typical teenage relationship with her aunt Aggie, lots of tension. I liked the character that ended up telling Jo the truth about her mother.

There were a few things that didn’t make sense in the second half. The first was, Jo kisses a certain character (to piss her grandma off) and after that things got less believable. Savannah (Jo’s best friend) interacts with a character towards the end and it doesn’t make sense at all. Lastly there are zero consequences for a death that happens, it’s barely talked about and again, doesn’t make sense.

3 stars for me, the first part was a solid 4.5 stars but the second was 2 stars.

I would recommend this book

This book is wild from beginning to end. The characters put you on one wild ride from beginning to end and at times I didn't know what to believe was real. At times heartbreaking, but also relatable as I grew up in a town similar to where the story began.

"They are writing their own stories. They think they know me, but they don't. They think they are going to save me, but they can't. I don't need saving."

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Delacorte Press. Jolene has a secret she keeps from everyone in town: she has a twin sister, Lee, who lives in the woods. As a child, she tried to tell people about her, but no one believed her, and she gradually stopped trying. But Lee is as real as it gets. When her twin sister attacks a boy from town, everyone assumes that Jo did it, and she's suddenly forced to choose between outing her sister and letting people think the worst of her. Trigger warnings: death, parent death, animal death, guns, underage drug/alcohol use, addiction, overdose, severe injury, violence, some gore, blood, sexism, slut-shaming.

This pretty much does what it says on the tin, though I might hesitate to call it overtly feminist. Most of the main characters are female, but they spend at least as much time tearing each other down (both in the plot and in Jo's internal monologue) as they do supporting each other. The book does spend a good deal of time interrogating the false assumptions people make about wayward girls, the ones who drink and party, sleep around, and come to a bad end just as everyone expected they would. I don't know how much the story does to overturn that narrative by making its girls near-feral beings who retreat from civilization to live in the woods, but it tries. If intentions count, then it gets points for that.

Probably my biggest issue with the book is how inconsistent Jo is as a main character, which extends a little to her aunt, Aggie, as well. I never felt that I understood them, and most of the time, Jo's actions made absolutely no sense. It seems like an effort to align her with her wilder twin and mother. I'm strongly reminded of Kaye in Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tales series, where characters do random things just to make them seem quirky and wild, and all the while I'm thinking, "Why are you making this worse for yourself?" Jo is a difficult character to like, regardless, and I'm not sure we're supposed to like her. She's hugely critical of Aggie and Savannah for having boyfriends (or wanting them), and her allegiance changes depending on who's paying her the most attention. Really, she demonizes pretty much every other character at some point.

In terms of plot, it's a fun change from the usual thriller. Jo's twin sister, Lee, is a fascinating character of the "raised by wolves" persuasion, and the mystery of how she's managed to survive in the woods on her own is enough to keep at least half the novel spinning. Midway through, it seems to lose the plot though, and I didn't have the slightest idea where the characters would go from there. Neither do they, come to that, and there's a weird and misguided attempt to live in a forest preserve (because people can actually do that?). It's entertaining, but whatever Some Kind of Animal was trying to do, I don't think it quite pulled it off.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Jolene has a twin who lives in the woods. The trouble with that is, no one believes her. Lee, her twin is practically feral, hunting wild animals and eating them raw, running through the woods and living in caves. As Jolene starts to unravel the mystery around her sisters existence, things start to fall apart. People get hurt. People die.

This book kept me reading. It kept me wondering. Growing up and living in a small town very much like Jolene, I strongly understood where she was coming from a lot of the time. I found myself rooting for her and when the book ended, I still wanted more. This story holds lessons about love, friendship, and family. I would highly recommend!

This review is based on an ARC of Some Kind of Animal courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Random House Children's/Delacorte Press).


On the whole I enjoyed this book! It was a fun, fast-paced, and interesting story, different from much of the YA I've read. The more gritty, edgy, angsty vibes reminded me a lot of Lauren Myracle's Shine --a book that wowed me with its harsh realism and clarity.

Moore's prose is lilting and beautiful and so imaginative and just plain pretty! The novel is easy to read (ergo great for the targeted young-YA audience) but still eloquent enough that it hooked me as an adult reader. The writing is easily what I loved most about this novel. That being said, I felt that the plot was a little lacking, the characters a little... not undeveloped, exactly, but not quite as perfect as the prose itself.

Honestly, I would really, really love to read an adult novel/horror novel from Maria Romasco Moore. I think that because of the genre of this book her writing will go unrecognized by larger masses of reader. It's a bit of a shame, because her writing is very good and deserves a lot of recognition, but the plot/genre/age group that this novel appeals to won't garner the audience her writing deserves.

Also (!!) lesbian/bi rep that isn't slapping you in the face and isn't the driving point of the plot! Hot dog, I love subtle characterization like this, and Moore does it flawlessly!

Basically, this was a great book even though it won't go on a favorites list for me. I will definitely read more from this author if she publishes more.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Jo lives in a small Appalachian town with her aunt, Aggie, in the same place where her mother, whom she never knew, disappeared. Everyone in the city knew her story. Her mother was wild, she "went bad", disappeared, maybe killed by her violent boyfriend, but now people are talking about Jo. Jo, who is always tired, who's falling her grades, who runs alone at night. But Jo isn't her mother, even though she has a secret: a twin sister, Lee, a sister who lives in the wood, who's wild, savage and hate strangers. All the time torn between two existence, two Jos, one normal, the other wild and free, Jo is struggling with her life. When Lee attacks one boy from city and everyone blames Jo, Jo decides to do anything to protect herself and her sister's existence.

I liked how the author write about Jo's conflict about her identity, how she felt trapped in the city, how she looked for answers about her past and her mother's and I could feel the city's sanctimony, its retrograde ideas about women and what they should or shouldn't do. How Savannah tries to find her escape into boys, Jo into woods and her secrets, escaping the town's hearsay, her grandmother and pastor's religion, their need to save "the lost lamb".
Still I couldn't relate so much to the main character and I wish Lee would have been written more extensively. I get Jo's need of freedom, but I found her too impulsive and unrealistic, in some parts. The deahts (in particular the second one) I found...lacking, somehow. Without consequences and I didn't like that. I liked Brandon and his role in the story (both in Jolene's and Jo's) and I found interesting the pastor, but I wish they could have been more developed.
Notwithstanding Some kind of animal is a particular book, a thriller, a mystery and I liked it.
3.5 stars

This book was something new and refreshing in the thriller/suspense world and I am thankful for that as a reader. This had me interested from start to finish and the twists were good even though it was hard to be connected to the characters at times. But overall, this was great and different.

When one daughter starts to act differently but there is a reason for it; plain exhausted from night activities in order to see her wild twin sister in the woods while still keeping appearances in her own life and protecting her sister.

Why is the twin living in the woods? Why did their mom disappear? So many questions and if you want them answered, you better read this! You won’t be sorry.

Jolene spends her nights running the woods with her wild, feral, SECRET twin sister. Jo’s sister has survived on her own in the thick woods of Oregon, all alone for years, hunting small animals for food and depending on her sister for companionship.

First of all...WHAT is going on here? I had so many questions going into this book, and I loved every answer I received. What a twisty, thrilling, story with a great atmosphere. I loved the small town setting, and all of the scenes in the woods...and most of all the adventure.
The characters are easy to relate to, and made me giggle several times throughout the book, and the teenage angst is 100% on point!

This book is a fast paced mystery with twisty turns.

Definitely unputdownable, and a breath of fresh air from the YA novels I have read in the past. 100% recommend this book!

This was such an interesting book with a great premise. My heart was racing and throbbing and I was left breathless. There were some parts that were more shockingly graphic but it just added excitement to the story plus relevant to the plot.

This book totally consumed me! When I wasn’t reading I was either thinking about the book or wondering when the next time I could read was.

I really liked Jo as a main character. She is a 15 year old girl from a small town being raised by her aunt. She is both haunted by her deceased mother’s reputation and frustrated by the lack of information surrounding her death. She is also on the cusp of early adulthood and boys have started to threaten the friendship between her and her best friend.

To complicate things further, Jo has a secret twin sister that no one knows about except her. In the beginning I thought that the twin sister was going to end up being a figment of Jo’s multiple personality disorder. But no, she is real. And come to find out, that one secret holds a lifetime of other secrets.

Set against a bleak small town and the wide open forest, this is a dark tale of the sinewy bonds of sisterhood.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the advance copy of this book.

This book was as good as I hoped it be! It kept me on my toes! I honestly hated having to put this book down! 10/10 will recommend this book to EVERYONE!

This book had a unique premise and turned out to be a fast-paced read. For the most part I found it enjoyable. The damaged, familial relationships were believeable and logical toward the progression of the story. This is definitely better suited for juveniles as the writing fell more on the simplistic side. But I don't think that took away grom the story. One of my favorite characters was actually the pastor because of his unexpected kindness toward Jo. Without spoilers, I will admit that there were some violent acts committed and the characters faced no repercussions as a result. There was a constant thread of punishment or discovery throughout but because none of it ever came to fruition, the stakes felt lowered and the intent of suspense suffered for it. I think the first half of the book was superior, since after certain mysteries were solved, there was significantly less intrigue and the plot driving the story shifted to merely survival, which can be dull. Ultimately, I would recommend this to younger readers who enjoy fast-paced, female-driven, somewhat dark fiction.

first off I would like to thank Netgalley, Delacorte Press, and Maria Romasco Moore for giving me the arc to read.

This was such a captivating story to read. When one thing would be revealed it would only lead to more questions which made me keep reading to see what happened next. It was so satisfying to see certain things happen and how they fit into the story in a realistic manner

My only real complaint about this book was that it was hard to sympathize with the characters. because of that, I didn't understand some of the choices they make or didn't care what happens to them. Their stories all were fascinating to read but I ended up not caring for them emotionally.

This book was received as an ARC from Random House Children's - Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

My mouth was wide open at the end of this book and the plot twists and conflicts were so thrilling that I could not stop reading and this book was one of the only few books I read in less than 20 minutes. Some Kind of Animal tells the story of Jo who lives in the woods after the disappearance of her mother. There have been rumors of Jo and her lifestyle but the secret is, she has a twin sister who is so wild that she is borderline animal. When a boy is viciously attacked by Jo's sister, everyone in town suspects Jo and lists her as the prime suspect. Jo is left with a choice, either reveal the secret of her sister, or risk her life and everything she stands for. My heart was racing and throbbing and I was left breathless. There were some parts that were more shockingly graphic but it just added excitement to the story plus relevant to the plot. I know our community will love this and potentially will be a future title for our Adult Book Club.

We will consider adding this title to our Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of SOME KIND OF ANIMAL by Maria Romasco Moore in exchange for my honest review.***

3.5 STARS

Instead of sleeping, Jolene spends her nights running through the woods with her feral twin sister. No one else knows about Lee’s existence. She lives among the flora and fauna, clad in Jo’s old dress, eating wild animals.

What did I just read? I’m not 100% sure.

I spend a good part of SOME KIND OF ANIMAL assuming Lee was a figment of Jo’s delusional mind. Jo checked many boxes for vulnerability to mental illness, abandoned by her fifteen-year-old mentally ill mother, unstable home life, social isolation, family upheaval, school problems. Several cases of feral children have been documented throughout the years, I’ve seen documentaries, so I knew the possibility of Lee’s existence could also be real.

Maria Romasco Moore delivers a dark, atmospheric YA debut with Jo’s melodic voice. The young teen dreams of being eighteen so she can get paid for her work in her aunt’s bar, now considered “chores” hoping to get enough money to more to another town to bartend broke my heart into pieces as I envisioned a girl with such little hope for more.

The relationships between Jo and Lee and Jo and her best friend Savannah illustrate the indomitable strength of love against even the most difficult circumstances. I’m still uncertain about several aspects of the story, but the reading experience though pleasant, wasn’t compelling enough to make me want to reread for further clarity, which is why I didn’t rate SOME KIND OF ANIMAL higher.

This book was a little much. It was really weird and the religious tones put me off a bit. I couldn't tell what it was trying to be.

I really love the cover on this one! The atmosphere and writing was perfect! However, I just couldn’t connect to the characters as much as I would have liked. But the story was quite interesting!