This was a curveball for me, a highly enjoyable curve ball though? What a brilliant book, totally unique to anything I’ve ever read and one of which I adored and will be recommending to others! Thank you so much!!!

Dogs on a quest - what could be better?!

"The Second Smartest Dog Who Ever Lived" combines elements of thriller and traditional fantasy stories to weave a unique and fresh story about a dog who is trying to find himself. I enjoyed the adventures and misadventures of Rou and his lovable companion, Shakespeare.

This is, in my opinion, a "trust the process" kind of book. As with most traditional fantasy stories, there is a lot of story within the pages. At times it felt like there was a new storyline just for the sake of storyline, but I loved the payoff of it all coming together at the ending.

"The Second Smartest Dog Who Ever Lived" is a gem of a book and overall a really fun time. A absolute must for any animal lover.

Thank you endlessly to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love dogs. I am obsessed with my dog. I have a difficult time, however, with books told from an animal’s point of view. I loved the characterization of the various animals and their distinct personalities but there’s only so much you can write before it all starts to seem repetitive. This was very creative and humorous but just not my cup of tea.

Thank you to Will Pass, Thiessen Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

The Second Smartest Dog That Ever Lived is a heartwarming and funny adventure perfect for those who have ever wondered what our dogs think of us.

If you liked A Dog's Purpose, or films like Homeward Bound or Cats and Dogs then you'll like this. I would recommend this only if you're a dog person, cat people aren't going to like this book especially as cats aren't viewed favourably in the book.

The book is split into four parts which mark very different stages in Rousseau’s journey. The pace was slow but the chapters were short. The only thing I would have liked was some human POV chapters, especially at the points when the dogs interact with humans closely. I think this would really highlight the absurdity of some moments, such as stealing fast food from a car at the drive-thru window.

My family are have always had dogs so I am a bit biased, but I loved this book. There were some laugh out loud moments and some which brought me to tears.

I give The Second Smartest Dog That Ever Lived 4 stars.

My review will be posted on Clearly Reads on 8th December.

A touching book. Told from the perspective of a dog, it was engaging and sad at times. Being a dog lover myself, maybe it hit a little harder. Overall an enjoyable read. Would recommend to everyone.

I'm sorry but I really disliked this book. It was recommended to me by a friend, whose opinion I trust, so I was really disappointed by it.
It read like YA to me (is it meant be YA - maybe it is?!). I read right to the end as I read some reviews that said it really picked up in the later stages, but it really didn't.

I love dogs and I love books so I was sure I would enjoy The Second-Smartest Dog That Ever Lived by Will Pass. Unfortunately, this one was just OK for me. At times it really dragged and the fantasy elements were just bizarre. I often felt like I was reading someone’s hallucinations.

Thanks to Thiessen Press, willpassbooks.com, and NetGalley for a review copy of this title.

At a time of the year when I have been reading a LOT of books nominated for various prizes, the second smartest dog came along to lighten things up a bit. This is the first book from Will Pass, DVM, and I look forward to more. The characters are well rounded and furry and the bipeds fill their roles respectfully. Highly recommended

I was intrigued by the cover and title of the book and was pleasantly surprised that our narrator is a dog! But he's not just any dog, he was left for dead on the side of the road and as he slowly regains his memory, he finds out he is not like other dogs. He can read and communicate with other animals and even one human. He is fixated on finding the person who hurt him and wants revenge.

As the story progressed, I had no idea where it would go at any point. It was not what I expected and I did find myself skim reading past some descriptions just to find out what happened. I enjoyed the concept of the book being in a dog's POV, and the dog questioning the ethics and morals of being alive and how animals are treated by humans. The ending is also not quite what I expected either, but it was a fun read.

While this novel is not my personal cup of tea, it definitely has an audience. Its heartwarming narrator and thoughtful prose make for a cozy, introspective read that fans of animal stories and contemporary literature will fawn over. I appreciated the novelty of the dog's perspective, although the characters did feel a bit one-dimensional at times. I'll still recommend this book to someone looking for something sweet and unique.

I'm not a dog person. I have nothing against dogs, they stay in their lane and I'll stay in mine, and it's not really personal (though they are my first bitey/snappy memory), I'm just not all that interested in animals, the snuggly fur looks nice in theory but now we've invented polyester who needs the shedding hassle. All that to say I wasn't sure why I got this on a whim, and this review will not be using words like "good doggo" etc. But I liked the book, being a rollicking, relatively incredible journey, about a dog who narrates like a human and can't quite work out how the world works around him. Able to talk to other animals, and a few humans, it is a comic adventure whose pathos derives from its narrator, not what its narrator is.

The dog calls itself Rousseau eventually (for rights-based reasons, the dog also knows how to read), but the book starts with him waking up with amnesia in a vets clinic after having been hit by a car on a freeway. We get welcomed to the world through Rousseau's exploration, talking to other animals at the vets and then when he is a rescue pet, realising that he is much smarter than the other animals, and trying to work out how and why. Pass peppers the book with comic asides from a dog's point of view, not least a dog with human sensibilities, so food becomes an interesting dichotomy. Once he develops a quest to find the person who abandoned him, and perhaps made him that smart, he gathers a small questing band and heads of to Las Vegas - where we will discover a lot of animals in captivity. Pass keeps it light though obviously deals with a lot of inhumane treatment, and finds his lead dog asking lots of naive but good questions. Even more naive are the asides from Shakespeare, the pub he joins when rescued, who is fantastically stupid in an often lucidly smart way and is fundamentally his Sancho Panza.

The Second-Smartest Dog That Ever Lived confounded my initial preconceptions by not at all being cute, whilst observing and not dwelling on a number of its own horrors. There is an over-arching sci0fi plot buried in here, but Pass transitions from small-scale dog drama, to something more world-shattering deftly. The highest praise is it made me care about its dog protagonists and not just the smart one. And the tiger, the cats, the coyotes and birds.

I was pulled to this book due to the striking cover and intriguing title. It did not disappoint despite being pretty far removed from my usual pick of psychological thriller! I absolutely loved the first couple of parts of this book. The characterisation of the animals was wonderful and there were some laugh out loud moments amongst some truly beautiful storytelling. I found the last two parts more difficult to enjoy; the story just dropped off a little for me and I was desperate to get to the end to make sure it all ended ok! I did feel the author did an absolutely tremendous job of giving animals a totally believable voice.

We first meet our main character, a dog who goes through a couple of names, when he’s callously thrown from a car along a busy road and thankfully rescued.

He’s not like other dogs. He can communicate with any other animal, a few humans, understand speech, read and more. But he’s not sure why.

He’s got a goal though. To find this person who hurt him and get revenge.

To be honest more than anything this story is like a rebellious teen leaving home and discovering they don’t actually know it all.

Oh, I just did not enjoy this book. I am a huge fan of fiction about animals, and love a good anthropomorphic character. Ultimately the writing style just does not gel with me. The pace of the novel is slow - too slow for a book that is 387 pages long. I can’t quite put my finger on what is bugging me - perhaps Leo’s sense of aloofness? Or just that I never quite buy into his quest. I enjoyed the characterisation of the various animals, though.

A fantastic, smart read that exceeded my expectations. I am very unlikely to pick up any book about dogs. Ever since my mom read me Where The Red Fern Grows when I was nine, I had sworn them off completely. I would sob no matter what happened. (And frequently, these were books in which the dog dies.) Rousseau's story was different from that. With action and horror, we learn about this unique dog's perspective. Don't worry. Rousseau doesn't die at the end. I only could not rate this story higher due to the scene involving coyotes and cats. I had a cat that was eaten by coyotes when he escaped outside, so it hit a little too close to home. I look forward to reading more from Will Pass.

Before I start I want to add a little disclaimer for integrities sake that I was gifted a physical copy of this ARC. Thank you by the way to the author- it was a lovely surprise!

This was the second adult fiction with an animal protagonist that I have read this year and while it is superior to the first one I have read it still suffers from a bit of the same issues.

Animal protagonists are rare in adult fiction for a reason. They are difficult to present and

There are a few moments early on in the novel where protagonist Leo demonstrates knowledge of pop culture (names/ artists of songs to be percise) that is a little out of place.
I really like that the supporting cast reflects the different levels of pet intelligence as percieved by people. Shakespeare ends up being the typical Doug from Up type of dog and is a delightful foil to Leo, even if I kept reading his dialogue in Josh Gads voice for some reason???

It's a little disjointed and the pacing is bizarre between parts but if you're looking for something in the vein of Feral Creatures and S.T. the Crow then you can't do wrong with trying out this read. It reminded me a lot of the narrative structure of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model, so if you like longer character explorations this will probably be for you.

It’s a great concept and I really wanted to enjoy this book but I just didn’t.

There are too many consistencies in what Leo can understand or not understand and what he can or can’t do. On a basic level this just didn’t make sense.

There were also too many sexual/bodily references for this kind of book. I honestly don’t want to know that the dog is looking at a naked woman who just got out of the shower and isn’t allowed to lick her hairy area. Come on, really. The book didn’t need this, it didn’t need the dog to find a vibrator under the bed and it didn’t need the constant anus and penis mentions that follow. Maybe the author was trying to be funny with his toilet “humour” but it was a huge ick for me and I had to DNF.

I read an ARC provided kindly by the publisher and NetGalley.

I find it hard to rate books poorly as I know I’m not capable or writing one myself, however I feel it’s only fair give an honest and unbiased review.

This book felt very disjointed to me. It felt like three books smashed together - one funny, engaging and intriguing book to top and tail, with an adventure book and then a sci-fi book wedged in between. The adventure and sci-fi parts read like a fever dream and I struggled to finish the story.

The concept was wonderful, and it was easy to root for our protagonist Leo/Rou, however the lack of cohesion really got to me. There were inconsistencies about what Leo/Rou could and couldn’t understand or knew about, such as he knew what a university was and was able to comprehend what an “Indian Oxford” was, but didn’t know what Harvard was, and he knew what it was for someone to be “wasted” (I think that was the term used) but yet he commented on Mary drinking elsewhere in the book without an understanding of the concept.

Other random thoughts I noted whilst reading:
- The adventure with Gus et al didn’t add anything to the story (in my opinion)
- The meeting of and plight of the “trolls” seemed unnecessary / misplaced
- Sometimes the language used didn’t fit well, e.g. “bird shit” within the narration
- It felt like a chore to finish

First things first, I absolutely adored this book. I love books that are from an animal's perspective. My husband and I often narrate our dogs and cats, so this was something I thought of while devouring this story.

There are a few heartbreaking moments, especially if you love animals, so trigger warning there.

The story is about a dog who is found after tumbling out of a van on the highway and taken in by an animal control specialist. The dog is aware of everything after the fall but cannot remember his life before.

He embarks (see what I did there?) on a journey to learn why he is the way he is. On this journey he learns about his feral self from a pack of coyotes, how to help others with the help of a veterinarian, and about friendship from other dogs along the way.

This story was insanely creative and I would love more. I want to hear more from this world of Supremely intelligent animals.

I really liked the beginning of this story when Rou was rescued by Mary and had a home for awhile, and that he could hear peoples thoughts and communicate with some of them. I loved Rou and Shakespeare quest to find out where Rou came from. I liked all those very interesting characters that Rou and Shakespeare met on their journey (Gus, June, Vern, Queen Kumari, a lot of cats and Dr. Francis) who helped them along their quest and taught them a lot about surviving. This part is quirky and a bit odd, but I really like the comradery among the traveling companions.

The second part of the story kind of gave me the creeps, not only because I don't like the circus vibes but there are a few harrowing moments when you think the story isn't going to turn out for the better, but it does thanks to Rou and his old friend Dr. Francis. But when we get to a circus, at the Palace at Los Velos, the story takes a weird turn. We find out how Rou became the way he is and that the Rajah the magician, has successfully been changing DNA in humans and animals, so he can control them and when Rou tries to stop Rajah from doing his evil deeds all kinds of chaos is assured. In the end, everything turns out for the better and you will cheer at this point, and Rou, Shakespeare and Vern will return home into Mary's loving home and be happy.

I want to thank Thiessen Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this story that will take you to amazing place before bringing you home again.