This was such a beautiful story. I never wanted the magic to stop.

What a weird book. I’m not much of one for Westerns, and this was as depressing as I always find them to be. Though I loved the camel, that was about it.

The writing has a certain beauty but none of the characters grabbed me and I almost put it done many times. Not very memorable.

This made me feel like I was back in school and also an idiot. And not in a good way sorry Téa.

A tough start with this book. Difficulty defining the characters. Confused with who knew who and why. But I stuck with it and as the story slowly came together I became more and more curious. The sightings of the strange beast, the contacts with the other side, the endless search for water, the inner struggle of a woman in the depths of a drought ... It’s an epic tale built upon a true life story. Keep reading. It’s worth it.

Wow, amazing writing, terrific characters.

I really disliked the first half of this book. Glad I hung in there though because it ended up being really good!

“If electromagnetic pulses could fly through the air, if giants with shin bones the length of her entire body had once roamed ancient seas, if the world was plagued by legions of creatures so minuscule that no living eye could see them but so vicious that they could lay waste to entire cities, was it not also possible that Josie’s claims however exploitative and preposterous might hold some truth. Might the dead truly inhabit the world alongside the living? Laughing. Thriving. Growing. And occupying themselves with the myriad mundanities of the afterlife, invisible merely because the mechanism of seeing them had yet to be invented.”

This story is set in a bizarre time in American history when camels were brought over to be used as pack animals in the Southwest. Inland captures the changing, bone-dry landscape of that forges the lives of two disparate characters: a Balkan cameleer and a hardened frontierswoman.

I loved this tale, which so carefully captured the fine edge between life and death that these characters walked.

It was a little crazy how this book just kind of snuck up on me. I didn’t feel like I was that invested and suddenly I’m crying. Very lovely book that would be worth a reread if I ever had time for such things.