Andi Oliver, in a previous novel, underwent various traumatic experiences, and now suffers from amnesia. She remembers nothing of her previous 19 or 20 years, except for the past two years. She does remember shooting a man and running away, walking across three states, with short stopovers for waitress jobs to earn a few dollars, then continuing on her journey.
Walking down a dirt road near Kingdom, ND, she sees a mistreated donkey by a fence. She liberates it and treats various sores, afterwards taking it into town. Andi befriends a local widower who offers her a part-time job and room and board. Later, with time on her hands, she takes on another part-time job at a hog “factory farm,” as well as at a nearby slaughterhouse, where she witnesses untold acts of cruelty toward the animals. These observations allow the author to feature her own beliefs in animal rights and vegetarianism.
Another element of the plot is the two men trailing Andi (who knows what her real name is? She adopted her current moniker from the initials “A O” on her backpack) across three states, one of whom seeks information from her past, which she can’t remember. As in the previous novel that introduced Andi, Dakota is tender and appealing, as well as informative. One can assume we will be seeing Andi again, a good thing to be sure.
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Reviewed by Theodore Feit