What the Dog Said

"This book is what I imagined magic realism to be when I first heard of the genre: a world in which everything is like the normal world except for one small extra-ordinary element. That element in this story is that Gracie, a thirteen-year-old girl coping with the death of her father, can hear a dog speak. She recognizes that other people will likely think her crazy if they find out that she can hear the dog, yet she treats the dog's speech as natural. <spoiler>She eventually comes to believe that the dog, Rex, may be channeling the spirit of her dead father; by hearing what Rex has to say, she is finally able to come to terms with her father's death, to stop blaming herself, and to bring his killers to justice.</spoiler> I enjoyed the verve that the bit of "magic" brought to this otherwise typical tale of coping with grief.<br/><br/>The book also sits within the "feel-good" genre: conflict is minimal, the focus is on the development of the relationships between the characters, and everything turns out okay. Although the tone was a bit kitschy in places, it pulled me in enough that I teared up toward the end <spoiler>when Grace's sister tells her that maybe she finally heard what Rex had to say</spoiler>. I'm not really a dog person, but I'm fairly certain that the inclusion of several dog characters with limited personalities (dogalities?) of their own should make this book even more enjoyable to people who <em>do</em> appreciate canine antics. I also learned a bit about how service dogs are trained; this book might be inspirational to anyone looking for a volunteer project."