Kept Animals is a well-written novel about the messiness of families. Set on Topanga Canyon in the hills of Southern California, the plots are set in two time frames, 1993 and 2015 and the story involves women who are connected by death of a toddler. The novel includes several plots with teenagers whose parents have walked away from their families. Recommended for discussion groups.

Kept Animals was sort of a strange book for me because I didn't necessarily enjoy the experience of reading it, yet it was a good story. When reading it, I was constantly confused by who was who. There were a lot of characters, and even though the changing timelines were clearly notated, I had a hard time mentally shifting gears and remembering which characters were which. I think part of what made it so confusing is that several of the characters appeared or were mentioned in BOTH timelines - as opposed to two timelines with entirely different characters. It got to the point that I considered starting over and taking notes, but honestly, I didn't want to reread the first 120 pages.

THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS WHAT COULD BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER, SO SKIP OVER IT IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE ANY SPOILERS AND/OR TRIGGER WARNINGS. While this was a moving coming-of-age story, I feel that it tried to tackle too many heavy themes, such as: abandonment, classism, drug usage, alcohol usage, immigration, death of a child, animal cruelty, sexuality, abuse, assault, and more. It was just too much, and nearly every character (and remember, there were A LOT) in this book had a tragic story or tragic event happen to them.

That all being said, it really was a good story. While there was a lot of tragedy, it was written so well that you felt that pain for each character and their struggles. Even though I do have the issues mentioned above, I feel that the more time that I sit with this book, the higher I rate it in my mind. I think most people that like a coming of age story will enjoy it, but I highly recommend making some brief notes about each character so you don't struggle keeping track of who is who throughout the entire book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

Kept Animals is one of those stories that tells you where it's going fairly early in the novel while still holding you on the edge of your seat to see how the characters will arrive at their ultimate destinations. The bulk of the story takes place during a California fire season and the building tension of dry air and grass waiting to spark bleeds through in the characters actions. It feels charged with tension and emotion constantly threatening to boil over.

My only complaint would be that some of the latinx characters are not quite as well rounded as I would have liked especially considering how their trauma and suffering is central to the plot.

I will be looking out for more books by Kate Milliken.

Kate Milliken's KEPT ANIMALS is a coming of age story that will leave you with an aching heart and a deep sense of feeling like you've really been living in California during this period of time. Milliken's ability to wrap you up into the story, take you to the exact place and time and feel the air around you is truly unique. Each character felt flawed in an entirely realistic way and the coming of age story line was perfectly executed. This is a story that will stick with me for a while, while also making me glad I am no longer a teenage girl struggling with my sense of self and trying to find a place to belong.

KEPT ANIMALS is a book for people who like to feel things.

On its face, this is a coming of age tale, which is typically not my favorite, but it's also a generational family saga (which very much *is* a fave subgenre). On display are family tensions, class differences, and quiet yearning.

The world Kate Milliken created here felt so fully realized -- it, and the people in it, stuck with me after I closed the book. KEPT ANIMALS' plot clipped along -- it wasn't a slow or dense read by any means -- yet along the way, these characters still managed to get under my skin.

I'm impressed, and can't wait to read whatever Milliken writes next.


I picked Kept Animals up without having read the synopsis in months and liked how everything unfolded, so I've been careful not to describe anything remotely spoiler-y (note there is a plot point in the synopsis that I would consider a spoiler!).. At the same time, I have several content warnings that I'll include under a spoiler tag below.

This book was very unique. I am very glad that I had the chance to read this book. I recommended this book to a lot of my friends. I think because it had such a unique and interesting plot.

Centered around a group of teens and their families on a horse ranch in 1993 California during wildfire season, this book wants to make the reader feel like everything around them is spiraling towards an inevitable tragedy, but I felt like the author never quite got both hands on the steering wheel.
One of the reasons I tend to avoid books with multiple narrators is that you’re bound to become more engrossed in one POV versus others, and it can make a story feel uneven - you’re engaged when it’s a POV you like, and then you feel like you have to speed read the other chapters to get back to the narrator you’re invested in. That was definitely the case here; I felt no connection with the main character, Rory, and wished that we had spent the story exclusively with the other characters.
There were threads of themes throughout that were interesting; the presence of class and race within the equestrian community, burgeoning sexual identities, how white women can view minority women as fun distractions without investing in them. But because of the constant POV shifts, none of the themes were carried through ‘till the end, making the book just feel limited.

Some small stories are actually “big stories.” Other small stories just...stay small.

A dark and beautiful debut from Kate Milliken with class, race, and generational trauma at its core. Milliken has painted the book's California's Topanga Canyon ranch so clearly, it becomes as alive as the characters that drive the novel to its close.

I thought this was a pretty good book. Not something I typically read but it was still enjoyable. The characters were reliable and were fun to read about and I enjoyed it. Started off kinda slow but got better! Thank you for letting me get the chance to read this one!

(Review was published via The Daily Californian; link attached)

Nov. 2, 1993. The fire, now known as the Old Topanga Fire, started at 10:45 a.m. and burned until Nov. 11, spreading to the city of Malibu. Three people died.

Topanga Canyon is not where the story of Kate Milliken’s debut novel “Kept Animals” begins, narratively, but it is where we are taken as Charlie, the daughter of Rory Ramos, reflects on the fire that changed her mother’s life forever. So much so that she fled to Wyoming, where Charlie is narrating her current circumstances.

Charlie’s first-person narration is interspersed between vignette-style chapters narrated by multiple characters in Topanga Canyon leading up to the day of the fire. Rory is one of these characters, 15 years old and a loyal, hardworking ranch hand at Leaning Rock, where her stepfather Gus is the stable manager. In between her work, she rides her own horse, Chap. Rory cleans and tends to the horses of “barn brats,” rich kids who ignore her — until they don’t.

And so the drama begins. Rory unexpectedly strikes up a friendship with out and proud lesbian June Fisk. June’s cruel twin brother Wade coincidentally strikes up a romance with the girl that Rory watches from her bedroom window, not knowing what to make of her feelings: Vivian Price, the wealthy, tortured and beautiful daughter of a movie star.

Rory’s story, backed by a chorus of thousands, unfolds against a setting so richly developed, it is as if the Santa Ana winds themselves are turning the pages. Milliken’s economical but beautiful prose transforms her novel into an atmospheric and bittersweet love letter to the drylands of Southern California, where the Santa Ana winds, as Milliken writes, “Can make you feel as if you’ve been skinned, every inch of you a raw nerve ending.”

Indeed, there are many raw nerve endings in “Kept Animals,” one being Rory’s emerging sexuality and her coming to terms with being attracted to women. Queerness is weaved in seamlessly, treated as a fact of life while simultaneously staying realistic relative to the time period of the 1990s. It is one of those rare literary gems that is about a queer character without being about the queerness itself.

The characters themselves are like nerve endings, too. Each of them is complex and damaged in ways that, bit by bit, start to come together and form the broader picture. Without exploiting their self-destructiveness in melodramatic manners, Milliken keeps her sullen characters on their toes at all times, trekking toward the blazing conclusion.

The heart of the story rests in the humanity of its characters, especially its two unwitting heroines: Rory and Vivian. The collision of their two worlds is what leads to the ultimate tragedy, with Rory’s humble upbringing a foil to the life of extravagance and whim that Vivian lives. Yet the two are always in close proximity to one another, and by the end of the book, their fates are inseparable.

Rory and Vivian aren’t the only characters who get to claim the spotlight. Gus’s narration takes up a sizable portion, granting insight into the adult world of Topanga Canyon that Rory and Vivian, try as they might, cannot fully understand. And by flooding readers with details, but only of the pertinent kind, Milliken manages to give fleshed out faces to even the most minor of characters.

Like life itself, “Kept Animals” traverses many roads: class and racial privilege, mental illness, horse breeding and war photography, to name a few of many. Milliken tackles all of these areas with an oft-unmatched confidence, and with the subtle hand of a writer with many gifts up her sleeve. “Kept Animals” is filled with the kind of compulsively turnable pages that exist mostly in dreams, but here, Milliken has turned that dream into a reality with an explosive, impressive debut.

Wow this one is underrated. I'm admittedly late to reading it and I regret not picking it up sooner. The characters are full of depth and feeling. The story was dramatic while being grounded in reality. So happy to read anything by Milliken in the future.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

There are some books that grab you at the beginning and don’t let go! I had such high hopes for this book, but I just couldn’t find myself enjoying the way it was written. The story line was amazing, just struggled with it being told by the daughter.

A page-turner, to be sure. But, there was just too much going on here for me. I feel like there was a lot of things that were addressed (class, sexual identity, coming of age) but because there was so much going on, none of these quite got the attention they deserved.

I seem to be in the minority opinion on this one, and for that I'm happy. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't connect with the characters. Rory was okay, but I didn't love her, and I didn't like most of the other characters. Unfortunately, I got lost in them; there were so many to keep track of, both in modern day and in the 90s. Usually, jumping back and forth in time adds to the story for me, but with this one, I just kept getting confused.

Overall, it's a solid story, and I am so glad it's finding its audience, but I'm not going to review this one on my platforms, because I can't endorse it wholeheartedly and I want to be able to recommend a book so that it finds a wider audience. It just wasn't what I needed to read at this time. Glad others love it!

A wonderfully written coming of age story. If you love horses...bonus for you! This novel takes a deep dive into family, class, gender, sexuality.
I recommend this book!

So beautifully written a book of coming of age of life and family.As a bonus if your a horse person you will be even more involved .aA book an author I will be recommending.#netgalley#scribner boojs

This is a wonderful novel that explores questions of class, gender, sexuality, race, and family through compelling stories of several families whose lives intersect. The setting and plot have a level of detail and specificity that allow the story (and therefore the reader) to explore the ways in which social categories intersect without being prescriptive.

Kept Animals by Kate Milliken is a beautifully written book about friendships, loss and discovery - a coming-of-age story about Rory and Vivian. Set in the dry California landscape in the 90's, this debut novel is hauntingly beautiful and a great read for LGBTQ pride month. Milliken writes characters that I just love reading about and really gets the relationships between family and friends. I was glad to have had the chance to read this amazing book everyone is raving about. I highly recommend this read for a beautiful story that will stay with you long after you read this one.