This book is an exciting, unusual, and daring experience for me, as it's my first ARC to review and my first book with an animal narrator. The story follows Leo, a.k.a. Rou, and a pug named Shakes as they embark on an adventure through unknown places, from the desert to the city of sins. I love how the story employs satire, making me giggle at parts and serving as a good palette cleanser for someone like me who enjoys mystery crime thrillers. The narrative focuses on the characters' experiences and encounters, making it occasionally gripping and reminiscent of watching an animated movie. However, some parts felt too long, leading to moments of boredom, and the plot felt familiar for an animal POV story. Overall, while a large chunk of the adventure bored me, I still appreciate the satire and slice-of-life elements the story offers.

This book was a crazy , quirky adventure ride right from the start of the book — where we follow a dog in his adventure for revenge for the human that tried to kill him and his own self- discovery of how he was so uniquely different from other dogs. This story has us from the suburbs to the wild dessert to down town Los Vegas ( at least that is what my mind assumed the city was ).

Since I am a dog/ animal lover I have always enjoyed anything with animal narrators — I am always narrating for my own dog too !
I was engaged with our main characters Leo/ Ru and Shakespeare on and off throughout the story — part 1 — living with Mary — was engaging and transitioning into part 2 — Part 2 in the dessert aspects were interesting and terrifying and I became more engaged again as that part of the story came to a close — Part 3 heading into the city to find the villain —I became more engaged in finding out Leo/ Ru`s origins and their travels to get into the city — but later in the story began to miss the fun banter between the dogs —but when I put it all together — I enjoyed the ride and would love just a slice of life update of Shakespeare and Leo/Ru in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thiessen Press | willpassbooks.com for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Homeward Bound meets Remarkably Bright Creatures in this debut novel from Will Pass. In The Second-Smartest Dog that Ever Lived, we're right off to the races as our narrator collects a varied crew of companions in his quest! (iykyk) for revenge and self-discovery.

Animal narrators is not something I expected to be so drawn to this year, but here I am. This book is a nice escape from reality without getting too off-the-wall. I loved the voice of Leo/Rousseau, but most of all Shakespeare who was much more relatable to the dogs in my life and had me laughing out loud on at least a couple occasions. While the premise was certainly gripping, for me, the best parts of the book were the "mundane" parts of day-to-day life, versus the plot elements that were slightly more fantastical. This may have been the pacing of the book itself (I found Part II dragged on a bit long), or just a result of what I found more relatable and interesting.

A small pet peeve of mine which the author employed in several examples was using slightly altered names for things (e.g., PeopleBook, YooTube, a slight renaming of a Kardashian, etc.). Overall, a very intriguing premise and story. 3.5 stars, rounded down.

I'd like to thank NetGalley, Thiessen Press, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

LOVED THIS STORY SO MUCH. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I READ THIS YEAR SO FAR. SUPER LOVELY AND AMAZING TO READ. I RECOMMEND EVERYONE TO READ THIS BOOK ASAP.