I’ve said this before but I have a soft spot for debuts. Esp Literary fiction type reads that feel both atmospheric and raw. Which is exactly how I would describe this book … and exactly how I would describe rural living.

The story is a coming-of-age novel about a sheep farmer’s son Everett who falls for the “new girl” with big dreams and a plan to escape after senior year. The falling in love with each other wasn’t meant to happen but either was the crossroads that they have to face together.

The storyline was one I predicated. Knowing exactly the road that would be laid out before Everett and Mary, and yet, it still had me disappointed they went there. Everett could be hard headed, strong in his beliefs of a family with love. And equally Mary was in her feet being planted in one place; having never had that kind of stability before.

The storyline might have been told before but it did feel fresh with this new authors voice. The aspects of farming were (at times) hard for me to digest. Knowing clearly that I was never meant to be a farmer and struggle with the violence that it can hold.

I will note that I needed a little more at the end. But that’s y own personal reading tastes.

A decent first book by a new author.

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy in return for an honest review.

3.75 ⭐️ rolled up to 4

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of A Good Animal by Sara Maurer.

First off, a large applause for teaching me about farming, lambing, and 4-H lifestyle in such an engaging way. I loved everything I learned about what a Michigan farm existence would entail, and I was captivated.

Second, I don't know if this is marketed as a YA novel, but if so, it's exactly the kind that I'm still able to read as a crusty 40 something year old. It had SO much heart, nuance, and pain. Towards the end, I felt the weight of the stakes that these young people were confronted with, not to mention seeing a coming-of-age in real time. I was near to tears by the end, I loved it.

I hope there are many more of your novels to come Ms. Sara Maurer!

A somewhat bittersweet story of love, in all it's various forms. There are the animals who need to be tended to, and the sadness when they leave. This is also a story of families, as well as a story of love and loss, and the bitterness and heartbreak that follows. But there is also a lot of love in this story, even throughout the loss, and beyond.

A lovely story that I won't soon forget.


Pub Date: 24 Feb 2026

Many thanks for the opportunity to read Sara Maurer's 'A Good Animal'

In A Good Animal, Maurer’s debut, the summer of ’95 on a country farm unfolds with vivid, lyrical beauty. Everett’s journey captures joy, heartbreak, and the soul-deep bond to land and life. Both tender and wounding, this authentic coming-of-age tale is emotionally rich and unforgettable.

I wanted to read “A Good Animal” because it takes place near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The Upper Peninsula (UP) is one of my favorite places: beautiful scenery, interesting small towns, and massive amounts of snow. When described accurately, as in this book, the UP is a character in its own right.

Everett Lindt and Mary Williams are the main characters. Both teenagers, Mary is focused on studying art and leaving Sault Ste. Marie, while Everett’s dream is to remain and have his own sheep at his family’s sheep farm. He has no plans to go to college.

I had an idea what might happen. What generally does happen to two unsupervised teenagers with access to a vehicle and any number of deserted locations to visit?

“A Good Animal” moves quickly, and Maurer does a fine job with pacing the development of Everett’s and Mary’s relationship. Details about sheep farming and its demands and rewards rounded out the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy. This is my honest review.

A Good Animal by Sara Maurer is a slow burn that rewards patience. The narrative takes its time, layering small, intimate moments until they build into a sharp and striking crescendo. I enjoyed the way the characters’ inner lives unfolded gradually, drawing me deeper in with each chapter and making the final revelations all the more impactful.

The conclusion came quickly—almost jarringly so—and while part of me wanted more, I couldn’t help but feel the suddenness was exactly the point. Life rarely offers tidy resolutions, and Maurer leans into that truth with confidence. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC—A Good Animal is a thoughtful, surprising read that leaves you with plenty to turn over long after the last page. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This brought me back to life in the rural Midwest. Tender and tragic and full of heart. A talent to watch for sure.

I read this one while on a plane. I found it hard to get into, but engrossing enough by the end that 150 pages slipped by with me hardly looking up from my phone.

A Good Animal is about a seventeen year old boy named Everett who lives on a sheep farm in rural Michigan. The first third or so follows his life on the farm as he meets and is rejected by the new girl in town and takes his sheep to the fair. But when his truck breaks down, Everett takes the bus to school and slowly befriends that same new girl Mary, who also takes the bus. He begins driving her to school and a sweet romance grows between them... Until it inevitably ends (as the prologue suggests).

One thing I found interesting about this novel is that I wouldn’t particularly classify it as a romance—there is a romance within it but A Good Animal has so much more than the relationship between Everett and Mary. There are beautiful descriptions of sheep-rearing littered throughout the whole novel, whether that is Everett running his hands up and down their legs or holding one down to vaccinate it. There is also a very believable and plot-implicative relationship between Everett and another boy, Charlie. However, I think the first third doesn’t quite serve a purpose—the beginning is well-written but kind of boring. Why am I here? I found myself asking. When do we get to spend time with Mary, the character who is ostensibly why Everett’s life is interesting enough to be a novel? The beginning felt like a decent short story, in that its plot was somewhat separate from the rest of the novel.

This novel certainly falls into the manic-pixie-dreamgirl trope, which I would consider unusual for female authors. I wouldn’t necessarily call this trope a trap, since tropes (especially this one) are frequently enjoyable even if they can have a regressive reading. Mary is somewhat of a realized person, though in harnessing this trope the girl in question will have the primary purpose of affecting the life of the less interesting male protagonist. Without spoiling things, I would say that the primary conflict of the novel comes from a severe mistake on Everett’s part. And while I found myself invested in him and Mary, I didn’t feel as though I particularly knew Mary enough to completely feel the loss that Everett did when she pulled away during their conflict.

The story is ultimately quite simple: romance and conflict that have been played out a billion times over the course of human history. But I found Everett’s almost extreme resistance to leaving his small town in rural Michigan a good choice for character study. And an interesting part about this coming-of-age story is that Everett doesn’t really change—a lot happens to him, but by the end of the novel his values are ultimately the same.

Ultimately I would recommend this, particularly as a good plane book/light break kind of read.

When you offer me a heartland farm coming of age novel you are speaking exactly my language, and A GOOD ANIMAL delivers on its promise in every way. Everything from setting to characters to the sheep in their pens and pastures worked in tandem to sweep me away to their world. A Good Animal is a beautiful book I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

I really loved this novel. It was set on a farm during a kid's last year in high school when he falls in love with Mary. The farm was as much as character as any person in this book.

An amazing debut that I absolutely loved. It’s about sheep, a lot of information about sheep farming in Michigan but it’s also a coming of age story about first love and decisions that come with ramifications that last a lifetime. Everett loves Mary and he loves farming and he is happy to stay in his hometown and raise sheep like his father before him. Mary just moved to town and is restless and can’t wait to leave the small town life. You know something gut wrenching is going to happen and you’re turning pages and wondering what it will be at each turn. Who ever thought I could love a book with so much sheep farming in it but I did. It was a masterful debut and I’m so excited to see this authors writing as she continues her career. It was so steeped in setting and character yet still propulsive. I loved Everett. My heart broke for him. It takes place over Everett’s senior year in 1995/1996 which was my senior year. This was an easy 5 stars for me!

I was invited by the publisher to review this book. Set in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Everett dreams of staying in his town and rehabbing his family's sheep farm, although most dream of leaving. He then meets new girl in town, Mary, who has an energy and dreams that he has not known. She becomes pregnant and they look at that differently - Everett envisions a family, and Mary envisions a way out.

This is a strong character driven book, and strong emotions and feelings are at the core of this story. There are sweet and special moments, and at other times the book veers into heart wrenching; be prepared to feel a rollercoaster of emotions, but in a good way. On a personal note, I loved the setting, being a native of Michigan myself, and I thought the author did a great job of capturing the setting. Also, I thought the cover was beautiful and symbolic of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Coming of age stories are among my favorite genres, as well as stories set on farms. This was a strong read finished in one day during long travel, but I was disappointed with the abrupt ending. I would have appreciated perspective on the events that transpired and a bit more aftermath. Also a major relationship plot element was left with no further outcome. Until this point, this was a great story and loved the characters. This was a debut so I look forward to reading the author’s next book.

How often does a book like A Good Animal come along? Rarely. It is one in which you enter the author's world and do not leave until the last page is turned and the last deep sigh has left your lungs. What makes it even more impressive, particularly for a first novel, is the fact that Sara Maurer has succeeded marvelously in writing in the voice of a seventeen-year-old youth. There is not one false note in this emotional and moving story.

The setting is the Eastern Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a sheep farm where Everett lives with his parents and younger brother and sister. The family works hard to help raise these show sheep and I fell in love with all of them. including Fluffernutter, the rejected lamb raised by young sister Katie. (Fluff is delightful as well as beautiful and wins Reserve Champion at the County Fair.)

Maurer's writing is so skilled that the animals have as much life as the human characters. She never puts a foot wrong. . I loved Roman, the baby ram Everett buys to start his own breed line of show sheep, and disliked Caroline, the bossy old ewe. There is also Charlie, childhood best friend, Kylie, Charlie's girlfriend, and Mary, a new girl in town for only her senior year. The relationship between Mary and Everett is so relatable and real that you feel their emotions, their joy and their pain.

I look forward to Sara Maurer's next novel and send my appreciation to both Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. lThis is my honest review. I loved this book.

This book was incredible and would definitely recommend to any library or bookseller who wants to diversify their collection.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley.

This is an emotional story about a teenage couple, Everett and Mary. The story is set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Everett’s family lives in a sheep farm. He meets Mary. They fall in love. And then their lives become quite complicated.

The strength of this book is in the characters. They are well-developed and easy to relate to. As a reader, I felt their emotions, I shared their concerns about their futures.

A lot of time was spent explaining how a sheep farm functions, especially in the first third of the book. I almost gave up on the book but then the focus of the novel shifted away from farm operations and into the characters.

A compelling story, albeit a sad one in many ways.

Truthfully, I really struggled with this one. I dnf'ed it at the 30% mark (because nothing was happening...nothing) but then after reading several good reviews on GoodReads claiming this story was such a great one, I felt curious enough to pick it back up and just try to get through it. Kind of regretting that decision now after wasting my time on this story. Here's my thoughts on it: I generally love a heartbreaking, tragic story and especially a coming of age one with characters that are doomed but still try to be together. I read the Netgalley synopsis and knew I'd just eat this one up...BUT what the reader is promised is NOT what we get in the slightest.
The writing style was frustrating...very short, choppy sentences that made the story feel disjointed, almost like it was written by a high schooler. At times it even felt like the author was bored with their own story, and that lack of energy carried through to me as a reader. Scenes cut abruptly from one to the next, leaving me jolted and disconnected.

The pacing was also completely off...nearly half the book dragged on with endless detail about sheep, farm chores, unnecessary descriptions, and livestock shows. It was so monotonous I found myself skimming just to get through it and I felt alot of this could have and should have been edited out to focus more on the heart of the story.

When the romance finally appeared, I expected the story to come alive, but it fell flat flat flat. The relationship felt bland, lacking spark or depth, and I couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters or their struggles. We’re told there’s supposed to be chemistry between them, but it never shows up on the page. We aren’t given the chance to feel it, to see those moments of connection, or to believe in their bond. We are just told they hop in his truck and bam, they are dating and in love, fast forward a few months and things progress...can't we all feel it, see their white hot love and chemistry?? Nope. Instead, the romance felt more like an afterthought, a subplot squeezed in where the real spotlight was on sheep and sheep farming. Want to know about sheep mating and all that? I got you...but on the 2 MMC romance? Negative 😑 I read pages upon pages of detail about livestock and showing sheep, but almost nothing that convincingly built their so called love and affection for each other. Their conflict was rushed through and the ending came so suddenly it felt unfinished rather than moving.

This novel was portrayed as a profound, heart tugging coming of age story, but instead it read like a slow, surface level narrative weighed down by farm life details. The characters never developed in a meaningful way, and the emotional stakes were never explored deeply enough to resonate. Also, the teen pregnancy trope is so over done and typical, that it didn't do a thing for me....I swear I rolled my eyes, and was expecting that to happen in this story. Oh look, another story about young irresponsible teens who get knocked up and don't want to face their consequences.

By the time I reached the end, I felt so let down and disappointed, hoping for a twist that never happened. This story barely scratched the surface of what I think was intended. The story had so much potential, if the author had focused more on allowing the characters to feel real and not as an after thought with their romance and their issues. But instead of leaving me with an emotional gut punch, it left me feeling absolutely indifferent to the story. I wanted a book that would linger with me, but this one will fade so quickly from my mind. 2 stars is being generous unfortunately.

A Good Animal takes place in rural Michigan and follows a boy, Everett, on his family’s sheep farm as he navigates his responsibilities at home and falling in love. Farming is one of the most rewarding jobs a person can have, but it’s so much more than a job. This book does a lovely job showing that. As rewarding as farming can be, it can also be dangerous, unpredictable, and heartbreaking. It is always hard. It’s a life many want to get away from, yet it’s also a lifestyle cherished by others. It’s something we all depend on even if it’s not always acknowledged or appreciated. I really enjoyed the up close look at sheep farming in particular, but I think we could have used a bit more dialogue and characterization of some of the side characters, or leave them out all together. I will be looking for this author’s next book as I think she has a unique perspective we can all benefit from.

3.5 rounded up. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. It’s not often that I run across a novel set in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, where I obtained my undergraduate degrees. The author did an excellent job of depicting the beauty and bitterness of a northern Michigan winter, and delved into the difficulties faced by local livestock farmers. Boy meets girl…and learns that two people can desire each other, but that longing weighs against their differing desires for their own futures. I enjoyed this book, although the main story arc was somewhat predictable. The ending felt a bit thin and rushed, but overall, an enjoyable, if sad, tale.

This is a true coming of age story that starts the summer before Everett Lindt’s senior year of high school. You get to know his family, his best friend, and a lot about farming. The author does an amazing job describing the setting of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. We meet Mary early in the story and she is very clear about her future plans. Overall I liked it but I really wish there was one more chapter or an epilogue to wrap it all up 🐑