Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Fragile Beasts: A Novel
    Fragile Beasts: A Novel
    Fragile Beasts: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    Fragile Beasts: A Novel

    Written by Tawni O'Dell

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer and Laural Merlington

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    When their hard-drinking but loving father dies in a car accident, teenage brothers Kyle and Klint Hayes face a bleak prospect: leaving their Pennsylvania hometown for an uncertain life in Arizona with the mother who ran out on them years ago. But in a strange twist of fate, their town's matriarch, an eccentric, wealthy old woman whose family once owned the county coal mines, hears the boys' story. Candace Jack doesn't have an ounce of maternal instinct, yet for reasons she does not even understand herself, she is compelled to offer them a home.

    Suddenly, the two boys go from living in a small, run-down house on a gravel road to a stately mansion filled with sumptuous furnishings and beautiful artwork-artwork that's predominantly centered, oddly, on bullfighting. And then there's Miss Jack's real-life bull: Ventisco-a regal, hulking, jet-black beast who roams the land she owns with fiery impudence.

    Kyle adjusts more easily to the transition. A budding artist, he finds a kindred spirit in Miss Jack. But local baseball hero Klint refuses to warm up to his new benefactress and instead throws himself into his game with a fierceness that troubles his little brother. Klint is not just grieving his father's death; he's carrying a terrible secret that he has never revealed to anyone. Unbeknownst to the world, Candace Jack has a secret too-a tragic, passionate past in Spain that the boys' presence threatens to reveal as she finds herself caring more for them than she ever believed possible.

    From the muted, bruised hills of Pennsylvania coal country to the colorful, flamboyant bull rings of southern Spain, Tawni O'Dell takes us on a riveting journey not only between two completely different lands, but also between seemingly incompatible souls, casting us under her narrative spell in which characters and places are rendered with fragile tenderness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 17, 2010
    ISBN9781400186969
    Fragile Beasts: A Novel
    Author

    Tawni O'Dell

    Tawni O'Dell is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed novels Back Roads, Coal Run, Sister Mine, and Fragile Beasts. She was born and raised in the coal-mining region of western Pennsylvania. Visit her website at tawniodell.com.

    More audiobooks from Tawni O'dell

    Related to Fragile Beasts

    Related audiobooks

    Family Life For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Murder Of James Bulger 30 Years On

      Feb 7, 2023

      This week marks 30 years since two-year-old James Bulger was abducted and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. James would be in his 30s now. Would he be married? A father? With a career? All that was snatched away from

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires

      Mar 25, 2020

      RELEASED 7 APRIL 408 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Grady Hendrix Publisher Quirk Books Grady Hendrix writes women beautifully, never more so than in his terrific coming-of-age horror My Best Friend’s Exorcism, so it’s an absolute joy to re

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Night Swim

      Jul 30, 2020

      Rachel, a true crime podcaster, is following a rape trial playing out in a small, ocean-side town. A young star swimmer has been accused of brutally assaulting the local police chief’s granddaughter and the case has quickly divided locals. But the da

      1 min read

    • Article

      Our Share Of Night

      Nov 2, 2022

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 736 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Mariana Enriquez Publisher Granta Books This book is A Lot. You may need to take palate-cleansing breaks with kitten videos on YouTube… if you can put it down, that is. A hit on its original publica

      1 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Jun 16, 2023

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      TV Pieces Of Her

      Mar 24, 2022

      TV Pieces Of Her
      1 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Feb 5, 2021

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Steph Opitz

      Dec 17, 2018

      I put down a lot of books that didn’t do it for me, and shuffled and reshuffled my to-be-read pile to my heart’s content. It’s been liberating. The post A Year in Reading: Steph Opitz appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Crimes of the Heart

      Nov 5, 2016

      Like many of his novels, Spanish author Javier Marías’ new book, Thus Bad Begins, isn’t exactly a mystery, though it is mysterious. Here, the 65-year-old perennial Nobel favorite tells the story of Juan de Vere, a young man working for a film directo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Home Before Dark

      Apr 2, 2020

      Home Before Dark
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Minders

      Oct 7, 2020

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author John Marrs Publisher Del Rey John Marrs’s latest near future, high-concept techno-thriller isn’t so much a sequel to The One (DNA dating app has dark secret) and Passengers (autonomous ca

      1 min read

    • Article

      ‘I Hear The Screams’: 107-year-old Survivor Of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Testifies To Congress In Call For Justice

      May 20, 2021

      Moments after falling asleep on 31 May, 1921, seven-year-old Viola Fletcher was awakened by her family and told to leave her home in the Greenwood neighbourhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Outside, a white mob drove thousands of Black residents from their ho

      3 min read

    • Article

      Charles Manson's Followers: Will Those Still Alive Ever Get Out of Prison?

      Nov 21, 2017

      LOS ANGELES - With Charles Manson dead, the next chapter in the Manson family saga will involve follower Leslie Van Houten. Van Houten is one of several Manson followers who are still alive and in prison. They periodically come up for parole review,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Trouble Brews In Minnesota

      Jul 29, 2019

      Edith and Helen Calder haven’t spoken in decades. The sisters’ rift began after the death of their father, who left all the money from the family’s farm to Helen so she could fulfill her dream of opening a brewery. In J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Quee

      1 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Final Frontier

      Dec 23, 2020

      CATHOLICS ARE PECULIARLY morbid. That, at any rate, struck me as the most plausible explanation. It must have been 15 years ago, and I was with a group of Englishspeaking aficionados learning handson capework in the breeders’ practice rings around Sa

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Fragile Beasts

    4/5

    72 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Sorry, Tawni, found this a little juvenile and soapish. Liked the story, characters, etc., but felt like I was reading a modern day gothic novel. Two brothers, bad mom, recently deceased not so hot dad get taken in by rich, lonely old lady.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars - this book sat in my to read pile for a couple of years! I'm so glad I finally got around to reading it - I loved it!
    • 4/5
      Like most of O'Dell's novels, this one is set in rural, coal-country Pennsylvania, but the reader also glimpses brief flashbacks of an alternating storyline in Spain, where bullfighting reigns. Brothers Klint and Kyle, estranged by their mother a few years earlier, and now orphaned due to an auto accident where their father is killed, have nowhere to go. Candace Jack, a local and wealthy spinster of sorts, offers to take them in. Kyle adapts pretty well to this and much of the story is told through his point of view. Klint, on the other hand, is cold and non-communicative, and seems to be carrying around a grudge, but the reader isn't sure what this grudge is all about, until it's revealed later in the novel. In the meantime, Candace's story, in regards to her time in Spain, is also slowly revealed. I normally am a fan of Tawni O'Dell's writing, although her more recent novels have missed the mark with me. I would describe this one as mediocre. I never really felt pulled into this story and none of the characters particularly grabbed me. I'm not sure the two storylines really melded all that well, and I can't say that the bullfighting aspect was a big draw for me. I won't give up on O'Dell's writing, but I don't think this one was her best effort.
    • 4/5
      This book was one I had trouble deciding about and mostly because in the back of my mind, I was trying to decide whether or not I would recommend it for my book club. My book club is fussy about what they want to read and look to read books that have a "raised bar" so to speak. That said, I quite enjoyed parts of it - loved the straight talk and subtle humor of Candice, Luis and Kyle. I enjoyed too the two stories intertwining but did struggle a bit with the reality of those two stories actually happening as a scenario in real life. Feelings were well portrayed I thought and too, and I was struck about the naturalness of how close the siblings were - including the boys sister who really was quite removed from the main body of the story for the most part but the boys, especially Kyle never dismissed as his family. the mother was "another story" and one the reader could easily dislike I think. Klint's struggles were evident to me despite his talents with baseball and when he finally "cracked", I was touched with Kyle's support for him - actually, all along.The story unfolded a bit predictably but I must say that the references to Candace's being "old" came on much too strong for my taste. Is 77 really that old and does one go from a supposed vital, in charge woman to one so frail, so fast? ( wishful thinking on my part?)One other part I had a chuckle about was Luis saying that one of the things he would like to teach Americans was that Ernest Hemingway knew nothing about bull fighting. I imagine Hemingway would be insulted by that given how much he experienced and wrote about the subject.So, will I recommend this book to my book club? I'm still not sure although one could find several opinions to share I'm sure. I did love the title of the book though - very apt given the story of the bulls who are really fierce beasts who can be very destructive but too,in the end can be as fragile as turning away from a supposed threat ( Candice in the field) and the humans in the story who interact with them with their fragile natures but can succumb to the pressures of their lives.I give it a 4.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book and really enjoyed the story. Although there were multiple points of view, the use of two narrators really helped me to keep track of who was speaking. I love the image of the title, "fragile beasts" that suggests that one can be brutal and yet at the same time can be broken so easily. This novel is about grief and how we cope with it, but it is also about how we help each other and how we can find grace in the oddest and most unexpected places.
    • 4/5
      This was a great book, esp how all the stories blended together. Many different backgrounds, much pain, but all the same realization.Quote," That day I realized God or no God, Fate or no Fate, it didn't matter. All the centuries of man looking for answers with his philosophy and politics, his science and his arts; all it was meaningless because none of it could help us cope with our most devastating enemy: the randomness of life." Candace Jack p 329
    • 5/5
      Excellent read. I found it difficult to put down and walk away.
    • 4/5
      This is a good book. No Bull!How does the combination of two teen-aged boys, and a wealthy, elderly woman with an interesting history and a massive prize bull, yes, BULL, living on her property in western Pennsylvania sound for the take off points of a novel? The author of "Fragile Beasts", Tawni O'Dell, brings these seemingly disparate parts together in a clever fashion.I liked it for the believable characters, the story, the excellent dialogue, the premise, the entertainment value, the life lessons offered and not rammed down my throat. Enough said.
    • 5/5
      Great book Gladly re-read 9-21-10 A strong willed single,wealthy matron lives in PA in a Spanish entourage as she recalls memories of her youth, loving a matador. Inot her tranquil life she finds herself the surrogate mother/caretaker to two troubled, rebellious teen age boysA multilayered lovestory.
    • 3/5
      Sorry, Tawni, found this a little juvenile and soapish. Liked the story, characters, etc., but felt like I was reading a modern day gothic novel. Two brothers, bad mom, recently deceased not so hot dad get taken in by rich, lonely old lady.
    • 4/5
      After Klint and Kyle's dad is killed in a car accident, they go live with Miss Jack, a rich, old recluse. Miss Jacks withdrew from the world after her lover was killed in a bull fight in Spain years before. After the boys' family secrets threaten to destroy lives, Miss Jacks must decide whether to remain withdrawn or let the boys into her heart. The story was told from all the main characters viewpoint which gives insight on why each character behaves the way they do.
    • 5/5
      Kyle & Klint live with their unsophisticated janitor father. Their mother abandons them and their father taking their little sister. Their father idolizes Klint who is a local baseball star, although he doesn't understand or condone Kyle's talent as an artist. When their father dies in a drunk driving accident, their mother comes back to claim them, although she doesn't seem that excited about the prospect. Klint absolutely refuses to move away with their mother and threatens to run away before he will. Kyle is friends (and secretly in love with) Shelby, the granddaughter of Miss Jack who is a rich recluse. Shelby talks Miss Jack into taking in the boys. Much to everyone's surprise, they learn to respect and care for each other. Klint seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into depression and when he finally cracks, a terrible secret comes out. Wonderful book!!