Book Review: Rhino Dreams

10 Reasons
to Read This Novel

Reviewed by Moristotle

I chose the “10 reasons why” approach for this review because – in full disclosure – I said yes to Jon Price’s request that I please help a writing colleague in California – Kathy Williams – market her just-published book. (I’m not one to say no to a friend, and I might have been hoping to receive a free copy of the book, which I soon did.)

    One thing I suggested to Kathy was what author Jim Rix did: create a list of the “top 10 reasons to read Jingle Jangle,” January 6, 2008.
    Well, I’m delighted to tell you, Rhino Dreams is a very good read, and it was no trouble at all to assemble 10 reasons why a person might like to read it:

1. The confident, authoritative power of the co-authored voice – about geography, conservation, tourism, psychology, human and creature relationships – is commanding.
2. Their verbal depiction of the countryside and wildlife of the Namib, the great coastal desert in Southern Africa, is graphic; it conveyed me to the place, I felt I was there.
3. The aura of danger the co-authors are able to evoke in scenes of confrontation with ferocious predators (a lion – or were there two incidents with lions? – hyenas, a snake, a leopard…some men!) is compelling.
4. The authors’ depiction of the marauding of poachers informs readers of the wanton loathsomeness of poaching endangered great animals and of their financial incentives for killing rhinos and cutting off their horns.
5. The dramatization of the conflict between conservation of endangered animal species and profit-driven tourism, represented by an English scientific researcher and an enterprising entrepreneur who has hired a beautiful photographer born of wealthy California hippie parents to take promotional photographs for his resort, raises the provocative question: Does tourism help or hurt? There is no easy answer to that question. 
6. The co-authors’ understanding of the turmoil and muddle of characters wrestling with powerful emotions and second-guesses is manifest. I found myself, several times, wanting to grab the photographer or the English researcher, and shake them into disclosing more of themselves to each other!
7. The tensions between several pairs of characters are adroitly stage-managed to heighten suspense. I didn’t know until the final chapter (#47) whether the photographer and the scientist would actually…. It stikes me that the action of this work could easily be drafted as a script for film. Hollywood, who wants to take this production on?
8. The story pleasingly surprised me when a misplaced, spoiled research intern proves capable of becoming the photographer’s confidant and manages at last to win some respect from the research station’s staff, who had regarded her as a joke. The intern emerges as one of my favorite characters.
9. Rhino Games is an eye-opening “romance novel” – a genre of novel I thought I could never read. I’m glad to see I was wrong, at least when the novel is as good as this one.
10. The final reason to read this book may not be a big one for many readers, but it represents one of the sweetest rewards I myself gained from Rhino Dreams: it depicts a baby rhinoceros (Flossie, only 200 lbs! by novel’s end) at play with her friend Elvis (a goat) and in such affectionate interaction with several of the human characters that I developed my own love for Flossie and felt a sense that, in safe circumstances, I would love to be in the embracing presence of other large wild creatures.

Published by She Writes Press (an imprint of SparkPoint) in April this year, Rhino Dreams is available online from these distributors: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, iBooks, IndieBound. Or you could ask a local bookseller to order a copy for you. And, if you enjoyed Rhino Dreams as much as I did, consider asking your local library to order a copy for readers who prefer to borrow.

Note to Kathy: You are welcome to borrow from the list above to design posters or flyers for Costco, Sam’s Club, book stores, college classrooms – wherever you can secure a date to meet and greet readers and autograph copies of your book.
    And how about our doing an interview? It might help you develop some material for when you’re interviewed on TV or radio, or when you speak to live audiences of potential readers in those bookstores and college classrooms?

Copyright © 2022 by Moristotle