Graham Herrli's Reviews> What the Dog Said

This book is what I imagined magic realism to be when I first heard of the genre: a world in which everything is like the normal world except for one small extra-ordinary element. That element in this story is that Gracie, a thirteen-year-old girl coping with the death of her father, can hear a dog speak. She recognizes that other people will likely think her crazy if they find out that she can hear the dog, yet she treats the dog's speech as natural.(view spoiler)[She eventually comes to believe that the dog, Rex, may be channeling the spirit of her dead father; by hearing what Rex has to say, she is finally able to come to terms with her father's death, to stop blaming herself, and to bring his killers to justice.(hide spoiler)]I enjoyed the verve that the bit of "magic" brought to this otherwise typical tale of coping with grief.

The book also sits within the "feel-good" genre: conflict is minimal, the focus is on the development of the relationships between the characters, and everything turns out okay. Although the tone was a bit kitschy in places, it pulled me in enough that I teared up toward the end(view spoiler)[when Grace's sister tells her that maybe she finally heard what Rex had to say(hide spoiler)].I'm not really a dog person, but I'm fairly certain that the inclusion of several dog characters with limited personalities (dogalities?) of their own should make this book even more enjoyable to people whodoappreciate canine antics. I also learned a bit about how service dogs are trained; this book might be inspirational to anyone looking for a volunteer project.