Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan is one of those wonderful ‘surprise’ books. When I previously ran a book club, I would probably have entered it as my ‘wild card’ option. I’d have pitched it as a fab little novella, niche in its subject area (horse racing and training), but nonetheless compelling for its brilliant central character, Sonia.

I had been aware of Kick the Latch receiving critical praise in the book world. Coupled with that, a few of my bookish friends with similar taste to me had also enjoyed it. It continued to hover around my periphery and I decided to add it to my Christmas list. I had small reservations about the subject matter. Horse racing is not a world I know anything about! I wondered if I would be able to connect with the text.

I actually have a hard time reconciling Kick the Latch as fiction, because it’s so incredibly convincing as a memoir. Kathryn Scanlan has transcribed interviews with Sonia, a veteran horse trainer, and used them to craft this as a piece of fiction about a life at the racetracks. When I finished it I wanted to know exactly how much was true. How thinly disguised are the characters? Would people in her world read it and recognise themselves? Had it just been a case of changing names and locations perhaps? Or had enough time passed that it no longer mattered? It’s so intriguing!

I may have anticipated not being that interested in her world, but Sonia’s spirit drew me in and I was fully invested. She’s hard as nails! It also turns out to be a brilliant industry and setting for a book. It is its own little bubble. There are so many ‘characters’ and entertaining factors – big money, high stakes, sexism and misogyny. It’s a tough, physical workplace, with brutality and violence in the day-to-day. Amongst the passion for the craft, there’s competition, score-settling, addiction and hardship. I read many passages feeling quite tense – it’s a visceral read, and the animal and human injuries are high.

In terms of readability, Kick the Latch is great. 166 pages of short passages, memories and snapshots of life at the track, stables, ranches and so on. It whizzes along and can easily be devoured in a few hours. Stylistically, I really enjoyed the titles of each passage – often a few words or short phrase drawn from the ensuing text. I enjoyed spotting them, thinking about their selection and what made them powerful. (This might just be the textual analysis student in me from my university years!)

Kick the Latch is well worth a read and a great wildcard option to potentially shake up your reading. You could slip it between larger books, use it as a swift palate cleanse or enjoy as it is.