Other People's Pets by R.L. Maizes

Other People's Pets by R.L. Maizes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I could only use one word to describe this novel, it would be unique. Oh, it was a bit trite in that it was about a dysfunctional family AND a dysfunctional relationship, but the dysfunctions aren't like anything you've ever read before.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book except for a couple of personal reasons. And those particular reasons are the only ones that keep me from giving this book a 5-star rating. Fist of all I have issues with those who 'rob from the rich because the rich person's insurance will cover it,' that the rich person has more than they deserve -to give to the poor. And in this case, the poor are La La and her father. My second objection is in a scene that describes pretty much in detail, of putting an elderly cat down. Since I am a lover of cats and have had to do this same thing many times, I did not appreciate the description of the act. As a matter of fact, the author does this same thing, but the next time it is with a dog that you had come to know.

Those personal reasons aside -this was a well-written novel with well fleshed out characters. Some of these characters you will come to love, and some you will come to dislike thoroughly, and I think that this was the author's intention.

Not a light read by any means, and keep the tissues handy.

*ARC supplied by the publisher and the author.


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SYNOPSIS: La La Fine relates to animals better than she does to other people. Abandoned by a mother who never wanted a family, raised by a locksmith-turned-thief father, La La looks to pets when it feels like the rest of the world conspires against her.
La La’s world stops being whole when her mother, who never wanted a child, abandons her twice. First, when La La falls through thin ice on a skating trip, and again when the accusations of “unfit mother” feel too close to true. Left alone with her father—a locksmith by trade, and a thief in reality—La La is denied a regular life. She becomes her father’s accomplice, calming the watchdog while he strips families of their most precious belongings.
When her father’s luck runs out and he is arrested for burglary, everything La La has painstakingly built unravels. In her fourth year of veterinary school, she is forced to drop out, leaving school to pay for her father’s legal fees the only way she knows how—robbing homes once again.
As an animal empath, she rationalizes her theft by focusing on houses with pets whose maladies only she can sense and caring for them before leaving with the family’s valuables. The news reports a puzzled police force—searching for a thief who left behind medicine for the dog, water for the parrot, or food for the hamster.
Desperate to compensate for new and old losses, La La continues to rob homes, but it’s a strategy that ultimately will fail her.
Other People’s Pets examines the gap between the families we’re born into and those we create, and the danger that holding on to a troubled past may rob us of the future.