How do you go from veterinary school to a traveling circus? Jacob Jankowski did just this in Water for Elephants. Jacob dropped out of veterinarian school just before finals of his senior year due to his parents’ sudden death and jumped onto a train to leave town. This train just happened to be filled with freaks, performers, and underpaid circus workers. Jacob gets himself a job in this mediocre circus as a vet for the animals. The Great Depression hits this circus heavily and has all the performers and workers afraid for their lives when the boss has his crew throw people out of the train in the middle of the night. Every performance might just be the performance of their lives.

I absolutely loved this book. It always went in a way different direction than I thought. It had me guessing what was going to happen. This book was one of those books that end just the way you wanted it, but never would have guessed. Some parts, such as the animal cruelty, were a little hard to read, but it was just such a good book that I couldn’t put it down. Sara Gruen did an amazing job in this novel. She could make you picture every part of the book in your head without being too wordy and that’s really hard to do. This book has everything from murder, mystery, suspense, love, and adventure.