Editors Reads Verdict
Hinton's final YA novel is her most autobiographical — a story about a teenage writer discovering his vocation — and while it lacks the raw power of The Outsiders, it has a quiet maturity and a beautiful central metaphor.
What We Loved
- The writing-as-vocation subplot gives the novel a distinctive thematic layer absent from her earlier work
- Casey is one of Hinton's strongest female characters — competent, independent, and fully realized
- The horse-taming metaphor is handled with restraint and genuine emotional resonance
Minor Drawbacks
- Travis is less immediately compelling than Ponyboy or Tex
- The novel's quieter register may disappoint readers seeking the intensity of Hinton's earlier books
Key Takeaways
- → Creative work can give a troubled young person a legitimate form of power and identity
- → Some things cannot be tamed — and the attempt to tame them can be its own form of grace
- → Rural life offers a particular kind of perspective that urban coming-of-age narratives miss
| Author | S.E. Hinton |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Delacorte Press |
| Pages | 181 |
| Published | January 1, 1988 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult, Coming-of-Age |
Hinton’s Most Autobiographical Novel
By the time S.E. Hinton published Taming the Star Runner in 1988, she had been writing professionally since her teens — writing was, by then, her identity and her vocation. This final YA novel is the one in which that experience most directly enters the story. Travis, sent to his uncle’s Oklahoma ranch after a dangerous confrontation with his stepfather, has a manuscript under his bed — a novel he is trying to get published — and much of the book’s quiet energy comes from watching him navigate both the rural world he has been dropped into and the uncertain process of finding out if he is actually a writer.
The writing subplot is handled without sentimentality. Travis’s manuscript is rejected, then accepted by a small publisher, then stalled again. The process is rendered with the unglamorous reality of actual literary submission rather than the fantasy of effortless discovery.
Casey and the Star Runner
The novel’s other center is Casey, who runs a horse stable on Travis’s uncle’s property and is attempting to train Star Runner, a beautiful and genuinely untrainable stallion. Casey is competent, emotionally self-sufficient, and uninterested in Travis’s romantic attention in the way Hinton’s female characters rarely are — she has her own life and her own ambitions and Travis is peripheral to both.
The horse becomes the novel’s central metaphor: something wild and beautiful that may not be tameable without losing what makes it extraordinary. The question of whether to tame Star Runner runs alongside the question of whether Travis can be reshaped into something functional — and whether that reshaping is worth the cost.
The Quietest Hinton
Taming the Star Runner lacks the visceral intensity of The Outsiders or the moral complexity of That Was Then, This Is Now, and readers coming to it expecting those qualities may be disappointed. What it offers instead is a more reflective, quieter kind of coming-of-age story — one in which the protagonist’s most important development happens in his imagination rather than in the street.
Our rating: 3.9/5 — Hinton’s most introspective novel, with a distinctive meditation on creative vocation and a memorable central metaphor — quieter than her best work but worth reading for fans of her earlier books.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Taming the Star Runner" about?
Travis, a troubled teenager sent to live with his uncle in rural Oklahoma after an incident with his stepfather, finds unexpected purpose in writing — and in watching Casey, a young woman who trains horses, attempt to tame the unrideable Star Runner.
What are the key takeaways from "Taming the Star Runner"?
Creative work can give a troubled young person a legitimate form of power and identity Some things cannot be tamed — and the attempt to tame them can be its own form of grace Rural life offers a particular kind of perspective that urban coming-of-age narratives miss
Is "Taming the Star Runner" worth reading?
Hinton's final YA novel is her most autobiographical — a story about a teenage writer discovering his vocation — and while it lacks the raw power of The Outsiders, it has a quiet maturity and a beautiful central metaphor.
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