Review by FrankiProw -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

[FrankiProw]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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I just finished reading Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon and I thought it was an amazing book. It takes place in Washington state and it is about a girl who shows up at a guy's house, who is getting ready to head out on a hike with some friends, claiming to be his granddaughter. The girl whose name is Sarah embarks on the journey which doesn't sit well with her grandfather Tom at all. The hike into the wilderness of the Olympic Peninsula is a hard journey that tests everyone's patience, but ends with a unbelievable story that Sarah experiences while there.

I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars

One thing I didn't like about this book was that it went everywhere with its style of writing. It was confusing reading it because sometimes it didn't make any sense and it was a little bit chaotic for me. I felt like the author went out of their way to prolong events; like the hike to the person's grave; to make a point of following exactly what the characters were doing and experiencing as they traveled. The book tended to jump around and sometimes it didn't feel like it flowed smoothly.

Another thing that I didn't like was some of the characters, like Lynch and Roger, because they weren't nice people. I get that they were essential to the story, but they annoyed me a lot. They both were egotistical and jerks that wanted things their own way even though they couldn't actually have it that way. I felt like Lynch was using his position to make things harder for Tom and Roger wasn't a good leader because of how he treated his men. They both had roles to play in the story, but the way that they went about things didn't agree with me.

Something that I did like about this book was the other characters especially Sarah and Sergei. Myra, William, and Tom were good characters because they slowly warmed up to Sarah being with them during the travel to the grave. I liked how Tom learned to accept Sarah's stories about the bear and the "dream" that she had when she went missing for eight days. I also liked how Tom started to get protective over Sarah and how he accepted being her grandfather. Sergei was fun to get to know and it was cool that he was Russian because it made his character stand out more, like with his accent becoming more pronounced when he got mad.

Another thing I liked about this book was Sarah's drawings/sketches she did while traveling. She obviously was quite skilled if you go by the reactions of Tom, William, and Myra along with Sergei later. Even though I couldn't physically see what she drew I could still picture them in my mind as they were described. Sarah drew in her sketchbook every time they stopped either to rest or to camp for the night, which I found to be really amazing. I liked experiencing her drawings in my head then actually seeing them in the book because I like being able to tell how detailed the author goes into explaining what they were.

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Strong Heart
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