A story within a story

Discuss the October 2017 Book of the Month, Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon.

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Philip Chepsingil
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Re: A story within a story

Post by Philip Chepsingil »

Sarah's narration of what happened to her when she was lost forms the story within a story. In fact, this inside story is the most interesting part of this book.
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Post by gali »

Singer wrote:Sarah's narration of what happened to her when she was lost forms the story within a story. In fact, this inside story is the most interesting part of this book.
I agree. I also thought it was most interesting part of the book.
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Post by Naval Aulakh »

Sarah's journey is more interesting. It has given me a lot of knowledge of the existence of early humans. The way she survived during her journey proved that she is a strong heart.
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Post by gali »

Naval Aulakh wrote:Sarah's journey is more interesting. It has given me a lot of knowledge of the existence of early humans. The way she survived during her journey proved that she is a strong heart.
I also found it more interesting.
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Post by Nishant Das »

CatInTheHat wrote:I enjoyed both sections but enjoyed watching Tom, Sarah, William, etc, grow and bond together more than watching Sarah as Strong Heart.
I totally agree. Their interactions at the camp site, especially Myra with Sarah & Sergei and Tom & William
through which we got to know their qualities and also seeing them grow their interpersonal relationship was more of an interesting read than Sarah's narration.
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Post by amybo82 »

MaryBurris wrote:I thought Sarah's story was interesting, but it could have been told better. I was really disappointed that the camping story was left as a cliffhanger.
I get so frustrated when books and/or parts of stories are cliffhangers. I know that, in most instances, it's because the author is setting us up for the next book. My big problem is that I have a very hard time sticking with series. I think the only one I've read to completion was Harry Potter, and that was because I was working in a bookstore and I felt like I had to at the time! I usually get bored or frustrated with the characters, the overworked plotline, or another detail that I decide to nitpick.
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Post by Kat Berg »

I too found the story of Sarah much more interesting. It could have been tightened, but it was much tighter than the rest of the story. I found that especially at the beginning everything felt disjointed. Sort of stuck together. The main issue with Sarah's journey is that it was too long.
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Post by gali »

Kat Berg wrote:I too found the story of Sarah much more interesting. It could have been tightened, but it was much tighter than the rest of the story. I found that especially at the beginning everything felt disjointed. Sort of stuck together. The main issue with Sarah's journey is that it was too long.
I agree it was too long and could have been tightened.
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Post by BoyLazy »

Kat Berg wrote:I too found the story of Sarah much more interesting. It could have been tightened, but it was much tighter than the rest of the story. I found that especially at the beginning everything felt disjointed. Sort of stuck together. The main issue with Sarah's journey is that it was too long.
It could have been crispier to make it more interesting.
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Post by Kat Berg »

Yes, and sometimes information was just stuck in there without any elaboration. This could have been such an amazing book with another really strong edit, not for grammar but for the storyline. It doesn’t need extra details for the area, but it needs to tie the characters together better. Fill in awkward spaces. Crisper is exactly the right word I agree.
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Post by ebethina »

Well I found I enjoyed the camping trip more than Sarah's journey. I will say I was very disappointed Sarah's journey just dragged and I lost interest after awhile. With the camping trip the author did a very good job making you feel like you were right there with them.
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Post by Amagine »

ebethina wrote:Well I found I enjoyed the camping trip more than Sarah's journey. I will say I was very disappointed Sarah's journey just dragged and I lost interest after awhile. With the camping trip the author did a very good job making you feel like you were right there with them.
There seems to be a lot of people who enjoyed the camping trip.
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Post by KasieMiehlke »

I found Strong Heart's story to be the more interesting of the two, but I did enjoy Tom's story as well.
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Post by gali »

ebethina wrote:Well I found I enjoyed the camping trip more than Sarah's journey. I will say I was very disappointed Sarah's journey just dragged and I lost interest after awhile. With the camping trip the author did a very good job making you feel like you were right there with them.
I agree it dragged at times.
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Post by kwahu »

Sarah's journey was actually the best part of the book. Tom's camp story was somewhat boring because I couldn't easily figure out the story's protagonist.
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