Review of Strong Heart
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Christiane D
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- Latest Review: Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
Review of Strong Heart
[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]
Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon follows the story of Sarah, this young girl on a search for a family she yearns and it’s an ode to her braveness, her stubbornness and her resilience. It touches on a lot of important issues from political, social, and human perspectives without loosing the feel of reading a truly compelling story. It is an unbelievable yet somehow weirdly credible story of an amazing journey through the Olympic Peninsula, there’s not a lot that can be said without spoiling because every detail is important and delivered by the author in a way that builds just the right amount of tension, but I can tell you that it is a story so compelling you physically can not put this book down and even after you finish it you wish you could keep reading, It’s a harmonious mixture of mystery, history, magic, adventure, spirituality and a human component so raw and emotional that the reader can’t help but feel incredible awareness of something much bigger than themselves; and the book cover might not tell you that there’s also a lot of shocking, exciting and maybe even disturbing events that really add to the depth and the many layers of emotions that this book will lead you to, over all it is not a book for the faint of heart which I think was very well stated on the title and I’d like to believe that Charlie Sheldon was giving us a humorous wink when he was deciding on it.
Charlie Sheldon is incredibly knowledgeable on the history, geography and many wonders of the area in which the story takes place, and can write about it in a way that makes you feel like you left your surroundings and are right there in the middle of the action while making you feel every emotion available from meditational mindfulness to horror, sadness, relief, peace, wonder and excitement, most of us read in the hopes of finding ourselves in a different time and place through imagination running wildly and freely and this book accomplishes that in a natural and wonderful way.
On the other hand the beginning of the book was hard to read for a couple of reasons, at first some of the descriptions were excessive and interfered with the flow of the story, at some point the descriptions started feeling like interruptions that instead of adding to a mood or a scene just distracted from the story and were very repetitive, also the omnipresent narrator style didn’t help because the switch between character perspectives was too constant, and that was also very distracting to a point were it was hard to follow the events and characters, I mentioned that only some of the descriptions were excessive because I also felt like some descriptions that could have given some context towards the relationship between the characters, the characters themselves including physical and personality aspects were missing, I felt like I wanted to get to know the characters more and the general situation, there was a lot of confusion on who is who, the age , the relationship between them and who they are, because you want someone to side with early on, to give a clear example of this on the first two pages there were 7 characters introduced without any context whatsoever on who they are and their relationship, 8 if you count Sarah’s dad, 9 if you count her boyfriend, and there just wasn’t enough context on it, you may have to write down who is who in order to understand what you are reading like l had to, yet the weather is over explained, in those same 2 pages there are 5 descriptive statements about the rain, weather and mood and more than 10 descriptions of clothes and surroundings that also served only to emphasize the raining and the cold, I thought 3 descriptive statements could have been enough, some descriptions were completely unnecessary for example on page 2, Where Tom’s glasses glinted, it adds nothing to the plot, the events at that point are compelling enough, and those kind of descriptive statements feel like interruptions; rather than setting the mood, or adding tension, relief or helpful information, those kind of descriptive statements are more suitable and appropriate as directors notes on a movie production script rather than a book. The problem with characters ages is a big one for me, some examples would be page 1 where Ruth is older than William who is Myra’s Dad but at that point we don’t know how old William is , it’s very confusing, also on page 9 where Pete looks Myra’s age but we don’t know how old she is. Besides these issues, after the first 10 pages the descriptions are just enough and it’s a breeze to read through, it’s just those first pages that could use a bit of work, otherwise amazing book.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars only because of the issues mentioned earlier, despite the beginning of the book being a little clumsy I thought it was wonderful, and I can tell you it’s well worth it to get through those first pages because the rest of the book is a treasure, the knowledge behind it, the way it touches on important issues, the time the author spent on it and the beautiful message and extreme range of emotions it provides you with makes this book a must read.
It’s a fantastic read for adventure lovers, wildlife fanatics, history geeks, and the list goes on an on, however I wouldn’t recommend it for younger or impressionable audiences because it includes some gruesome descriptions of events, strong language and some delicate subjects that some audiences might be affected by or sensitive to.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon follows the story of Sarah, this young girl on a search for a family she yearns and it’s an ode to her braveness, her stubbornness and her resilience. It touches on a lot of important issues from political, social, and human perspectives without loosing the feel of reading a truly compelling story. It is an unbelievable yet somehow weirdly credible story of an amazing journey through the Olympic Peninsula, there’s not a lot that can be said without spoiling because every detail is important and delivered by the author in a way that builds just the right amount of tension, but I can tell you that it is a story so compelling you physically can not put this book down and even after you finish it you wish you could keep reading, It’s a harmonious mixture of mystery, history, magic, adventure, spirituality and a human component so raw and emotional that the reader can’t help but feel incredible awareness of something much bigger than themselves; and the book cover might not tell you that there’s also a lot of shocking, exciting and maybe even disturbing events that really add to the depth and the many layers of emotions that this book will lead you to, over all it is not a book for the faint of heart which I think was very well stated on the title and I’d like to believe that Charlie Sheldon was giving us a humorous wink when he was deciding on it.
Charlie Sheldon is incredibly knowledgeable on the history, geography and many wonders of the area in which the story takes place, and can write about it in a way that makes you feel like you left your surroundings and are right there in the middle of the action while making you feel every emotion available from meditational mindfulness to horror, sadness, relief, peace, wonder and excitement, most of us read in the hopes of finding ourselves in a different time and place through imagination running wildly and freely and this book accomplishes that in a natural and wonderful way.
On the other hand the beginning of the book was hard to read for a couple of reasons, at first some of the descriptions were excessive and interfered with the flow of the story, at some point the descriptions started feeling like interruptions that instead of adding to a mood or a scene just distracted from the story and were very repetitive, also the omnipresent narrator style didn’t help because the switch between character perspectives was too constant, and that was also very distracting to a point were it was hard to follow the events and characters, I mentioned that only some of the descriptions were excessive because I also felt like some descriptions that could have given some context towards the relationship between the characters, the characters themselves including physical and personality aspects were missing, I felt like I wanted to get to know the characters more and the general situation, there was a lot of confusion on who is who, the age , the relationship between them and who they are, because you want someone to side with early on, to give a clear example of this on the first two pages there were 7 characters introduced without any context whatsoever on who they are and their relationship, 8 if you count Sarah’s dad, 9 if you count her boyfriend, and there just wasn’t enough context on it, you may have to write down who is who in order to understand what you are reading like l had to, yet the weather is over explained, in those same 2 pages there are 5 descriptive statements about the rain, weather and mood and more than 10 descriptions of clothes and surroundings that also served only to emphasize the raining and the cold, I thought 3 descriptive statements could have been enough, some descriptions were completely unnecessary for example on page 2, Where Tom’s glasses glinted, it adds nothing to the plot, the events at that point are compelling enough, and those kind of descriptive statements feel like interruptions; rather than setting the mood, or adding tension, relief or helpful information, those kind of descriptive statements are more suitable and appropriate as directors notes on a movie production script rather than a book. The problem with characters ages is a big one for me, some examples would be page 1 where Ruth is older than William who is Myra’s Dad but at that point we don’t know how old William is , it’s very confusing, also on page 9 where Pete looks Myra’s age but we don’t know how old she is. Besides these issues, after the first 10 pages the descriptions are just enough and it’s a breeze to read through, it’s just those first pages that could use a bit of work, otherwise amazing book.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars only because of the issues mentioned earlier, despite the beginning of the book being a little clumsy I thought it was wonderful, and I can tell you it’s well worth it to get through those first pages because the rest of the book is a treasure, the knowledge behind it, the way it touches on important issues, the time the author spent on it and the beautiful message and extreme range of emotions it provides you with makes this book a must read.
It’s a fantastic read for adventure lovers, wildlife fanatics, history geeks, and the list goes on an on, however I wouldn’t recommend it for younger or impressionable audiences because it includes some gruesome descriptions of events, strong language and some delicate subjects that some audiences might be affected by or sensitive to.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
