Review of Strong Heart

[Rosanna Lewis]

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

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3 out of 4 stars

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'Strong Heart' by Charlie Sheldon is an interesting read. It's about the journey of family relationships, history and so-called legends. The story follows a grandfather, Tom, and his granddaughter, Sarah, who go on a hiking trek to visit a family grave. Together with a couple of close friends they soon find themselves on more than just a trek. When the granddaughter goes missing, Tom finds himself questioning all that he thinks he knows and believes...

The book gets you stuck in right away with the story. The characters provide good depth and the vivid description of the trekking landscape captures the imagination. You can really place yourself amongst the group of characters, as if you were there with them. It's like reading a story within a story due to the flashback events where you read what happened to the missing granddaughter. It's broken up in places which leaves you hanging and motivated to read on to discover what happened next. I really enjoyed the dialogue between some of the supporting characters. The granddaughter, Sarah, is a strong character considering her backstory. The way she is written is endearing, despite all the usual teenage angst, you can quickly admire her strength and determination to survive no matter the situation she is in.

I felt the book was a little long in sections, especially with the flashbacks of what happened to the granddaughter, Sarah. During the flashbacks, I had to really take my time reading those sections as the description of characters involved in those scenes weren't always clear.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. As mentioned, I felt that there were a couple of chapters which described what happened to the granddaughter where it was a bit too long and slightly confusing in description at first. I found myself re-reading those particular chapters a couple of times in order to understand what was happening.

I think the recommended audience would be for teenagers upward as some of the geographical and historical terms maybe not understood by a very young audience but definitely those of at least a secondary stage education.

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Strong Heart
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