Review by AzureSkyTower -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

[AzureSkyTower]

[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 rate Strongheart by Charlie Sheldon: 3 out of 4 stars

The book revolves around Tom and his granddaughter Sarah. Sarah was dropped on his doorstep by her grandmother, Ruth. Not about to completely derail his plans, Tom takes her on an adventure out hiking deep in the park with Tom’s friends' Walleye (William) and Myra. At first, Sarah is an ornery wisp of a girl, the picture of rebellious, angsty teen. Myra is the only greatly educated member of the group and Walleye is an older man with a lazy eye.

They set out to visit Tom’s father Bob-bob (Robert’s) grave, only momentarily stalled by Sarah’s humorous insistence that she was being kidnapped by her grandfather and forced into a cruel unusual punishment. Things, unfortunately, are not simple as due to a series of events (and strategic loopholes of certain laws), the National Park is in actual danger.

Aesthetically this book is very pleasing. The author kindly gives you a map of the national park the book is set in, and every chapter header has a little drawing of some mountains. The chapters are very short, which simultaneously gives you the feeling that you are reading really fast and slow. Fast in the sense that chapters fly by, but then you check to see how far in you are and you haven’t made much progress. There were -from what I saw- no typos, which is nice.

I will admit, this book was really hard to get in to at first. I had a lot of false starts in reading this book. Eventually though, about 25 odd pages in, it seemed the plot kicked in and the book all of a sudden turned into a page-turner. This initial slowness is what put me off giving the book 4 stars as normally I would put a book down if it took too long to grab my attention. The book is good though, it is very well written, and the authors own expertise of the wilderness is apparent.

The book indirectly digs deep into the morality of the displacement of native people in a given location for industry as multiple characters have native ancestry. An aura of mystery permeates the conflict almost as strongly as it does the national wonder itself. The characters are definitely dynamic, they seem to have a life about them and every character seems to have their own beliefs and baggage. Strongheart is definitely a book I would recommend, but it wasn't perfect.

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Strong Heart
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