Review by Waweru K -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
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Waweru K
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Review by Waweru K -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Archeological evidence shows that people first arrived in North America 12000 to 15000 years ago. However, there are some local tribes in North America that believe that they have always been in there since the beginning of time, backed up by their legends.
The strong heart by Charlie Sheldon is a great work of fiction in which the author tries to sort of like simulate the way things might have been in those ancient times. The main character in the novel is a 13 year old girl, who goes by the name of Sarah. It’s through her mysterious experience during a hiking trip that we get a feel of how movement into North America might have happened.
Following the demise of her mother, Sarah is left under the care of her stepfather. At some point, and for reasons best known to him, the stepfather sends her away to her grandparents’ place for the summer. While at her grandfather’s place, she gets invited to a hiking trip into the Olympic National Park. The trip had been planned by Tom, Sarah’s grandfather, and he was to be accompanied by William, Tom’s friend, and Myra, William’s daughter. Without much of a choice she accompanies them, in what she refers to as kidnapping. The trip goes on well until things go haywire in an unexpected turn of events. At this point, the story gets a new beginning.
I found the book quite interesting, with its suspense sufficient enough to keep me going. The writer has used a simple, clear and understandable language to deliver his content. The map included at the front of the novel, as well as the vivid description of people, events and places in the novel compliments imagination to an extent that it almost feels real. I therefore rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The novel is neutral in respect of culture, morality and religion. I would therefore recommend it to all lovers of adventure across all ages, gender, religions and cultural backgrounds.
However I feel that much more would have been done to make the novel better. For instance, I think that the story would have been a lot better if the hiking trips’ events were not so ordinary and predictable; waking up, eating, walking, talking and sleeping. A few incidents out of the ordinary, during the trips, would have made the novel tastier and more fascinating.
Sarah’s mysterious experience, presented in form of a story within a story, was really exciting and interesting. However, I feel that this part would have been better if it was broken into smaller parts, with breaks in between. At some point, as I was reading the story, I started wondering if I had switched novels!
I also realized that this part of the novel had some inconsistencies that left me wondering if they were there for a purpose, or they were there by mistake. For instance, Sarah nicknamed each of the characters in her story based on their most outstanding characteristic. Surprisingly though, they refer to each other using the same names given to them by Sarah. This doesn’t seem to make sense.
There is also an instance where Sarah says that it took her and her fellow captives a number of days to learn the foreign language used by their captors. At the same instance she and some of her fellow captives engage themselves in a conversation with some of the captors. This left me wondering how they would have done that yet the conversing parties didn’t have a common language by then. I rule out the possibility that it was by the use of gestures, since gestures could not have been that efficient and elaborate.
In the end, the novel leaves the reader in suspense; what happened at the marking place, did Buckhorn carry on with the excavation, what became of Sarah and what was her grandfather’s fate. There was simply no closure, and I’m not sure if that’s really a good thing.
However, despite the minor issues that I have raised above, I feel that the author did a commendable job with regard to expositing the main theme.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Archeological evidence shows that people first arrived in North America 12000 to 15000 years ago. However, there are some local tribes in North America that believe that they have always been in there since the beginning of time, backed up by their legends.
The strong heart by Charlie Sheldon is a great work of fiction in which the author tries to sort of like simulate the way things might have been in those ancient times. The main character in the novel is a 13 year old girl, who goes by the name of Sarah. It’s through her mysterious experience during a hiking trip that we get a feel of how movement into North America might have happened.
Following the demise of her mother, Sarah is left under the care of her stepfather. At some point, and for reasons best known to him, the stepfather sends her away to her grandparents’ place for the summer. While at her grandfather’s place, she gets invited to a hiking trip into the Olympic National Park. The trip had been planned by Tom, Sarah’s grandfather, and he was to be accompanied by William, Tom’s friend, and Myra, William’s daughter. Without much of a choice she accompanies them, in what she refers to as kidnapping. The trip goes on well until things go haywire in an unexpected turn of events. At this point, the story gets a new beginning.
I found the book quite interesting, with its suspense sufficient enough to keep me going. The writer has used a simple, clear and understandable language to deliver his content. The map included at the front of the novel, as well as the vivid description of people, events and places in the novel compliments imagination to an extent that it almost feels real. I therefore rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The novel is neutral in respect of culture, morality and religion. I would therefore recommend it to all lovers of adventure across all ages, gender, religions and cultural backgrounds.
However I feel that much more would have been done to make the novel better. For instance, I think that the story would have been a lot better if the hiking trips’ events were not so ordinary and predictable; waking up, eating, walking, talking and sleeping. A few incidents out of the ordinary, during the trips, would have made the novel tastier and more fascinating.
Sarah’s mysterious experience, presented in form of a story within a story, was really exciting and interesting. However, I feel that this part would have been better if it was broken into smaller parts, with breaks in between. At some point, as I was reading the story, I started wondering if I had switched novels!
I also realized that this part of the novel had some inconsistencies that left me wondering if they were there for a purpose, or they were there by mistake. For instance, Sarah nicknamed each of the characters in her story based on their most outstanding characteristic. Surprisingly though, they refer to each other using the same names given to them by Sarah. This doesn’t seem to make sense.
There is also an instance where Sarah says that it took her and her fellow captives a number of days to learn the foreign language used by their captors. At the same instance she and some of her fellow captives engage themselves in a conversation with some of the captors. This left me wondering how they would have done that yet the conversing parties didn’t have a common language by then. I rule out the possibility that it was by the use of gestures, since gestures could not have been that efficient and elaborate.
In the end, the novel leaves the reader in suspense; what happened at the marking place, did Buckhorn carry on with the excavation, what became of Sarah and what was her grandfather’s fate. There was simply no closure, and I’m not sure if that’s really a good thing.
However, despite the minor issues that I have raised above, I feel that the author did a commendable job with regard to expositing the main theme.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Waweru K's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "Raven's Peak" by Lincoln Cole
