Review by cynthia28 -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

[cynthia28]

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

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4 out of 4 stars

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Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon is a heartwarming novel around family, adventures, with a little bit of myth and legend. It is set in the North Pacific Coast and told from two different points of view, one is from the third person in the present-day story and another one is from the perspective of the main character.

Sarah Cooley is a stubborn teenage orphan girl who showed up just right in time when her grandfather, Tom, who barely know her, wanted to do hiking to Olympic National Park with his Native American friends, William and Myra. When the three of them finally decided to take Sarah on the backpacking trip, an extraordinary occurrence happened. Sarah was disappeared for 8 days and suddenly reappeared with her story that doesn’t make sense for everyone. What are the connections between the group’s camping trip and Sarah’s journey when she disappeared? Is it also related to the significant artifact called “Atlatl”?

The most thing I love about this novel is the author can perfectly develop the characters, especially Sarah. Her strengths and weaknesses are visible, supported by her background. From her angry and grumpy personality to her headstrong, courage, and why she called “Strong Heart”, implied vividly in the story. Her character is growing and changing well. I also love Myra, who is smart and has strong opinions so she can persuade other people. It seems to me that the novel has more strong female characters than the male.

There is nothing I dislike in this novel. Even I feel like Sarah’s story is very bizarre and weird, that doesn’t make me less enjoy reading this book. The author successfully mixes the two stories between Sarah’s trip when she disappeared and with the story of the current time. This book also gives me some new knowledge around legends in Native Americans, archaeology, ancient artifacts, and myth. There is a map at the beginning of the book of the forest and mountain area in the Pacific Ocean. I also praise how clever the author shows his knowledge through the characters, Myra and Sergei around human migration.

I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I only notice one very minor grammar error and the rest is flawlessly well-edited. I will recommend this novel to people who are interested in adventures and mysterious ancient quest. This book can still suitable for young readers since there is no profanity or sexual content, and the themes are not too heavy or complicated.

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Strong Heart
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