Hey there guys!
It's the weekend! Well, I say so while I crash after working night shift and going grocery shopping afterwards to avoid the weekend crowds! *collapses in bed* I shall be taking a nice middle of the day nap!
But I'll leave you with a Saturday Pages review for one of the books that I read for ARC August! And it is another YA Western! I think I have a new appreciation for westerns since I really enjoyed the two that I've read, and they were quite different from each other!
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I adored Rae's Fire & Thorns trilogy so I was dying to grab her next book and when I heard it would be a western I was even more intrigued!
If any of you are wondering about similitudes with Vengeance Road, they really don't exist aside from that both are YA westerns with a female main character that disguises herself as a boy for a part of the book. The main characters couldn't be more different and so couldn't be their journey, voice or plot.
Leah can feel gold, keeping her ability secret for fear of robbery, murder or exploitation. She lives modestly with her parents, until her life is turned upside down and she must flee from a man that would use her ability for his own means.
She decides to run away and join the Golden Rush to California, hoping that her ability will help her find a new life there amidst the gold madness.
Leah's journey is one of running away a future that she doesn't want, towards the hope of a better one. But in the end the destination isn't as important as the journey itself.
Leah as Lee finds herself with a freedom that would have been unheard of and meets quite a few characters that both change her and are changed by her.
I must confess that at first I was expecting the voice of the book to be in dialect too, and at first it sounded very modern, but once I got hooked on the action and the characters' relationships and dynamics I stopped noticing if the language sounded modern or not.
The biggest strenght of this book for me is in its characters and the way their relationships change and evolve as the journey goes on. All the secondary characters had more complexity than expected at first and they keep surprising us now and then. How some accept the conventions and rules of the time, and how some of them subtly bend them to their convenience. It really irked me how some attitudes changed from being Lee to being Leah, but I was glad that she had enough allies and friends that would not change the way they treated or appreciated her no matter what she was called or if she wore skirts of pants!
The plot of the book is pretty straight forward, it's a road trip in oxen carts, looking for a chance at a better life, so it's all about the very hard journey that it is. Injuries, power plays, encounters with "Indians" that will make your blood boil for the treatment of the Native Americans, but so true for the time, and that might make us think of what has really changed from then to now.
The end of the book brings us full circle to a situation that could have been very much the same that Leah was running away from but that is completely different because of the journey she and her fellow travelers went through. I know this is the first book of a trilogy, but it could have equally been a standalone with enough resolution if a lil bit of an open ending to imagine more details of the future on our own.
Very well deserved 4 stars to this one!
View all my reviews
It's the weekend! Well, I say so while I crash after working night shift and going grocery shopping afterwards to avoid the weekend crowds! *collapses in bed* I shall be taking a nice middle of the day nap!
But I'll leave you with a Saturday Pages review for one of the books that I read for ARC August! And it is another YA Western! I think I have a new appreciation for westerns since I really enjoyed the two that I've read, and they were quite different from each other!
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae CarsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I adored Rae's Fire & Thorns trilogy so I was dying to grab her next book and when I heard it would be a western I was even more intrigued!
If any of you are wondering about similitudes with Vengeance Road, they really don't exist aside from that both are YA westerns with a female main character that disguises herself as a boy for a part of the book. The main characters couldn't be more different and so couldn't be their journey, voice or plot.
Leah can feel gold, keeping her ability secret for fear of robbery, murder or exploitation. She lives modestly with her parents, until her life is turned upside down and she must flee from a man that would use her ability for his own means.
She decides to run away and join the Golden Rush to California, hoping that her ability will help her find a new life there amidst the gold madness.
Leah's journey is one of running away a future that she doesn't want, towards the hope of a better one. But in the end the destination isn't as important as the journey itself.
Leah as Lee finds herself with a freedom that would have been unheard of and meets quite a few characters that both change her and are changed by her.
I must confess that at first I was expecting the voice of the book to be in dialect too, and at first it sounded very modern, but once I got hooked on the action and the characters' relationships and dynamics I stopped noticing if the language sounded modern or not.
The biggest strenght of this book for me is in its characters and the way their relationships change and evolve as the journey goes on. All the secondary characters had more complexity than expected at first and they keep surprising us now and then. How some accept the conventions and rules of the time, and how some of them subtly bend them to their convenience. It really irked me how some attitudes changed from being Lee to being Leah, but I was glad that she had enough allies and friends that would not change the way they treated or appreciated her no matter what she was called or if she wore skirts of pants!
The plot of the book is pretty straight forward, it's a road trip in oxen carts, looking for a chance at a better life, so it's all about the very hard journey that it is. Injuries, power plays, encounters with "Indians" that will make your blood boil for the treatment of the Native Americans, but so true for the time, and that might make us think of what has really changed from then to now.
The end of the book brings us full circle to a situation that could have been very much the same that Leah was running away from but that is completely different because of the journey she and her fellow travelers went through. I know this is the first book of a trilogy, but it could have equally been a standalone with enough resolution if a lil bit of an open ending to imagine more details of the future on our own.
Very well deserved 4 stars to this one!
View all my reviews
I have an eARC of this book and I really want to read it because it sounds so different from all I've read.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it!!
Thank you Lis, it is really is different!
DeleteHope you are having an awesome weekend Pili. <3 And YAY for loving this book :D I loved it a bit more, hih, but yeah. So happy you liked it :D Wasn't it just awesome? <3 Sigh. So good :) Thank you for sharing your thoughts about it sweetie. <3
ReplyDeleteIt's being a quiet but good one sweetie, thank you! And yes, this was a great book indeed!
DeleteA western, wow! I don't think I've read such a book in YA that's for sure. I'm so glad you enjoyed this. I'm going to have t check this one out. Lovely review! :)
ReplyDeleteYou should, Emma! This is a character driven book and the setting gives it a rather unique feel too!
DeleteNext year I've got to join the ARC August Challenge. This is one I'm excited for, but didn't realize it would be a western! Great review!
ReplyDeleteARC August is so much fun! I know I'll join again next year for sure!
DeleteThis is a western? Ahhhhh... say it isn't so! I am crying buckets of tears right now, lol. Well, at least it is a non-review book I won't have to find time to read now. Great review though. :D
ReplyDeleteIt's about the Gold Rush to California, so I think it does qualify as western... sorry!
DeleteThis beauty is on my reading list very soon, and while I wish that Rae decided to do something with the language, I have no doubt that I'll enjoy the story anyway. Her storytelling is just excellent. I'm glad you liked it!
ReplyDeleteYou know Rae, she might be talking about picking up oxen shit to feed the fire and she'll keep you glued to the pages!!
DeleteI am sooo excited to read this book, the characters sound amazing and I really love the idea behind the magic in this world! Stunning review!
ReplyDeleteAentee at The Social Potato
Thank you Aentee! In this case the magic feels more like an added paranormal element and the focus is so much more on the real & gritty world that the character have to face!
DeleteI thought this one was okay! Just seemed like nothing was happening, for 400+ pages. And the paranormal aspect was barely there! I'll be reading the next book, as it seems like how it was with the Fire & Thorns series (which I ended up loving). Excellent review, Pili!
ReplyDeleteAlyssa @ The Eater of Books!