Monday, November 02, 2015

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

From Goodreads: Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend - who might want to be something more. She also has a secret. Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it. When everything Lee holds dear is ripped away, she flees west to California - where gold has just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl can be herself. If she survives the journey.

My Rating: 3.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: While I still haven’t read the second and third books in Rae Carson’s Fire and Thorns series, I decided to check out her newest book, Walk on Earth a Stranger, because I loved The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Knowing that Walk on Earth wouldn’t be a fantasy, however, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But, once again, Carson’s novel had great characterization and setting.

Leah (aka Lee) was a protagonist I fully supported, and I loved that her parents didn’t restrict her due to her gender, allowing her to learn to shoot, ride, and mine gold. When Leah’s parents are murdered by her uncle because of her ability to sense gold, Leah refuses to stay under her uncle’s guardianship. Instead, she dresses up as a boy and heads west, without much of a plan other than hoping to meet up with her best friend (who also left home) along the way and going to California together to get rich. Normally, I’d consider this to be foolhardy; but considering Leah’s circumstances, I thought she was pretty brave.

Where I was hoping for more though was from the plot as it was very slow-paced and didn’t really seem to involve much other than Leah traveling, with people getting hurt along the way. Leah’s ability to sense gold, for example, barely plays a role in the book! The slow pacing, however, does help with the setting since it allows the reader to really get a feel for how the land must have looked during the 1800s.

Walk on Earth a Stranger was released by Greenwillow Books in September 2015. 

Comments About the Cover: I think the background could be better, but I love the font’s style and colour.

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (HarperCollins) for free via Edelweiss.

5 comments:

  1. I loved this book! I felt that the story was slow-paced at times as well, like we didn't need a whole story on the traveling, it was fun and interesting, but it was kind of pointless. I can't wait for the second book!

    Asma @ IceyBooks

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  2. Hmmm, the slow pace of this one might not work for me, but I do think the setting sounds really cool! Very few (if any) other YA books are set in the Gold Rush era, so that's something different. Plus Leah sounds pretty awesome, and if I like a character enough I might be able to get on board with the slower pace/less plot.

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  3. I definitely wanted her ability to play a bigger role in this one too Z, it read more as a straight western than anything paranormal (which was fine, I really enjoyed it!), but I'm really looking forward to it being expanded in future books:)

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  4. Hello, Z! Haven't read this one but it's in my TBR.

    I seriously thought this was fantasy what with the protag being able to sense gold. It's kind of a disappointment though, that her ability plays a little role in the book as it's the one that made this interesting for me.

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  5. Ah, haven't tried her work yet, but I think I'll be a fan! I'm okay with slow pacing sometimes, if I like the other elements enough.

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