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Book Review: Walk On Earth A Stranger – Rae Carson


Walk On Earth A Stranger
Author: Rae Carson
Series: The Gold Seer Trilogy #1
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Romance, Fantasy
Release Date: September 22, 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Goodreads | Amazon | TBD

Summary:

Gold is in my blood, in my breath, even in the flecks in my eyes.
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.
The acclaimed Rae Carson begins a sweeping new trilogy set in Gold Rush-era America, about a young woman with a powerful and dangerous gift.

 
First Sentence: I hear the deer before I see him, though he makes less noise than a squirrel – the gentle crunch of snow, a snapping twig, the soft whuff as he roots around for dead grass.

My Review:

As soon as I saw Walk On Earth A Stranger, I had to have it in my hands. Just look at that gorgeous cover! Add the fact that Walk On Earth A Stranger takes place during the Gold Rush era – an era I enjoy reading about – and is written by a much talked about author, Rae Carson, and I knew I had to read Walk On Earth A Stranger asap. My excitement for Walk On Earth A Stranger only increased when I read Vengeance Road – another book that takes place in the Gold Rush era – and really enjoyed it. I was ready to read more about money hunger people and how far they’ll go to get what they want in an era where laws aren’t regulated as strongly as they are now.

The world shifts, and I stumble hard against the railing.
Two gunshots. I heard two. (27)

Reading Walk On Earth A Stranger was a tedious undertaking. I felt like the book followed the same pattern over and over again – problem arises, Lee escapes/solves it, new problem arises, Lee escapes/solves it, problem arises…well, you get my point. It was really repetitive and the core problem that caused Lee to run the first place, which I expected to be bought up constantly throughout the book, was just bought up once at the end and that was it. I know that the problem will be focused on and expanded upon in the sequel, but that’s a little too long for me.

I love how Rae Carson incorporated many social issues into Walk On Earth A Stranger, social issues like how African Americans are treated back then and even how women are treated. I wasn’t aware that African Americans and women faced those kind of issues during the Gold Rush era – my memory of history is really rusty. It was eye-opening learning more about the issues they faced during that particular era.

“Not bad for a girl,” says Jonas Waters.
“It’s not bad for anyone,” Jefferson snaps.
“I slowed it down for you,” Tom says, but he’s grinning. (346)

I am really disappointed with what Rae Carson did with a certain aspect of the book. When the problem first arose, my first thought was I wonder how Rae Carson will solve this problem – wait, please don’t tell me she’ll take the cheap way out and just kill the character. Alas, many pages later, that’s exactly what happened. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed as I wanted a real resolution to that plotline; the character’s death felt like such a cheap cop-out.

As of right now, I don’t know if I want to read the sequel. Maybe things will actually get better now since there will hopefully be no more problem arises, Lee escapes/solves it plotline now that everyone has reached California, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

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-Kelly

Posted by Kelly on 8-08-17 · 1 Comment
Categories: 2015 book, book review Tagged: 3 star

« ARC Book Review: This Adventure Ends – Emma Mills
ARC Book Review: The Hearts We Sold – Emily Lloyd-Jones »

Speak Your Mind

  1. Carina Olsen says

    8-09-17 at 10:37 AM

    Aw :( I’m so sorry you didn’t love this one. Sad face. I loved it tons and tons, hih. But understand your issues too, sort of :D Thank you for sharing your lovely thoughts about it, though. <3

    Reply

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