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A review by bhnmt61
The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
5.0
Ren Hopper is a ranger in Yellowstone National Park. He lives alone in a cabin, a few yards away from another cabin where wildlife biologist Hilly lives. Shortly after the book opens, he finds Hilly near death, almost certainly due to the actions of a particular poacher. Ren is recovering from the death or loss of almost everyone he loves, so parts of this book are deeply sad. There is a bit of suspense as Ren tries to figure out exactly what happened and who is to blame, but mostly this is just the story of Ren, trying to figure out how to make it through the day, and then the next.
I loved this book. The writing is gorgeous, the main characters are flawed but lovable, and the issues that come up in the course of Ren's search for justice are all ones that are familiar to anyone who lives in the northern Rockies, or near a national park.
I'm hesitating to add this, because it seems kind of petty, but why write a review if you're not going to say what you think. So I will qualify my love for this book by saying that the very last paragraph--really the last couple of sentences-- seemed so out of character with the rest of the book that they seemed to come out of nowhere. But my spouse, who read The Last Ranger a couple of weeks ago, disagrees. He loved the ending. So there you go. Read it and see what you think.
I loved this book. The writing is gorgeous, the main characters are flawed but lovable, and the issues that come up in the course of Ren's search for justice are all ones that are familiar to anyone who lives in the northern Rockies, or near a national park.
I'm hesitating to add this, because it seems kind of petty, but why write a review if you're not going to say what you think. So I will qualify my love for this book by saying that the very last paragraph--really the last couple of sentences-- seemed so out of character with the rest of the book that they seemed to come out of nowhere. But my spouse, who read The Last Ranger a couple of weeks ago, disagrees. He loved the ending. So there you go. Read it and see what you think.