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bigdreamsandwildthings 's review for:
Walk on Earth a Stranger
by Rae Carson
“I swallow hard and try to lower my voice, but I’ve never mastered the gentle firmness of Mama’s way. I’m a too-loud-or-nothing kind of girl”
I've been sleeping on this trilogy. I see a lot of lukewarm responses to this first book, and it definitely made me hesitate to pick it up, but now, on the other side, I honestly don't know how people can find it boring or slow. This is the story of a girl fighting to be a girl in 19th century America. What's not to love?
Leah "Lee" Westfall finds her parents murdered, and her best friend decides to leave to go west to California for the gold rush there. Lee is torn, but her Uncle Hiram comes to claim her, and he is terrible, so she gathers her belongings and her wits and follows Jefferson, leaving the only home she's ever known in Georgia to trek across the country. She disguises herself as a boy and begins her journey, with no idea of the family she's about to find or the trials she's about to face as the cruelty of America comes to bear on her and her life. Oh, and she has a magical ability to divine gold - an ability that will help her more than she could ever know.
As I said before, I absolutely adored this. There is something about Leah Westfall that is quietly spunky in such an interesting way. She's not a YA heroine who mouths off all the time, but nor is she the girl who hides in the corner and does what she's told. She has this beautiful, quiet, innate strength that is just solidified over the course of her journey. She doesn't want to be a man; she wants to be a girl with the rights of a man, and the way that she fights for that in her daily life is truly breathtaking. I found myself clutching the book multiple times just wanting so badly to give her a hug.
Women are truly at the heart of this book, and I cannot WAIT to get my hands on the sequel to find out how their journeys all end. My heart broke for Therese, and Becky Joiner, and everyone else that had so much growth and development throughout this book. There was not one flat female character. Everyone had a journey, and that pushed this over the top for me into my favourites list.
The other supporting characters are also crucial to Lee's journey. Jefferson is wonderful: he's half-Native American, and the way that Rae wove all kinds of injustices into this story made it feel like she was leaving no stone left unturned. I raged with Jeff, wanted to burn Frank Dilley and his boys to the ground for their treatment of him but also their ideas about slavery and women and just all of it. There are so many layers, so much intersectionality at work here that both Lee begins to recognize (her conversation with Hampton and the college boys sticks out to me as a particular moment of learning for her) and that Rae shines a wonderful light on. She could have brushed past so many things, and she didn't.
Finally, the picture that Rae paints of 1849 America is bloody, brutal, and so vivid that I feel like I lived there. I love her ability to worldbuild. This was just so intense, and so real, and I loved it so much.
I've been sleeping on this trilogy. I see a lot of lukewarm responses to this first book, and it definitely made me hesitate to pick it up, but now, on the other side, I honestly don't know how people can find it boring or slow. This is the story of a girl fighting to be a girl in 19th century America. What's not to love?
Leah "Lee" Westfall finds her parents murdered, and her best friend decides to leave to go west to California for the gold rush there. Lee is torn, but her Uncle Hiram comes to claim her, and he is terrible, so she gathers her belongings and her wits and follows Jefferson, leaving the only home she's ever known in Georgia to trek across the country. She disguises herself as a boy and begins her journey, with no idea of the family she's about to find or the trials she's about to face as the cruelty of America comes to bear on her and her life. Oh, and she has a magical ability to divine gold - an ability that will help her more than she could ever know.
As I said before, I absolutely adored this. There is something about Leah Westfall that is quietly spunky in such an interesting way. She's not a YA heroine who mouths off all the time, but nor is she the girl who hides in the corner and does what she's told. She has this beautiful, quiet, innate strength that is just solidified over the course of her journey. She doesn't want to be a man; she wants to be a girl with the rights of a man, and the way that she fights for that in her daily life is truly breathtaking. I found myself clutching the book multiple times just wanting so badly to give her a hug.
Women are truly at the heart of this book, and I cannot WAIT to get my hands on the sequel to find out how their journeys all end. My heart broke for Therese, and Becky Joiner, and everyone else that had so much growth and development throughout this book. There was not one flat female character. Everyone had a journey, and that pushed this over the top for me into my favourites list.
The other supporting characters are also crucial to Lee's journey. Jefferson is wonderful: he's half-Native American, and the way that Rae wove all kinds of injustices into this story made it feel like she was leaving no stone left unturned. I raged with Jeff, wanted to burn Frank Dilley and his boys to the ground for their treatment of him but also their ideas about slavery and women and just all of it. There are so many layers, so much intersectionality at work here that both Lee begins to recognize (her conversation with Hampton and the college boys sticks out to me as a particular moment of learning for her) and that Rae shines a wonderful light on. She could have brushed past so many things, and she didn't.
Finally, the picture that Rae paints of 1849 America is bloody, brutal, and so vivid that I feel like I lived there. I love her ability to worldbuild. This was just so intense, and so real, and I loved it so much.