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A review by ipomoea
Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson
4.0
I received a digital advance copy in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss.
I was super excited about this trilogy when I first read about it. It's hard to find western-set YA, which was a huge plus for me. Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy had such a fantastic main character, I wasn't sure that Leah could live up to Elisa.
I was totally wrong. Leah is a flawed, strong, fun character and one that wouldn't work for me anywhere but in a Old West setting. I love the California Gold Rush as a setting for YA, I think it's underrated and ripe for coming-of-age stories.
The book opens in California, where the remaining folks of the wagon train have started to settle, tentatively calling their home Glory, California. But because nobody can be happy, Leah's Evil Uncle Hiram (I seriously picture him twirling his mustache 24/7) decides to give everyone hell because he wants Leah to come be his witchy woman, as opposed to her own witchy woman.
Guys, Uncle Hiram is SUPER CREEPY, and he has a weird fixation that is bordering on Donkeyskin for me. I don't want to be specific and nothing explicit happens, but I spent a lot of the book going NOOOOOO. Dude is just WRONG.
So the book is Leah being Hiram's gold witch on call, and her trying to figure out how to GTFO and take Jefferson and Tom with her (because of COURSE they need hostages to ensure her good behavior).
There's some discussion of the enslavement of local Native American tribes, despite California nominally being a free territory/state. The conditions that they're kept in are brutal, and not shied away from. But I'd like to know more about Carson's research into the times and the tribes, something that I also wanted in the first book (which would have concerned different tribes in different areas). Y'all, this is what reading Debbie Reese does for me (and it's a good thing!), it makes me question all portrayals of Native Americans in books. There's only so much you can cover in a YA book but I wanted to know more about the Maidu and their role in the gold rush and what they dealt with.
That said, there's even less discussion of the role of Chinese laborers in the Gold Rush, despite having a camp of laborers at Hiram's mine. The only Chinese character with a name and backstory is Mary, Hiram's cook and camp prostitute (because of COURSE :-/ ).
I'm still recommending this series to teens who don't want your typical YA fantasy books (and I still enjoyed the hell out of it!), but for a time period that's pretty rich with multiple ethnic/racial groups, I'd like more about them, not just as props to Leah's journey, but as their own people.
I was super excited about this trilogy when I first read about it. It's hard to find western-set YA, which was a huge plus for me. Carson's Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy had such a fantastic main character, I wasn't sure that Leah could live up to Elisa.
I was totally wrong. Leah is a flawed, strong, fun character and one that wouldn't work for me anywhere but in a Old West setting. I love the California Gold Rush as a setting for YA, I think it's underrated and ripe for coming-of-age stories.
The book opens in California, where the remaining folks of the wagon train have started to settle, tentatively calling their home Glory, California. But because nobody can be happy, Leah's Evil Uncle Hiram (I seriously picture him twirling his mustache 24/7) decides to give everyone hell because he wants Leah to come be his witchy woman, as opposed to her own witchy woman.
Guys, Uncle Hiram is SUPER CREEPY, and he has a weird fixation that is bordering on Donkeyskin for me. I don't want to be specific and nothing explicit happens, but I spent a lot of the book going NOOOOOO. Dude is just WRONG.
So the book is Leah being Hiram's gold witch on call, and her trying to figure out how to GTFO and take Jefferson and Tom with her (because of COURSE they need hostages to ensure her good behavior).
There's some discussion of the enslavement of local Native American tribes, despite California nominally being a free territory/state. The conditions that they're kept in are brutal, and not shied away from. But I'd like to know more about Carson's research into the times and the tribes, something that I also wanted in the first book (which would have concerned different tribes in different areas). Y'all, this is what reading Debbie Reese does for me (and it's a good thing!), it makes me question all portrayals of Native Americans in books. There's only so much you can cover in a YA book but I wanted to know more about the Maidu and their role in the gold rush and what they dealt with.
That said, there's even less discussion of the role of Chinese laborers in the Gold Rush, despite having a camp of laborers at Hiram's mine. The only Chinese character with a name and backstory is Mary, Hiram's cook and camp prostitute (because of COURSE :-/ ).
I'm still recommending this series to teens who don't want your typical YA fantasy books (and I still enjoyed the hell out of it!), but for a time period that's pretty rich with multiple ethnic/racial groups, I'd like more about them, not just as props to Leah's journey, but as their own people.