North of Hope

North of Hope

by Shannon Polson

I must be honest.

I'm not a fan of non-fiction. Which is a weird thing to say since non-fiction is real life so in essence you're saying, "I don't like real life." But, what makes non-fiction difficult for me is how it's usually told. North of Hope is a perfect example of that.

The author had a legitimately traumatic experience, and I was intrigued with the book because of how she went about coping. To go to Alaska, which is an adventure by itself, and walk the footsteps that your parents walked right before they died, in my mind, is one of the most fascinating and practical healing ventures I think someone could do. That being said, North of Hope was difficult for me to read.

It was fairly drawn out, and when it comes to grief and sorrow, that can drain a reader. She is also very, VERY detailed about what a chair looks like, what a smell did to her, how the sky or river compared to the pain in her heart, and for me that also was a struggle to get through. Not trying to mock her pain, I'm just saying, the prose in this book was a little too poetry for me, which garbled up the story.

In the end, I commend the author for her revealing and painful journey towards healing in such a horrible accident. I really love the idea of this book, but I just had too much trouble actually reading about it.

But that's just me. You can see that many other people were really touched by her story, and that is the goal of a memoir like this in the end.

I received this book free from the publisher for an honest review.