After a tragic accident, Dave Cartwright takes his seven year old daughter, Mirabella, Bella for short, to live in a cave in the wilderness in the North Cascades. Legends of the North Cascades tells us the story of tragedy, family, and the hardship of a single father. Dave does his best to give Bella, the best life she could ask for, but sometimes, things are more difficult than it seems.
Book: Legends of the North Cascades by Jonathan Evison
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: June 6, 2021
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
**While this book has already been out I did receive it early so thank you again NetGalley!**
Tags: Young adult, family, legends, history
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Thrift Books
Read: October 11, 2021 to October 15, 2021
Welcome to my review for the Legends of the North Cascades blog tour!
Dave Cartwright has had enough. After three tours in Iraq he has come home to Vigilante Falls in Washington State only to find that he feels incapable of connecting to the people and the place that once defined him. Most days, his love for his seven-year-old daughter, Bella, is the only thing keeping him going. When tragedy strikes, Dave makes a dramatic decision: he will take Bella to live in a cave in the wilderness of the North Cascades.
So begins a compelling adventure, a story of a father and daughter attempting to cope with a breathtaking but harsh environment. Once they are settled in the cave, Bella retreats into a different world, that of a mother and son who had lived in that same space, but thousands of years before, at the end of last Ice Age. As the two dramas begin to merge, a timeless odyssey unfolds, both as a meditation on the perils of isolation and an exploration of humans’ indelible struggle to survive.
Spoiler Free Review
After a tragic accident, Dave Cartwright takes his seven year old daughter, Mirabella, Bella for short, to live in a cave in the wilderness in the North Cascades. Legends of the North Cascades tells us the story of tragedy, family, and the hardship of a single father. Dave does his best to give Bella, the best life she could ask for, but sometimes, things are more difficult than it seems.
I gave Legends of the North Cascades three stars. I had wanted to enjoy this, especially seeing that there would be jumps into the … Ice Age Era? But, was thoroughly disappointed when the writing had let me down. I just found that the way the Legends of the North Cascades progressed when Dave took Bella to live in the caves of the North Cascades, I had wanted more excitement as Dave became a better father to Bella and them adapting to the wilderness of the North Cascades. But the way it was written, it just seemed as if I was reading a wilderness cave living log, “Day one: Bella witnessed the birth of tiny kittens.” That was an example of what I felt as I was reading. The words didn’t flow effortlessly, instead, it was as if I were chopping carrots.
And the time jumps to the Ice Age era, with S’tka and her life, it was rather confusing. What was the purpose of jumping back in time except getting the history of the North Cascades? There just was no relevance to the story between the past and the present with Dave and Bella except that it took place in the North Cascades.
I was excited to read Legends of the North Cascades, but I just felt that the writing could have been much better and the plot could have been more developed as well as more refined. There was just too much going on with not enough description. Many of these were also just rather irrelevant to the Legends of the North Cascades.
I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!
Loves,
Veronica Chen