Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
My rating: 3/5 cats
if we were just judging the first half of this book, the rating would be higher. the second half of this book really just irritated me, and made me wary of reading the sequel, which i have already purchased.
oops.
the first half is about an angry kid, taking out his rage on other people. he reminded me of that kid from that svu episode with luke perry and sara gilbert who was all hyperactive lunatic raaaar-child. but this kid’s rage caused him to beat another boy so severely, he has irreparable brain damage. and rather than incarcerating him, the decision is made to try out an alternative form of therapy/punishment based on native american traditions. so even though he is in minnesota, he gets shipped off to an island off the coast of alaska and…um…left there. he has a perfunctory shelter and some food and he will be checked in on periodically, but the idea is that he live alone for a year, to figure out his place in the circle of life and what consequences are all about.
makes sense, right?
cole thinks so. he also thinks he is going to swim off the island and escape, so he burns all the food and shelter and clothing he has been left, and tries to swim away.
anyone think this is a good idea?
this kid does some incredibly stupid things because of his rage. and the consequences he learns about (and this is all back-cover stuff, so i am not ruining anything) involve what happens when you are alone on an island and a bear comes along and mauls you severely. and while he is lying there, post-maul View Spoiler » and that is the best part of the whole book.
all you bird-apologists, suck on that!
but after all the cool bloody stuff, the end (read: second half) got a little more touchy-feely than i generally like. it’s like house which is really good when it has blood coming out of people’s eyes and stuff, but very bad whenever characters have to have any emotional backstory. stick to the carnage, please.
i have no problem with redemption or character-growth, but sometimes things feel like they are being forced in a way that is implausible or uncomfortable-feeling, and i found myself giggling a little at the second part of this book.
but we have seen time and time again that i have a cold soul—this is probably better than i am making it seem. so go ahead and read it and tell me all about how wrong i am.
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