Reviews

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

bossycake's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.5

vanessa10readsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

salgalruns's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Beautifully written story!  Odie has such a big heart and while he doesn’t ALWAYS follow rules, he cares deeply about those around him.

Parts of this story moved slow for me but that may have been due to other things going on in the non-reading part of my life!  I loved the way the story ended too, not what I imagined but turned out that it was exactly the way it should have been.

Highly recommend traveling with Odie and the vagabonds as they travel to St Louis to find family…..

ashleysilver7's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Right away, reading this book reminded me of Huck Finn, and I was not surprised to see in the author's notes that he was inspired by the classic tale, along with inspiration from The Odyssey and Charles Dickens' novels. The backdrop of this story is the Great Depression, and making the story more tragic is that Albert and Odie, who are brothers and orphans, have escaped an "Indian School." Schools such as these were historically very abusive places for young Native American children who were cruelly taken from their parents. While Albert and Odie were not N. A., they still suffered greatly. "Mose," who is not their brother, but a N. A. orphan who was mute due to his tongue being removed, and Emmy, another "vagabond" joined Albert and Odie on their quest down the Mississippi to find their Aunt Julia. Despite having such a depressing backdrop (see what I did there?), this novel was uplifting and ends with the reader feeling a sense of hope. 4.5/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Racism

melissewithanereads's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

3.0

nobookbudget96's review against another edition

5.0

The perfect book about making any place home. The imagery, foreshadowing, and build up was executed beautifully.

This book follows the journey of a 12 year old Odie told by himself as an adult. Along the way he, his brother, and 2 other travelers meet strangers who each gives a lesson of life, as well as influence a shift in the way each of them think.

lauffredou's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jannak's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

psainz2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

jennyjjs's review against another edition

5.0

Some books just capture the art of story-telling. This was definitely one of those books.

Just listened to this one again, some hard themes, but a beautifully written and read story.