Book Review: Vengeance Road

Vengeance Road

by Erin Bowman

Published: September 1, 2015

Finished: June 14, 2014

Genre: Young Adult, Western

"Maybe religion's there so we feel less alone, so that we have something to believe in when the world goes dark." - Kate, Vengeance Road

Synopsis:
Vengeance Road tells the story of 18-year-old Kate Thompson, who discovers that her father is murdered for his journal with directions to a gold mine and cache.  Kate decides to seek revenge (or vengeance) for her father's death by hunting down and killing the gang who killed him.  Kate journeys by horse through 1800 Arizona and its be-friended along the way.  Will she find what she is looking for and feel better after seeking vengeance?

My Thoughts:
This book was very hard to for me to get through.  I almost didn't finish it, but decided to push through.  Overall, it got better for me in the second half, but I just didn't really like this one.  It's supposed to read like a Western, and therefore the dialect is written in broken English, which I personally found distracting.  Maybe this style of writing is true to the time period or genre, but it wasn't my thing.

Pros:
I loved that this book takes place in Arizona.  It has a fun bit of history smattered throughout the fictional text, which I liked.
I also liked the strong female main character.  She doesn't need a man to help her through her adventures, which is nice to read.

Cons:
As I said before, the grammar and language of the text was very distracting for me.  I think others may find this unique and like it, but I personally hated it.
Further, the plot was slow.  Very little happened during the majority of the book and then everything was wrapped up neatly in the end!  This is frustrating.

I would recommend this for a very young adult audience and/or those who want to read a book taking place in Arizona.

I was loaned this book from the Phoenix Public Library.  This text reflects my honest review of the work.