
“All That We Carried” by Erin Bartels
Review copy from the publishers
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
About the Book:
Estranged sisters embark on a hiking trip on the tenth anniversary of their parents’ deaths in an attempt to reconnect. In the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula they’ll face their deepest fears, question their most dearly held beliefs, and begin to see that perhaps the best way to move forward is the one way they had never considered.
My Thoughts:
I had a hard time putting this novel down. The writing style is utterly engaging, and even when I did have to set it down, the story continued to play through my mind.Olivia and Melanie, the sister heroines in All That We Carried, could not be any more different. And yet, their bond is still clear, even when they have a difficult time seeing it.
I really enjoyed following along their journey through the woods, and all the…mishaps that entailed. One thing after the other happened for them, and they had their fair share of arguments for sure!A lot of their conversations were extremely interesting though – and definitely thought-provoking. Each held very different beliefs about religion, life, cause and effect, etc. and it was interesting to see how their views progressed as their hiking journey went on. The ending doesn’t really sum it all up, nor point exactly where their journey of belief took them, but I’d like to imagine they found the truth in God at some point. This book is certainly more one about being in the midst of the journey – it is open-ended. I will say that I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more concrete picture of them each finding God, or maybe just the couple side characters pointing towards Him with more clarity, but it was a well written story with a lot of complexities.And there’s no denying it, these characters went through A LOT. They were each likeable for their own reasons, and dislikeable for other reasons, but they were such well-built up characters that they seemed more like real people than fictional. All That We Carried is largely about searching. And I hope that any reader who doesn’t know Jesus will continue the search for themselves.
*I received a copy of the book from the publishers. I was not required to write a positive review.