Review: Anxious Hearts by Tucker Shaw
Reviewed by Michelle S.
Anxious Hearts by Tucker Shaw, is a modern retelling of Henry Wadsworth’s epic love poem “Evangeline”: the tale of Evangeline and her beloved Gabriel – with a twist. The novel alternates between the modern day, voiced by Eva, and the past, voiced by Gabriel.
Eva lives in modern day Maine with her father and cares for her neighbor, Ada. Out of the blue, her estranged best friend from childhood, Gabe, comes back into her life – only to disappear again.
Gabriel lives in Maine, centuries before Eva. His story is one of his love for childhood friend Evangeline. The two are wed, only to be separated by an attack on their village. Gabriel is determined to reunite with her, no matter what it takes.
I thought both Eva and Gabriel’s stories were interesting to read. Gabriel’s side is a more thorough telling of the actual poem “Evangeline”, while Eva’s side explores her modern life.
I enjoyed reading about Eva’s interactions with Ada, and about the strong bond shared by Evangeline and Gabriel. However, I wish that there had been more character and plot development. Too much, in my opinion, was left to the imagination. While I imagine I understand Gabe’s motivation in running away, it didn’t make complete sense. Eva’s complete acceptance of Gabe after ignoring each other since they were children was also hard to understand. Additionally, I didn’t feel like I understood Gabriel very well, either. Gabriel rarely interacted with Evangeline, choosing to watch her from a distance, making me wonder if he truly loved her, or was just obsessed with her.
Overall, Anxious Hearts was a fun read, though it lacked in depth and soul.
Michelle recently returned to her West Virginia roots to re-invent herself. She is the principal (okay, only) web and graphic designer at Michelle My Belle Designs and uses the rest of her free time to write her own book blog 52 Self-help Books. Putting up with her madness is her husband Jason, dog Leo, and rabbit Macchiato.
This book was provided free of any obligation by Amulet Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Children's Books, Young Adult
This book is based on one of my most favorite poems and I really love the cover. I usually don’t care for time travel. If it was just an enrichment of the story, I think I would have loved reading it.
Carol Wong
I always tell myself that I should keep more of an open mind and try to read more genres. But the idea of people crossing centuries to reunite is just to far out there for me to get behind. I guess I am very poor at keeping an open mind, because the title font with the curlicue bits was enough for me to dislike the title. I guess I’m not much for hearts and flowers and the romantic soul that you need to enjoy this book.
What a disappointment to hear that the book lacked soul and depth. It has two ingredients that I enjoy in a book-maybe three-I like books that are told from the perspective of different characters-The Poisonwood Bible and My Sister’s Keeper are two good examples. I also enjoy books that are set back East-especially Maine-I cannot explain the reason for this-maybe it is the description of the landscape and the life I like so much-I also enjoy time travel books-Given your review I will probably give this one a pass.
I love Maine, it is gorgeous. Did you read ‘Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine’? I just got it the other day at a thrift store and the cover reviews looked like it might be a good read.
Stephen King sets a lot of his books in Maine.
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Well after reading the review, I do not have a desire to read the book but I am thinking I would like to read the poem. Actually, I think I would like to read several of the early classic story-telling poems like Lady of the Lake and I am sure there are many others.
I have never been much for the time travel books or movies (like Somewhere in Time). I think I have trouble stretching my imagination that far. I like my characters to be in the same space and time. Can you really imagine trying to carry on a relationship with someone from the past? People would start to talk…
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I’ve def been meaning to read some of the epic poems … I bought “idylls of the king” a while back to read, because i fell in love with the snippets of “the lady of shallot” that feature in the Anne movies
I have a reproduction of the painting ‘The Lady of Shallot’ by John Waterhouse hanging in my guest room. It is hauntingly beautiful. I think I would like reading that poem especially. Thanks for the idea Rivka!
Welcome to an awesome blog Amanda, you won’t be dissapointed you stopped by! Some great books I have read this year are Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell, Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart and the one that i want by Allison Winn Scotch (not sure what kind of books you like but thought I would suggest a few
).
I loved The Time Traveler’s Wife and My Name is Memory, which both have to do with love across time and time travel, but they were both very well written. This book sounds like a great idea, but if the characters aren’t well developed then I don’t know if I would like it. I will add it to my maybe pile. Thanks for the review!
This sounds like an interesting read!
Love your site. I just found it through clicking from another blog. I NEED to find a good book to read ASAP.
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Really like YOUR blog Amanda! I had to become a follower.
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This cover is absolutely gorgeous!
That said: Serious stuff, haha … I tend to shy away from ‘time travel’-type books, but I just read Ann Brashare’s “My Name is Memory” and found myself happily surprised. So I think I may have to give this one a shot … Might want to read the poem it’s based on though, so I have some idea. Although, if it alters, maybe I should read book first, poem second … Hmm …
Ah–reading dilemmas!
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