Review: Strongheart by Jim Fergus

My chest is heavy and I feel raw as I sit down to write my review for the final novel in the One Thousand White Women trilogy. I feel as if I've just said goodbye to dear friends, knowing I will never see them again. The journals of these remarkable ladies will stay with me for a long time. 

Strongheart continues to follow the native and white women characters that readers fell in love with in the first two books, including the beloved May Dodd (who did not die after the morning massacre on her village like we were led to believe).  Old favorites make their way back into the story and new characters are introduced (I can't tell you how much I loved Chance). The narrative alternatives between the past -through the journals of May and Molly, and the present- through J.W.'s relationship with Molly Standing Bear. I didn't want the say goodbye to these characters, so while the narratives were wrapped up very nicely, it was bittersweet.

The one downfall of historical fiction, I suppose, is that we already know how the big picture ends. The white settlers conquer the last of the native tribes and force them to assimilate into the white way of life or live on reservations in deplorable conditions. This reality is a heavy cloud over the future of those characters who choose to continue their fight against the U.S. government. While I didn't particularly connect with J.W.'s storyline as much as the women's, I appreciated that Fergus used Molly Standing Bear to share the realities of modern reservation life and crimes against native women. I don't think most people are aware of the statistics shared in the novel since it's not often focused on in the press. 

I think most readers will be satisfied with how Fergus ties everything together and ends this exceptional trilogy. It pains me to say this, but if I compare it to the other books in the series, this was my least favorite overall for a few reasons. First off, I would say that J.W. and Molly's relationship slowed down the pace of the novel quite a bit. While I liked their story, I think it detracted from what was going on with the other characters. The novel would have been just as good (if not better) with just the usual introduction and epilogue from J.W. like readers were used to in the first two books. My other complaint is that there is a lot of repetition between the two journals. I understand that Fergus might have done this to make the accounts seem more authentic having been written independently of each other, but it got tiresome rereading dozens of pages about the exact same event from the chapter before. In most of these instances, May's and Molly's perspectives weren't different enough to really warrant so much repetition.

Those small issues aside, Strongheart is the perfect ending to such a memorable story. Save it for a time when you can read uninterrupted for hours because you're not going to want to put this down! 

My Rating: ★★★★☆

*Thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!