DNF 22% (on 7/22/22…🤔)
Nothing really wrong with this other than the fact that I was completely bored and couldn’t stay focused on it. As someone who lived in Alaska for 30 years I find it difficult to read stories about Alaska because of all the inaccuracies. Other than one thing (which I go into annoying detail about below), I didn’t find that to be the case here. After a bit of digging I learned the author lives in the Yukon, so she at least has some tangential knowledge about what it’s like to live in such a harsh, isolated area. That said, it’s absolutely possible I wasn’t catching inconsistencies because after the first couple chapters I found myself completely zoning out. 😅
The only thing that really stuck out to me was the scene where Hailey and Parker go out to see this 11oz. gold nugget. First of all, what? Why are you spending time, money, and fuel to go see a gold nugget? So weird to me.
Also, the way the characters and author describe this thing makes it sound like it’s the size of a brick. She talks about how they walk around to study it from all angles. An 11 oz. piece of gold would easily fit into the palm of your hand, unless you have tiny hands. Is that still impressive? Hell yes! Which is why it’s so weird that they try to make it sound huge.
Then we’re told that Parker ‘hefted it a little’ to hold it and carefully placed it in Hailey’s hands and that “She drew her hands closer to her to body to balance the weight”.
Ma’am…it’s 11 ounces. Not 11 pounds. To be fair, assuming they were using Troy Ounces as is the standard unit of measurement for measuring gold and other precious metals, that 11 Troy ounces actually weighs a bit more than 11 standard ounces. So instead of weighing .6875 pounds it actually weighs .754 pounds…but for those keeping track at home, that is still under one pound. There would be absolutely no reason for Hailey to have to adjust her position to comfortably hold the nugget, nor would there be a need to use both hands to support that weight.
Then she makes the remark that most people would take that nugget, sell it, and build themselves a nice home, which they’d be able to do even considering the high cost of building supplies in Alaska.
So because I’m way too petty and pedantic for my own good, I did a little research. In 2016, there was an 18 oz. nugget that was valued at $70K. Even taking into account the rise in the price of gold over the past 6 years, an 11 ounce nugget wouldn’t get you anywhere near the amount of money you would need to build a home in Alaska, especially not in a town in the middle of nowhere that is reached primarily by plane. (It’s totally possible the town is connected to an outside road system and I just missed that discussion. As I said, I lost interest fairly early on and can’t be bothered to go back and check)
My source? I grew up in a tiny town in SE Alaska that was on an island and could only be reached by plane or boat. Everything is expensive. You would have a very difficult time building anything more than a cabin for what that nugget would’ve sold for.
So I know this probably won’t matter to anyone else. And unlike many Alaska-set books, I don’t think these inaccuracies are what ultimately made me DNF. But I will say that it would’ve taken 30 seconds to do a tiny bit of research, and the fact that I was more interested by that research than I was by the dull-as-dirt ‘Hero’ was probably a good sign that I didn’t need to continue with this story.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading my ridiculous DNF review. I know it’s petty. It’s the smallest of nits to pick. But maybe if the rest of the book had been more interesting my brain wouldn’t have glommed onto this truly minor detail. 🤷🏼♀️