Gavin D’s Reviews > Montana 1948 > Status Update

I am in shock after reading Frank killed himself because he seemed somewhat willing to be locked in the basement instead of being sent to the county jail. I also feel sad how much this pressure affected Wesley because now he is drinking more and sleep just trying to protect his family while doing his duty of a cop.

I feel uneasy now that Wesley, Gail, and David have received threats from people unhappy that Frank is locked up. Along with the threats, aggressive arguments are occurring, which makes me sad that David is learning how some people support helping Frank escape this situation, and how certain views can hurt the people you love.

I feel because this story is in somewhat of a pickle situation because yes Wesley did sort of the right thing by locking Frank up in his basement but now Len is very upset that Wesley would do that to his own family. I also feel less tension in the chapter because of Frank being finally put away not to touch another young girl.

Even after Wesley and Frank talk by the river,I still feel Wesley is dismissing the problem of his desires. I hope seeing Wesley’s dismissive behavior will push Frank to realize the seriousness of the situation and push Wesley to take Marie’s side.I feel strong antipathy because Wesley sides with Frank in this sexual assault case,making me even angrier knowing Frank could be a suspect in Marie Little Soldier’s death.

I am now worried because there is a paragraph about his calmness after killing a magpie. This worries me even more after he says he needed it to ease his mind. Another section that stunned me is when David gets a handgun to protect himself from coyotes and says kids in Montana have small arsenals for fun. This makes me feel uneasy because it seems dangerous for children to handle firearms.

I am in wonder why David wants to be grown up so much. Yes he says he wants to be included but I feel it is easy to know your place in a situation and if you should push to be a more mature person your not or stay completely out of it. I am questioning if Wesley is in denial and knows his brother really could have done those horrible things or if he really has no idea if his brother was capable of molesting.

I am in shock after reading what David’s uncle did to Marie Little Soldier, especially because he said it happened multiple times. This helps me understand why Marie did not want to see the doctor who was Frank. I am confused because David’s dad is having a hard time deciding whether to protect Frank or Marie because to me Marie is the obvious choice.

In those pages leading up to the 23 I first felt sympathetic because Marie did not want to see a doctor and she could not get proper care. Instead David’s mother took care of her which surprised me because she was a stern woman and hated sickness and wanted to protect her children from diseases by means necessary. The method was to sweat the illness out of her which I say is a stupid way of dealing with being sick.

Reading the first 13 pages made me curious about where the story was going. The calm town first feels peaceful, but as I read I felt the book would be much more interesting than I thought. I felt concerned for the main character’s family and their sick maid, and the parts about the mom holding a shotgun and the father begging her to help a boy made me even more curious since he doesn’t explain further.