Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932 by Jim Fergus

The Wild Girl is a good book that will speak to your inner adventurer.  It is a very well written story in third and first person views (of at least 3 different people).  I loved the fact that it switched back and forth between characters.  I think it kept it fresh. 

Parts of the book were about this "wild" Apache girl (recently turned "woman") who was captured by a crazy mountain man.  Other parts of the book were based on a teenaged orphan boy turned photographer who sets out West to avoid his troubles.  He joins the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on a search for the young son of a wealthy Mexican land owner who was stolen by the wild Apaches a couple years earlier. 

The two stories merge when the Expedition encounters the wild girl in a Mexican jail cell and decide to take her along to trade for the boy.  The story continues to switch perspectives from there. 

If you like stories, based on actual events, with drama, peril, and adventure (with a bit of romance) then, give this one a try.  I give it a 9.5 out of 10.

P.S.  If you get the first edition published by Hyperion that has a red cover with a necklace on it--It has a Q&A with the author in the back that's pretty good. :)

Joanna Jackson

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