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There are currently 20 member reviews
for The Spirit Keeper
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Betty B. (Irving, TX)
A Good Read
I enjoyed reading The Spirit Keeper...it kept me interested and it was also a very quick read. The three main characters are well developed, and easy to like. It was especially interesting to watch Katie become the Spirit Keeper as she made the arduous journey across our country. As I realized that the book was ending sooner than I would have wished, I remembered there were two journals and so I am hopeful we will meet Katie again as she fills up the second journal, and shares the rest of her journey with us.
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Linda S. (Oceanside, NY)
An improbable journey
In 1747 Katie O'Toole is living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania when 'savages' attack her home and two Indians take Katie away. One of these men tells her that he is a seer and he has been seeking her, a creature with hair of fire and eyes of ice.
The Spirit Keeper is a journal written by Katie as she recounts her travels with her two captors, Syawa and Hector. I'm a fan of fiction that features Native Americans, but this book fell a little flat for me. The books is not labeled young adult but it seems like a book that would appeal to a teenage girl. I found the story to be repetitive and I never connected to the three main characters. The overall story seemed rather improbable and although the tale picks up after the first half it wasn't until the last hundred pages that I became pulled more into the story.
The ending was also disappointing, it seems as if there is the possibility for a sequel as there isn't a satisfying ending to the quest that Syawa and Hector embarked on, although at this point I'm not sure I would read it.
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Nancy H. (Eagan, MN)
The Spirit Keeper
I enjoyed this book. It is somewhat of a fantasy and there is nothing wrong with that. It is fun to get away to another era. Katie did not have a happy home life, being the thirteenth child of a poor Irish family. She felt being taken by the two
Indians could be no worse. I liked reading about their travels across western America and the people they met along the way. I would recommend this book.
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Mary Jane D. (Arlington Heights, IL)
The Spirit Keeper
I seldom read historical fiction from this place and time period so was looking forward to a good adventure story with interesting details. I was disappointed somewhat. While it certainly tells about a great adventure for Katie, Syawa, and Hector I felt the characters were not wholly believable and the physiological interpretation of their feelings and thoughts was overdone. The story seemed to move rather slowly. The plot was good when the story progressed and there were some good twists and surprises. The book would be good for teenage girls because of the love story. Although the book is well researched anyone interested in details and history of this period would do better to find something else.
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Judy K. (Conroe, TX)
Okay Book
This book, I think, was written for younger readers, youth readers, even though it did have some sex in it. It was just too much of a fairy tale to be believable. The heroine, Katie OToole, was just that - a HEROINE! In capital letters! Katie did have many doubts (which were outlined for us over and over and over) about her place in life and her abilities, but she always managed to triumph in every situation. This is where the author lost me and maybe it's just me. I lose interest in characters that aren't flawed. Give me a good old alcoholic, a drug addict, a gambler, a self-centered clod and I can work with that. If the character is PERFECT and can practically raise the dead, I smell "made-up" and feel it's written for children. Having said that, the story was interesting and probably would make good reading for teens. Very young teens.
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Sandra G. (Loveland, CO)
An Indian Romance
A good book is one in which I become so engrossed I can't wait to get back to it. Not this one. The author couldn't make me care about the characters. I found the book slow and repetitive; before the halfway point I was ready for it to end.
I was bothered throughout by the implausibility of their ways of communicating. Many early "conversations" between Katie and her companions were far too complex to have been communicated in gestures alone. Then after only 4-5 months, Katie is somehow able to speak the Indian language fluently.
The copyright page shows the Library of Congress categorized this book under the subject heading "Teen Age Girls: fiction". Perhaps this novel would appeal to a much younger audience, but I could not recommend it.
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