Hope City: The Alaskan Adventures of Percy Hope by Neil Perry Gordon

Hello my fellow bookworms!

I finally bring to you today a book review on the book Hope City: The Alaskan Adventures of Percy Hope (Book One) by Neil Perry Gordon.

The beginning of Hope City begins with a quote from Jack London's Credo, a great introduction to the story. As I really enjoy this quote, I will share it with you:

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather choose that my spark burn out in a  brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent plant. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

- Jack London's Credo

Our story begins with Liam and Sam, two friends who live and work in San Francisco, California in 1898. Both seventeen years old and just graduating out of high school, the two have an inspiring graduation speech from none other than the Jack London (yes, the same one whose quote I just posted). With the last words of his speech, "Wake up before it's too late and live a life worthy to be remembered," Liam is inspired to take a steamship up to Alaska to prospect for gold, to live a life of adventure and do more than just live a boring life. He ropes in Sam, who is hesitant, since his father owns a general store and Sam helps in the day-to-day functions. Thankfully, Sam's parents give permission to take the summer off for adventure, with the exception of changing his name to something not Jewish, in order to avoid bigotry and possible harm. With the optimistic name of "Percy Hope," and with the words of Jack London to inspire him, Sam Percy sets off towards the wilderness of Alaska with Liam, in hopes of finding gold, exploring, and having a great story to tell about his life.

 

I enjoyed reading Hope City: The Alaskan Adventure of Percy Hope. Due to some of the mature language, certain references in the book, and the graphic detail of a couple of the twists in the book, I recommend this story for young adults (older teens) and up.

 

Hope City is a quick paced historical fiction adventure story that flips between the book's namesake, Percy Hope and Magnus Vega, the obvious antagonist of the novel. Magnus is introduced quite early on in the story as someone to avoid, but he always seems to pop up and make himself known. Magnus is the one who begins Percy's summer adventures, who after landing in Alaska all bright-eyed and bushy tailed, finds that the unnamed city he is in is to be named after him! Hope City is where quite a bit of the novel takes place, while the other portion is set in the sister city, Sunrise, the "bad twin" to Hope (i.e. gambling, drinking, etc. is done in Sunrise, while going to church and being an upstanding citizen is the way of life in Hope). There are other areas that both Percy and Liam visit, as they end up on a crazy ride of adventures throughout the novel, but the two realize as much as they enjoyed (and did not enjoy) everything they experienced, they miss the normalcy of home. Given that this is only book one, I imagine that we will be hearing about more adventures to come!

There are a few reoccurring story lines in the novel, two of which I would like to highlight. The first of which is that Percy (Sam) had to deal with an internal war with his fake name and his religious beliefs. He feels nervous that so much attention is focused on his "name," and that he has to attend a Catholic church, which he feels goes against his Jewish faith. While Hope City provides quite a bit of historical context, I would have loved to see a bit more expansion on this topic, as it is a frightening to hide your faith to stay safe, but still want to be true to it. 

 

The second story line that I enjoyed and would not mind to hear more of is our protagonists (and antagonists) meeting natives who lived in the areas surrounding the miners. I appreciate how Mr. Gordon emphasized that these communities of people were not heathens or ignorant, but wise and how they appreciate nature and work with it, not against it as the miners had. 

In all, there was one twist I did not quite care for, but either way, Hope City is filled with adventure, friendship, twists and turns, some romance, and history. I appreciate that the story highlighted that you must face the consequences of your actions, and that sometimes the line between a hero and a villain can be blurred - nothing is black and white. This is a story you can binge read and you will not realize where the time went!

You can now purchase Hope City on Amazon, where it is available via eBook, paperback, and Audible.

About the Author: Neil Gordon Perry

 

Beginning with his debut novel in 2018—A Cobbler’s Tale, followed by Moon Flower, The Righteous One, The Bomb Squad and Hope City, Neil Perry Gordon has established himself as a well-respected and prolific historical fiction novelist. His story telling ability has earned him high editorial praise from the likes of Kirkus, Midwest Book Review and others, including hundreds of four and five star reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Neil attributes his love of the writing process from his formative education at the Green Meadow Waldorf School, where he learned that subjects such as music, dance and theater, writing, literature, legends and myths, were not simply things to be read about and tested, but lessons to be experienced.

His creative writing methods and inspiration have been described as organic; meaning that he begins his work with a general storyline for his characters, rather than working with a formal, detailed outline. This encourages his writing to offer surprising twists and unexpected outcomes, which readers have celebrated. His novels have the attributes of being driven by an equal balance between character development and face-paced action, which moves his stories along at a swift page-turning pace.

Fred's Funeral by Sandy Day

Taken from a third person perspective, Fred's Funeral is a ghost story of sorts. Fred Sadler has passed on from this life and has not yet moved on to what happens after. Granted, he didn't believe there was anything after life to begin with, but comes to realize that there is more. Now tethered to his horrible sister-in-law, Viola, and her son/his nephew, John, Fred must venture through the after effects of his death and what his life meant to himself and others.

Fred has the unfortunate experience of having to witness the process that comes after one's death, which includes hearing what people thought about you and what little they really know. After all the funeral formalities were finished, Fred's family, whom he did not really know in life, gathered around to ask Viola questions about Fred. Each question posed brought a story from the present, with some of Viola's twisted answers (she was not a fan of Fred), to the past, in Fred's viewpoint of his memories.

I could envision this novel as a movie quite easily, as it is a light drama, a slice of life. It shows what influenced a man to live how he did and the consequences of his actions. As one who has grown up learning about psychology, it was disheartening to read what so obviously was a form of PTSD was misconstrued as something else, something worse, and in the end, seemed like it became something worse. Fred had a hard life, one in which he tried so hard to be what his family wanted him to be. Unfortunately, life does not always work out in our favor. Fred was able to fulfill one thing after his death that he could not in life. After being tossed to the side for so long, he was finally able to hear that his family would not throw him away and that he would be remembered from his letters and memories.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I will be honest, it made me a bit sad after reading the last page. Fred's Funeral is inspired by letters written by the author's Great Uncle Fred. While I am typically hesitant to read books about even the topic of death, this book, did not bring the heaviness that comes with death. Instead, it makes you think: How do you affect the others around you? What would you do to move on? Would you listen to what people thought of you at your own funeral? Would you try and accomplish one final task before moving on?


About the Author (from her website)
Sandy Day is a recovering chatterbox living in Georgina, Ontario, Canada. She graduated from York University, with a degree in English Literature sometime in the last century. Sandy then took 20 years off from writing to run a gift store and raise a family. Now relationship-free and un-self-employed she finally has time to write and publish.

Sandy is a trained volunteer facilitator for the Toronto Writers Collective’s creative writing workshops. She is a developmental editor and writing teacher who sells dog halters on the side. Tech savvy, a born marketer, entrepreneurial, and a big picture thinker, Sandy is a dedicated indie author, publisher, and book coach.

Fred's Funeral is available for sale on Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, Indigo, and Barnes & Noble.