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Point of Direction
Hitchhiking her way through Alaska, a young woman named Anna is picked up by Kyle, a fisherman. Anna and Kyle quickly fall for each other, as they are both adventurous, fiercely independent, and in love with the raw beauty and solitude of Alaska. To cement their relationship, they agree to become caretakers of a remote lighthouse perched on a small rock in the middle of a deep channel—a place that has been uninhabited since the last caretaker mysteriously disappeared two decades ago. What seems the perfect adventure for these two quickly unravels, as closely-held secrets pull them apart, and the surrounding waters threaten uncertain danger. A psychological thriller set against the rugged landscape of coastal Alaska, Point of Direction is an exquisite literary debut.
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 2014
26 people are currently reading
2027 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Weaver
17 books49 followersRachel Weaver is the author of the novel Point of Direction, which Oprah Magazine named a Top Ten Book to Pick Up Now. Point of Direction was chosen by the American Booksellers Association as a Top Ten Debut for Spring 2014, by IndieBound as an Indie Next List Pick, by Yoga Journal as one of their Top Five Suggested Summer Reads and won the 2015 Willa Cather Award for Fiction.
Prior to earning her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University, Rachel worked for the Forest Service in Alaska studying bears, raptors and songbirds. She is on faculty at Wilkes University’s low-residency MFA program, and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop where she won the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018. She is the owner of Sandstone Editing where she works with authors one on one to help them get their books ready for publication. Rachel’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Sun Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Blue Mesa Review, Southeast Review, Medicine and Meaning, River Teeth, The Healing Muse, Alaska Women Speak and Fly Fishing New England.
Rachel’s medical memoir, Dizzy, is forthcoming in February 2026 with West Virginia University Press as a part of the Connective Tissues Series. She also has a novel, The Last Run, forthcoming in June 2026 by Lake Union. For more information visit https://rachelweaver.net/land. Point of Direction is her first novel.
Prior to earning her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University, Rachel worked for the Forest Service in Alaska studying bears, raptors and songbirds. She is on faculty at Wilkes University’s low-residency MFA program, and at Lighthouse Writers Workshop where she won the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018. She is the owner of Sandstone Editing where she works with authors one on one to help them get their books ready for publication. Rachel’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Sun Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Blue Mesa Review, Southeast Review, Medicine and Meaning, River Teeth, The Healing Muse, Alaska Women Speak and Fly Fishing New England.
Rachel’s medical memoir, Dizzy, is forthcoming in February 2026 with West Virginia University Press as a part of the Connective Tissues Series. She also has a novel, The Last Run, forthcoming in June 2026 by Lake Union. For more information visit https://rachelweaver.net/land. Point of Direction is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
August 28, 2022
4 stars
Like wind-whipped, ice-encrusted Arctic settings? Like long-held secrets coming to the surface and causing havoc? Like survivalist/ wilderness living? Like nautical themed stories of fishers and fishing villages?
This novel -- about a young couple who answer an ad to fix up a lighthouse on a small rocky island along the Alaskan coast -- has all of that in spades!
Kyle has a secret from his past his girlfriend, Anna, knows nothing about, and Anna has a secret from her past Kyle knows nothing about. Both of their secrets motivate their interest in spending the winter on the lonely lighthouse island...and threaten to break their relationship apart as these past events come to light in the midst of the loneliness, the wind, the bleakness and all the minor catastrophes nature throws at them.
For a 1st novel, this one really is quite good at what it does. In the way of critique: how the secrets are revealed is a bit bumpy at times and the secrets themselves largely predictable, but that is forgivable for the beauty of the setting description and the salty sea dog characters.
Recommended for fans of Arctic and/or wilderness settings and stressed relationships.
Like wind-whipped, ice-encrusted Arctic settings? Like long-held secrets coming to the surface and causing havoc? Like survivalist/ wilderness living? Like nautical themed stories of fishers and fishing villages?
This novel -- about a young couple who answer an ad to fix up a lighthouse on a small rocky island along the Alaskan coast -- has all of that in spades!
Kyle has a secret from his past his girlfriend, Anna, knows nothing about, and Anna has a secret from her past Kyle knows nothing about. Both of their secrets motivate their interest in spending the winter on the lonely lighthouse island...and threaten to break their relationship apart as these past events come to light in the midst of the loneliness, the wind, the bleakness and all the minor catastrophes nature throws at them.
For a 1st novel, this one really is quite good at what it does. In the way of critique: how the secrets are revealed is a bit bumpy at times and the secrets themselves largely predictable, but that is forgivable for the beauty of the setting description and the salty sea dog characters.
Recommended for fans of Arctic and/or wilderness settings and stressed relationships.
May 6, 2014
Some books are artfully written, but dull. Others are thick with excitement, but flat. This one? This one stands at that sweet intersection: beauty and tension, in equal measure.
Part adventure story, part survival tale, even part psychological thriller, this story takes you from the glacial inland to the cold wet coast of the Alaskan wilderness. It's the kind of setting that makes you snuggle deep under the blanket, suddenly aware that you are warm and dry. Yet nothing gets romanticized here. You're staggered by the scale of the story's rugged backdrop, constantly aware of how unforgiving it is.
And forgiveness is the pulse of the tale - specifically, as one character puts it, about asking for forgiveness when you don't deserve it. In confronting the crimes of their lives, Anna and Kyle and the invisible William are looking for ways to live with themselves, and with the hard, immutable facts we all face in one form or another.
The beauty of the book is in the economy of its language, matched with precision. There is a spareness to these pages, a simmering restraint that amplifies the wind, the engines, the screams into the glacier. It reads a bit like poetry that way.
You know that feeling you get when a book ends a chapter too early? When you're caught up with a character, and you reach the resolution, but you sort of want to hang out a little longer, to see what comes next? This book lets you. It compels you to the end, but then delivers a smooth, soft landing. As I read the last pages, I felt a bit like someone standing on a dock, watching a ship and its familiar passengers recede on the horizon. And I kept on staring, even after it had disappeared.
Part adventure story, part survival tale, even part psychological thriller, this story takes you from the glacial inland to the cold wet coast of the Alaskan wilderness. It's the kind of setting that makes you snuggle deep under the blanket, suddenly aware that you are warm and dry. Yet nothing gets romanticized here. You're staggered by the scale of the story's rugged backdrop, constantly aware of how unforgiving it is.
And forgiveness is the pulse of the tale - specifically, as one character puts it, about asking for forgiveness when you don't deserve it. In confronting the crimes of their lives, Anna and Kyle and the invisible William are looking for ways to live with themselves, and with the hard, immutable facts we all face in one form or another.
The beauty of the book is in the economy of its language, matched with precision. There is a spareness to these pages, a simmering restraint that amplifies the wind, the engines, the screams into the glacier. It reads a bit like poetry that way.
You know that feeling you get when a book ends a chapter too early? When you're caught up with a character, and you reach the resolution, but you sort of want to hang out a little longer, to see what comes next? This book lets you. It compels you to the end, but then delivers a smooth, soft landing. As I read the last pages, I felt a bit like someone standing on a dock, watching a ship and its familiar passengers recede on the horizon. And I kept on staring, even after it had disappeared.
August 3, 2022
Ich lese einfach gerne in Alaska. Einsamkeit, Wildnis, Gletscher und ein Leuchtturm im eisigen Sturm. Ein Mann und eine Frau mit ordentlich Gepäck auf der Seele. Mehr braucht es nicht, um mich zu begeistern.
May 28, 2014
When the guy you think you're in love with, gets you to join him as a light house keeper on a remote Alaskan island, then leaves you there by yourself with no gun, its time to end the relationship. I should have ended the reading of it also.
Read
April 8, 2022I'm not going to rate this book because I don't want to lower the average for this promising author. (And it's not true that a no-star rating gets averaged as a zero--I asked a GR librarian about that--it's just not counted.) I think it's around 3.5 stars. The wildness of Alaska is wonderfully well evoked, and I loved the way the characters were handled--the secondary characters as much as the main ones. Everyone very clearly rendered without the heavy-handedness you get sometimes, when writers try to conjure the kind of rough and hearty people you imagine working fishing boats and climbing glaciers in Alaska. Nevertheless, there was another, deeper layer that I wanted this book to access, and it didn't quite get there. Plus, everything was kind of wrapped up in a bow at the end. I hate that. Of course, the major trauma the main character is dealing with can never be fixed, but still... Houston, we have resolution! Some people discussed this as a work of literary suspense, but IMO it could have had a bit more of both--more of the depth you expect in litfic and more of the tension you expect in a thriller. Everything was kind of a red herring. This character isn't really responsible for the death of the girl on the glacier, and her boyfriend doesn't really go off the deep end, and not only that, he even comes back to her, because underneath they really love each other. Plus he works it out with dad. A little too sweet for me.
For all the deftness and clarity, it's skating awfully close to chicklit for my taste. Nothing REALLY blows up, except one thing that's in the past. The resolution came on so quickly and so easily that I was kind of shocked that was really the end.
One small thing--why were they painting the exterior of the lighthouse? Maybe it was part of the deal and I missed it (always hard to page back in an e-reader), but it seemed to me that they had plenty of other responsibilities for their $1/rent. The authorities should have had to do that. It seemed like make-work to me.
Anyhow, I'll read the next thing Weaver writes. She's got a ton of talent. I hope she'll apply her precise, beautiful language in a way that scrapes bone!
For all the deftness and clarity, it's skating awfully close to chicklit for my taste. Nothing REALLY blows up, except one thing that's in the past. The resolution came on so quickly and so easily that I was kind of shocked that was really the end.
One small thing--why were they painting the exterior of the lighthouse? Maybe it was part of the deal and I missed it (always hard to page back in an e-reader), but it seemed to me that they had plenty of other responsibilities for their $1/rent. The authorities should have had to do that. It seemed like make-work to me.
Anyhow, I'll read the next thing Weaver writes. She's got a ton of talent. I hope she'll apply her precise, beautiful language in a way that scrapes bone!
June 11, 2014
I loved this book. A couple tending a lighthouse in Alaska, both with baggage. They discover themselves, face their demons and grow up! A fast read.
October 27, 2014
From High Country News, October 27, 2014 issue
In Colorado writer Rachel Weaver’s exceptional debut novel, Point of Direction, Alaska drives two characters close to their psychological breaking points. Anna Richard, the book’s intriguing narrator, combines a habit of radical risk-taking with a tendency toward caution. As the book opens, Anna is hitchhiking back to Alaska after two years of drifting. She accepts a ride from a young man named Kyle, but refuses to sit in the pickup’s cab — she prefers to freeze in the back, her way of ensuring that he doesn’t bother her. When Kyle asks her what she does, she answers simply, “I move.”
They end up in a small Alaskan town, where Kyle takes fishing jobs and Anna bartends. Slowly, she begins to trust him. When the weather turns cold, they head south to Mexico, but even though they’re now deeply in love, Anna still refuses to tell him what spurred her headlong flight across the West. The next autumn, Kyle proposes they buy a $1 Coast Guard lease to live over the winter on an island lighthouse overlooking a treacherous channel. Townspeople warn them against it, and caution that the prior caretaker vanished.
But Kyle is eager and Anna agrees, hoping solitude will help her recover from the grief connected to a glacier-hiking expedition she led in Alaska a few years earlier. As she contemplates the lighthouse, Anna thinks, “I understand on some cellular level now that this is a place where all the rules are different, that this is a place where I have not yet failed.”
One of the most appealing facets of these two characters is their extreme competence — Anna can steer a skiff through a choppy channel and run a finicky outboard motor, knows how to chop wood, catch fish, smoke salmon and prepare for winter.
Point of Direction has a gripping plot, but its chief virtue might lie in its taut language. Weaver’s prose is honed and spare enough to fit in a backpack on a cross-glacier trek. The writing is precise and crystalline, each sentence carefully composed to capture the icy tragedy at the heart of this propulsive book, the chill that’s gripped Anna ever since, and the emotions that surge when her reserve finally starts to thaw.
http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/nowhe...
In Colorado writer Rachel Weaver’s exceptional debut novel, Point of Direction, Alaska drives two characters close to their psychological breaking points. Anna Richard, the book’s intriguing narrator, combines a habit of radical risk-taking with a tendency toward caution. As the book opens, Anna is hitchhiking back to Alaska after two years of drifting. She accepts a ride from a young man named Kyle, but refuses to sit in the pickup’s cab — she prefers to freeze in the back, her way of ensuring that he doesn’t bother her. When Kyle asks her what she does, she answers simply, “I move.”
They end up in a small Alaskan town, where Kyle takes fishing jobs and Anna bartends. Slowly, she begins to trust him. When the weather turns cold, they head south to Mexico, but even though they’re now deeply in love, Anna still refuses to tell him what spurred her headlong flight across the West. The next autumn, Kyle proposes they buy a $1 Coast Guard lease to live over the winter on an island lighthouse overlooking a treacherous channel. Townspeople warn them against it, and caution that the prior caretaker vanished.
But Kyle is eager and Anna agrees, hoping solitude will help her recover from the grief connected to a glacier-hiking expedition she led in Alaska a few years earlier. As she contemplates the lighthouse, Anna thinks, “I understand on some cellular level now that this is a place where all the rules are different, that this is a place where I have not yet failed.”
One of the most appealing facets of these two characters is their extreme competence — Anna can steer a skiff through a choppy channel and run a finicky outboard motor, knows how to chop wood, catch fish, smoke salmon and prepare for winter.
Point of Direction has a gripping plot, but its chief virtue might lie in its taut language. Weaver’s prose is honed and spare enough to fit in a backpack on a cross-glacier trek. The writing is precise and crystalline, each sentence carefully composed to capture the icy tragedy at the heart of this propulsive book, the chill that’s gripped Anna ever since, and the emotions that surge when her reserve finally starts to thaw.
http://www.hcn.org/issues/46.18/nowhe...
January 2, 2015
The premise of this book sounded interesting but I had a difficult time with the completely selfish and unlikeable main characters. The descriptions of Alaska were beautiful, but because I didn't like the main characters, I had a hard time caring about them or what happened to them. I felt they were both incredibly selfish and the horrible thing that happened to one of them, I didn't feel like it should have effected her the way it did.
November 13, 2015
Als ich "Die Stille unter dem Eis" entdeckt habe, wurde ich direkt neugierig und wollte dem Buch unbedingt eine Chance geben, denn dieses Buch klang einfach nur großartig. Nun, großartig war es letztendlich nicht, allerdings hat es mich gut unterhalten und mich zum Nachdenken anregen können, was ja auch schon sehr viel wert ist.
Die Autorin verwendet eine sehr ausdrucksstarke Sprache, die mich direkt in den Bann gezogen hat. Die Erlebnisse in Alaska und vor allem Annas Gedanken und Gefühle haben mich sehr fasziniert, sodass ich mich schnell auf die Handlungen einlassen konnte und immer mehr erfahren wollte. Erzählt wird die Geschichte direkt von Anna, bei der man schnell merkt, dass sie nicht unbedingt ein glücklicher Mensch ist, sondern mit vielen Erlebnissen und Gedanken zu kämpfen hat. Ebenfalls gelungen sind die Dialoge und die restlichen Figuren, die gut ausgearbeitet wurden und mit denen sich wohl jeder Leser auf die ein oder andere Art und Weise identifizieren könnte.
Neben Anna geht es auch um Kyle, den sie kennenlernt und gemeinsam spontan entscheidet, für neun Monate in einem verlassenen Leuchtturm zu wohnen. In der Wildnis können beide ihre vorgetäuschte gute Laune nicht lange standhalten und somit bröckelt die Fassade immer mehr und sie müssen sich ihren Ängsten, ihren Problemen und vor allem ihrer Vergangenheit stellen. Durch die Einsamkeit und die Tatsache, dass sie fast nur auf sich gestellt sind, ist es auch kein Wunder, dass man sich hierbei nähern kommt.
Das Cover ist schlicht, passt aber hervorragend zum Buchtitel und zur Stimmung, die im Buch herrscht. Ebenfalls gelungen ist die Kurzbeschreibung, die zwar einiges verrät, aber dennoch neugierig auf die Geschichte macht.
Insgesamt gehört "Die Stille unter dem Eis" zu den Büchern, die den Leser bereits von der ersten Seite an an die Hand nimmt und durch eine emotionale und nachdenklich stimmende Geschichte führt, die mitten im einsamen Alaska spielt. Ich kann nur es nur empfehlen.
Die Autorin verwendet eine sehr ausdrucksstarke Sprache, die mich direkt in den Bann gezogen hat. Die Erlebnisse in Alaska und vor allem Annas Gedanken und Gefühle haben mich sehr fasziniert, sodass ich mich schnell auf die Handlungen einlassen konnte und immer mehr erfahren wollte. Erzählt wird die Geschichte direkt von Anna, bei der man schnell merkt, dass sie nicht unbedingt ein glücklicher Mensch ist, sondern mit vielen Erlebnissen und Gedanken zu kämpfen hat. Ebenfalls gelungen sind die Dialoge und die restlichen Figuren, die gut ausgearbeitet wurden und mit denen sich wohl jeder Leser auf die ein oder andere Art und Weise identifizieren könnte.
Neben Anna geht es auch um Kyle, den sie kennenlernt und gemeinsam spontan entscheidet, für neun Monate in einem verlassenen Leuchtturm zu wohnen. In der Wildnis können beide ihre vorgetäuschte gute Laune nicht lange standhalten und somit bröckelt die Fassade immer mehr und sie müssen sich ihren Ängsten, ihren Problemen und vor allem ihrer Vergangenheit stellen. Durch die Einsamkeit und die Tatsache, dass sie fast nur auf sich gestellt sind, ist es auch kein Wunder, dass man sich hierbei nähern kommt.
Das Cover ist schlicht, passt aber hervorragend zum Buchtitel und zur Stimmung, die im Buch herrscht. Ebenfalls gelungen ist die Kurzbeschreibung, die zwar einiges verrät, aber dennoch neugierig auf die Geschichte macht.
Insgesamt gehört "Die Stille unter dem Eis" zu den Büchern, die den Leser bereits von der ersten Seite an an die Hand nimmt und durch eine emotionale und nachdenklich stimmende Geschichte führt, die mitten im einsamen Alaska spielt. Ich kann nur es nur empfehlen.
March 30, 2017
This novel is a visceral experience seeped in realism. The narrator Anna's reserved voice hides an undercurrent of emotion as potentially treacherous as the remote Alaskan setting. The pace is tense and riveting. (Confession, I actually gasped out lout at one point in suspense!) While reading, I felt as diminutive and isolated as the keeper of a lighthouse flanked by massive mountains. A brilliantly written story I highly recommend!
June 21, 2014
I really wanted to like this book. Alaska, lighthouse, solitude ... All great fodder for a book. This being said there were parts that were a bit creepy but not really "psychological thriller" level and her boyfriend was a shallow jerk even tho he had conflicts of his own. I will read something of hers in the future which I don't always say about a 3 star rating! :-)
May 19, 2014
I'd heard such great things about this book that I'd expected to love it. I didn't. Really great start but (without giving too much away) the demise of the relationship in the book seemed baseless and not credible. At least to me. Not awful, but not great.
August 12, 2014
Interesting but I feel like the characters needed better development - more depth. You know when you finish a book and you think - this was good but it could have been great. That is how I felt about this book.
October 14, 2014
This book made me very clear about the fact that I do not want to spend my winter living in a remote lighthouse on the coast of Alaska. I think the atmosphere was more compelling than the story and the characters. Things were wrapped up a bit too quickly at the end.
August 6, 2016
Predictable story with odd and sometimes terrible metaphors. Example:
"It was like adding flour to cake batter, my life to his."
"It was like adding flour to cake batter, my life to his."
May 25, 2014
The strength of Point of Direction is the action! The plot travels through Alaska with dangerous hiking, camping, climbing, boating and being stuck on a remote island... it's a fast and exciting read. Like this...
QOTD
This idea of isolation and being stuck away from civilization was especially gripping to me. TY and I got a whiff of faux danger on our summer rafting trip when our group was hit by a micro-burst on our first afternoon. Sitting there, trying to keep our shit from flying away in a horizontal downpour, I didn't have any idea when it would stop or how we would recover if our stuff did indeed blow away. It was the notion of uncertainty and the unknown that was so exciting, especially in these modern, connected times.
Anywho... the biggest weakness in Point of Direction is the writing style. It is just very linear, average. The perspective is very female, which is fine. There is definitely an emphasis on each character's introspection and how they deal with issues like Mommy and Daddy, which is less fine.
All in all... a good read.
QOTD
One wave after another over the caprail had filled it and sunk it. I review what we now do not have. Food, a way off the island, clothes, a way to cook. I think about the steaks I was going to cook tonight, the bottle of wine to go with it to celebrate, my wallet, my favorite sweater, all of it falling to the floor of the ocean, swept over the ledge of the island by the tide, into the depths of the channel.
- Point of Direction
This idea of isolation and being stuck away from civilization was especially gripping to me. TY and I got a whiff of faux danger on our summer rafting trip when our group was hit by a micro-burst on our first afternoon. Sitting there, trying to keep our shit from flying away in a horizontal downpour, I didn't have any idea when it would stop or how we would recover if our stuff did indeed blow away. It was the notion of uncertainty and the unknown that was so exciting, especially in these modern, connected times.
Anywho... the biggest weakness in Point of Direction is the writing style. It is just very linear, average. The perspective is very female, which is fine. There is definitely an emphasis on each character's introspection and how they deal with issues like Mommy and Daddy, which is less fine.
All in all... a good read.
June 2, 2014
I don't know how this book was ever characterized as a "psychological thriller" because it was definitely not in my opinion. It was more of a "coming of age" for adults type of book. Anna meets Kyle while hitchhiking in Alaska. She is running from an event in her past, but being with Kyle seems to help. When Kyle wants to sign up to live on a remote lighthouse Anna actually thinks it might be the best thing for her to deal with her past. But, life is harder than they realized it would be and while Anna actually enjoys the challenge it seems to make Kyle edgy and irritated - and they aren't even close to winter yet. Anna also finds out that Kyle has been running from a problem in his past too and it might be closer to them than they realize. Both Anna and Kyle must confront their demons in order to move on whether together or individually.
I was really expected more tension or crazy events, but most of the book was pretty dull. There were a few moments of action, but overall it was more Anna in her head trying to sort things out for herself and realizing some things about Kyle along the way. It was OK and I did want to know what happened at the end, but it wasn't great and I wouldn't really recommend it.
I was really expected more tension or crazy events, but most of the book was pretty dull. There were a few moments of action, but overall it was more Anna in her head trying to sort things out for herself and realizing some things about Kyle along the way. It was OK and I did want to know what happened at the end, but it wasn't great and I wouldn't really recommend it.
August 18, 2015
A subtle coming to grip current adult life circumstances and past decisions made by oneself or something done to an individual in the past. Anna Richard is an outdoor adventurer who makes her way to Alaska. For a brief period she leads youth groups on glacial treks at the Juneau Ice Field. She has an adverse experience with a young trekker Elizabeth Lowenstein. Kyle McAllin is a fisherman down on his luck and money as the Alaskan catch have been small. His father left he and his mother when Kyle was three.
In 2000 Kyle and Anna meet and agree to work the Hibler Rock Lighthouse for nine months as it is a free place to live. The lighthouse hasn't been staffed since 1978 when the lighthouse keeper, William Harris, disappeared. Harris was an artist and left drawings and books behind. Harris was also a Vietnam vet who came to the island carrying his demons from the war. Kyle and Anna eke out an existence on the island and come to terms with their past and the demons they both are carrying.
Good prose and very lovely descriptions of Alaska, the changing weather, the dangers of the outdoor frontier, and fauna.
In 2000 Kyle and Anna meet and agree to work the Hibler Rock Lighthouse for nine months as it is a free place to live. The lighthouse hasn't been staffed since 1978 when the lighthouse keeper, William Harris, disappeared. Harris was an artist and left drawings and books behind. Harris was also a Vietnam vet who came to the island carrying his demons from the war. Kyle and Anna eke out an existence on the island and come to terms with their past and the demons they both are carrying.
Good prose and very lovely descriptions of Alaska, the changing weather, the dangers of the outdoor frontier, and fauna.
December 13, 2016
OVERALL I liked it. Quick 1 day read. I think it was great to read this during the beginning of the winter season. I am trying to embrace the winter season, and find beauty in it, so it is not that miserable! This was a wakeup call for me, and a reminder that I am NOT able to survive a week in Alaska. I love the descriptions of the winter world in Alaska, the lighthouse, the scenery, the directions on how to survive.
So why so low of a rating... WELL I thought you would never ask!
I loved it loved it until......... That "love story" portion.
Let me get this straight, I really don't enjoy much romance in my novels, UNLESS it is a Victorian Gothic Romance of the same level of Daphne Du Maurier.
This was no Du Maurier.. This was that abusive crap relationship that you find in teenybopper books akin to 50 shades of bullsht. ugh!
Your male character turned into that stereotypical a$$hole man who thinks he can treat women badly and they will bow down and take them back no matter how badly they act.
NOPE. That crap stops in the new millennium. I wont tolerate it in real life or in my literature.
Throw him overboard into the icy waters honey, you don't need him.... NEXT!
So why so low of a rating... WELL I thought you would never ask!
I loved it loved it until......... That "love story" portion.
Let me get this straight, I really don't enjoy much romance in my novels, UNLESS it is a Victorian Gothic Romance of the same level of Daphne Du Maurier.
This was no Du Maurier.. This was that abusive crap relationship that you find in teenybopper books akin to 50 shades of bullsht. ugh!
Your male character turned into that stereotypical a$$hole man who thinks he can treat women badly and they will bow down and take them back no matter how badly they act.
NOPE. That crap stops in the new millennium. I wont tolerate it in real life or in my literature.
Throw him overboard into the icy waters honey, you don't need him.... NEXT!
December 8, 2014
Point of Direction was an interesting novel that kept my attention. My main reason for giving 4 stars instead of 5 was that I was able to figure the mysteries of the story before they were revealed. I prefer a little bit of a twist or surprise at times in books.
The story was well researched, the descriptions of Alaska seemed accurate and provided the setting I needed to enjoy the book. The characters were well fleshed and their back stories were interesting. Once I got into reading I finished in a couple to three days, so it was an engrossing, quick read.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Alaska, rock climbing or who just wants to pass a few enjoyable hours with a quick read.
I received this book free from Good Reads First Reads.
The story was well researched, the descriptions of Alaska seemed accurate and provided the setting I needed to enjoy the book. The characters were well fleshed and their back stories were interesting. Once I got into reading I finished in a couple to three days, so it was an engrossing, quick read.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Alaska, rock climbing or who just wants to pass a few enjoyable hours with a quick read.
I received this book free from Good Reads First Reads.
May 20, 2014
Great surprise from a promising new author. Textured and emotional, well developed characters in which Alaska and a mesmerizing lighthouse form the stage. Deeply personal and revealing without becoming melodramatic. Highly recommended and looking forward to a following Rachel. A promising future scribbling with a deft and poignant touch.
August 6, 2015
4 Sterne
Ein eher ruhiges, aber keineswegs langweilig zu lesendes Buch. Die Geschichte war atmosphärisch und sehr flüssig zu lesen, man konnte sich gut in die Figuren hineinversetzen. Der Schluss war auch stimmig und hat mich sehr berührt.
Ein eher ruhiges, aber keineswegs langweilig zu lesendes Buch. Die Geschichte war atmosphärisch und sehr flüssig zu lesen, man konnte sich gut in die Figuren hineinversetzen. Der Schluss war auch stimmig und hat mich sehr berührt.
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September 3, 2014This was one of the worst books I have ever read. The writing reminded me of something a third grader would write. The plot was very predictable and the prose was full of cliches.
May 25, 2014
Psychological thriller this is not. I was expecting it to get me like Gone Girl did. No surprises here. But I did like the descriptive Alaskan scenery and it's wild fury.
May 31, 2014
This could've easily been a 4-star book. Great debut; writer had a way with words that made it a page-turner. Somewhere more than half-way through though, the plot started to fall flat.
June 2, 2014
It was a good subject. Needed a great deal of editing I think.
June 23, 2014
3.5 stars. Enough to keep you reading but..meh...way too unbelievable scenarios to make me care. Very predictable and certainly NOT a "psychological thriller!"
July 9, 2014
a very average read.
August 28, 2014
"The sea giving back what it has taken. An apology under pale blue skies." -pg 161
March 19, 2015
For a little book this really packed a punch. From the first page to the last I was hooked and although some what predictable, it was a very enjoyable read.
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