Twenty-one-year-old Chris Olson has hit rock-bottom. His addiction to painkillers has left him homeless and ruined. Hoping to give him a clean start, his sister, Aida, convinces him to move to Anchorage to live with her.But trouble seems to follow Chris, and he brings it right to Aida’s doorstep. Faced with having to kick her brother out of the house, Aida enlists the help of her friend, Doctor … friend, Doctor Max Fitwell. Max, haunted by a recent personal tragedy, wants nothing more than to be left alone in his misery. But he reluctantly agrees to allow Chris to stay with him and to help build a cabin.
Chris and Max, two men who are each struggling to find their own reasons to live, navigate the wilderness of Alaska, where they’ll either become better men or die trying.
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I love that this book is set in such a unique place: the Alaskan wilderness. A story of two broken men, relying on each other to heal. Heartwarming, real, and excellent read.
This was such an emotional roller coaster. Once I thought I had a handle on my feelings Rawding gave me another loop and added a steep drop. Chris and Max’s story is one that goes on everyday in the world but we never get to hear about it. Rawding did a great job writing their struggles so much so that I had to keep reminding myself that this is a work of fiction.
I was so invested in Chris and Max’s journey. Chris did make me so frustrated at times, but this is because I was rooting for him to be strong and get clean, but anyone whose ever been or has known a drug addict can say that it’s a daily struggle. There are going to be mistakes and relapses. Max’s story, although not as prominent, was just as powerful. I’ve never lost someone I love (which I am so grateful for) but the grief and guilt he was suffocating in made you feel as if you had been the one grieving. Chris and Max’s relationship was a ride all by itself. Every time I felt it was going somewhere they hit a hard stop. They kept taking one step forward and then two steps back again.
Rawding was really aiming for the heartstrings when he was writing this. He wrote amazingly, and really had me picturing the Alaskan Wilderness as if I was there. There were points in the story where I felt he detailed things a bit too hard but it didn’t take too much away from the story.
Overall, this was a heart-wrenching book, so if your ready for a emotional ride pick this up.
I received a copy of Redemption Grove from Book Siren in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Max and his wife, Julia, go hiking in the beautiful Alaskan wilderness. As they’re climbing, Julia twists an ankle. Max decides that it’s time for them to head back down because he knows that she will try to suffer through it and not ask to turn back herself. On the climb down, she slips and falls to her death. Max is devastated. He resigns as position as a surgeon, moves out of their home and onto a parcel of land that they own in the wilderness. He lives out of his truck as he builds the cabin that Julia always wanted.
Chris is an opoid addict. He’s homeless, jobless, and friendless, living in LA with nothing but the clothes on his back. His sister, Aida, comes to visit and offers him a way out. Move to Alaska, stay with her and her husband, and get clean. When he gets to Alaska, he makes it through the physical withdrawals but succumbs to the mental aspects of addiction. He finds himself in downtown Anchorage looking to score some pills after stealing $200 from Aida and climbing out a window. He gets beat by two men who rob him for the money. Aida searches for and finds him, scaring the men off of him, and takes him back home. She tells him the next day that they are going to visit Max who is a friend of hers, to check on him. She ends up leaving Chris there and driving away.
As Chris and Max, two strangers who are both hurting in their own ways, build the cabin, they each save the other. They build more than just the cabin. They build eachother up and teach one another lessons that need to be learned. Chris finds that there is life and happiness after addiction. That he’s worth more than he believed. Max finds his will to live.
This is a beautiful story. It really touched my heart and took me on an emotional rollercoaster with the characters. This is so many people’s reality. Maybe not the happy ending or finding that saving grace. But there are so many people in the throngs of addiction. Fighting their demons, some winning and some losing. Battling depression, the torment of grief, and the feeling of not wanting to go on without someone that you love is also something that people battle with every day. Stories like this need to be written and they need to be read. People do not want to hear an addict’s side to the story. They don’t want to talk about mental illness of any sort. We need to talk about it.
The character development was amazing. By the end, I felt like I knew Chris, Max, and even Ethel personally. The author really researched the subject matter, which is obvious by the detail.