Book review - Fierce as the Wind

 

Title: Fierce as the Wind

Author: Tara Wilson Redd

Genre: realistic fiction

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Rating: 

 

solid

 

Summary (provided by publisher): When Miho's boyfriend breaks up with her without warning, all she can see is red--the color of blinding fury and pain, and the color of the fire she sets in an oil drum on the beach, burning every scrap of their memories.
It's spring of senior year in Oahu, and while her friends are getting ready for college, Miho's deep in her misery, delivering pizzas on her bike. But then inspiration strikes: she'll do a triathlon. The training is brutal for a girl who has never even run a mile--though she can bike and swim. With the constant support of her friends and her dad, Miho digs deep to find just how fierce her determination is and how many obstacles she can overcome.

My opinion: I'm not an athlete and have never been much of a fan of stories where sports play a central role. In recent years, though, I've started running so the first time these sorts of stories make sense to me. Especially in books like this one. An Ironman doesn't have a lot of complex rules and team dynamics to understand. It is a person facing their own issues, fighting against their subconscious and their fears. And that's a big part of this book. It is so much more than Miho training for a race. She's dealing with her break up, with her negative self perception. The race itself becomes a symbol for the way she fears she is perceived by society. Now, Miho is the only truly complex character. The other characters have only simple character flaws, small elements that feed into Miho's challenges but which are easily overcome. I liked that all of the characters are flawed and that the novel doesn't wash away those flaws. It lets them be "bad" with the ability to change in future. And current "goodness" doesn't wash away any negative they did in the past. It is all a part of the person they are becoming. This book may not hold up to multiple reads but has enough complexity to leave us thinking as we read.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley