Walk on Earth a Stranger

By: Rae Carson

Narrated by: Erin Mallon

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Gold is in my blood, in my breath, even in the flecks in my eyes.

Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend - who might want to be something more.

She also has a secret.

Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it.

When everything Lee holds dear is ripped away, she flees west to California - where gold has just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl can be herself. If she survives the journey.

The acclaimed Rae Carson begins a sweeping new trilogy set in Gold Rush-era America, about a young woman with a powerful and dangerous gift.

©2015 Rae Carson (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

THIS WAS SO GOOD!

Just read it! Lol i enjoyed it so much! I loved the journey all the characters went on, inward and outward.

Great Book!

Love this author!! Can’t wait to read the next book in the series. Great narration too.

Westward Ho!

I love this type of story and this one is marvelous. Well written and wonderful narration. I recommend it 100%.

She can sense gold and the wrong someone knows

Lee Westfall can sense gold. The California Gold Rush begins and she cannot tell anyone about her gift. But, someone knows. Lee escapes with death dogging her footsteps in many forms.
This book never got boring. Lee's intelligence, compassion and courage kept me listening to the audiobook narrated by Erin Mallon who gives Lee a strong clear voice. My dog got a much much longer walk because of your book Rae Carson.

wonderful story

I know there's more books in the series, but I liked the way this ended so much that I will not continue. it's such a good story and historically accurate and very good. I like the way the main character talks like a southerner and the way she is read!

great story but the narration could be better

This was a good story, and I think the narrator did well with the different voices but after awhile.the constant use of vocal fry becomes irritating. if you're someone that can't stand vocal fry for 8+ hours then you may need to pass on this.

Exceeded all expectations

From the very start, I was skeptical that this book would be for me. I love fantasy books, but am a little iffy on western settings and themes exploring wild frontiers. So a story set in Gold Rush-era America about a young woman trying to make her way to California was going to be 50/50 as something I would enjoy.

But not long after this book started, I was delighted to discover that In Walk on Earth a Stranger was a fantastic, engrossing listen. The protagonist is a girl named Leah Westfall who has a secret gift that makes her coveted by her. To escape him and his plans for using her for his own gains, Leah takes on the guise of a boy in order to escape and strike it out on her own cross-country.

Potential Spoilers Ahead:
First of all, if you like a lot of magic in your fantasy, this is not the book for you. The only fantasy element in this book is Lee’s special power, her ability to sense gold around her, which will be a handy skill for someone heading west during the Gold Rush. But her "powers" don't come into play throughout much of the story, which mostly involves a lot of traveling. And more traveling...

Secondly, this is not a fast-paced, action-packed adventure story. This is a tale of survival, focusing more on the emotional journey rather than the physical one. Sure there are the toils and troubles that one would expect with a young woman heading west in a time where men felt women should be tending hearth and home. In this book, the focus is on the personal relationships forged in the fires of controversy and danger. Carson gives her audience intensive character development and in-depth relationships, so that the people you are introduced to in this book become your family. You cry when they do and rejoice along with them.

Thirdly, this is not a love story. While there is a hint of some kind of romantic feelings between Lee and her best friend Jefferson, the romance is on the back burner and the usual romantic drama doesn't cloud the story.

Rae Carson is a fantastic author with an incredible talent for weaving an intricate story. The vividness of her writing, makes you feel like you are living the events with the characters. And the characters themselves are so multi-faceted, each with their own good and bad points so that they seem all the more real.

Another nice thing about this book is that it can be read as a self-contained story. Of course, Carson leaves plenty of breadcrumbs along this journey to pick up for the later books, but she’s not leaving us with any burning questions or an infuriating cliffhanger. This is YA fiction done right.

Couldn't stop listening!

Amazing story, lovable characters, brilliant writing and pacing.. I'll read anything by Rae Carson. She creates memorable moments out of otherwise ordinary activities, adds just the right amount of suspense and fantasy to spice up historical fiction, plus a slow burn friends to lovers - it's just present enough to feel the tension without sitting at the forefront.
This was also my first audiobook and while it was strange at first I soon found myself getting lost in the story just as much as I do when I'm reading an actual book. The narration was well done.

Great story (minus racism) and great narrator!

Captivating story overall, I can't wait to see how the next one plays out and how the series will continue. Lee was such a smart and capable protagonist and I loved seeing her interact with other people and learn to accept kindness and friendship from those around her.

Unfortunately this book does have a lot of period accurate racism towards Native Americans and African Americans so please be aware of that if you're sensitive to bigotry.

There were also some slow parts towards the middle followed by very intense moments of action which can induce some emotional whiplash. Lastly the ending felt a bit rushed but I'm sure the next book will pick up where it left off!

As for the narration I absolutely loved the tone of her voice and the soft accent that this narrator provided, but she does struggle quite a bit with male characters and they do end up sounding exactly the same, but it's not so bad as to ruin the audio or anything!

Great female perspective on the gold Rush of 1849.

Loved it, when I got to the end and went to more. Great perspective of a woman dealing with life in a man's world