In Sight of the Mountain: Lost the Story

In Sight of the Mountain by Jamie McGillen
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 358
Goodreads

~ Inspired by the trailblazing women of the 19th Century who dared to summit Mount Rainier ~
In the devastating aftermath of the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, nineteen-year-old Anna Gallagher faces considerable pressure to marry well and soon.

She has two serious suitors: a well-meaning but condescending doctor, and an evasive fisherman who challenges her mind. But Anna has no intention of giving up her freedom to keep house; she has a dream to reach the summit of Mount Rainier.

Despite her family’s disapproval and her own self-doubt, she secretly trains, raises money for supplies, and buys a train ticket to the base of the mountain. If she succeeds in reaching its icy peak, she could pioneer the way for women mountaineers; but it’s a tall task and there’s much at risk—including the heart of a man who just might love her as an equal.

On the journey, Anna will face glaciers, avalanches, and frozen temperatures, all without knowing if she even has a family or a future to return to.

In Sight of the Mountain is a charming coming-of-age story, but it also casts the reader’s gaze upon issues of colonialism, class, and women’s far-too-narrow options.

In Sight of the Mountain is supposed to be a tale about one girl’s journey to be the first female to summit Mount Rainier. While it was that, it was a lot of other things too – which I think actually took away from the main story.

The author addressed a lot of different issues that were prevalent in society during the 1800’s. The book addressed racism, sexism, sex work, and probably more that I’m missing. Each of these are important issues to address, but there was almost too much going on to really make an impact. For example, Anna’s best friend, June, is a prostitute. She’s there to show the prejudices against sex workers, but also how prevalent sex work was at the time. However, June doesn’t really fit in the story. I don’t want to say she doesn’t serve a purpose, because not every character has to have a profound impact on a story, but I just felt disconnected from the main story whenever she came into a scene. She was literally just there to be the prostitute friend. I had that feeling a lot because there was just so many different issues trying to be addressed.

Then, the story that I was hoping to have – Anna climbing Mount Rainier – seemed to take the backseat often. I enjoyed the parts of her training and prepping, especially with Hannah (the indigenous friend she made). However, when she finally left to summit the mountain, it was only about 2 or 3 chapters worth. That was disappointing.

With that said, there were things I enjoyed. Anna as a character was independent but caring. I feel like so often if a female YA character is independent, she’s also kind of a rude or distant person – Anna was not that. She cared deeply about her family and friends and saw the best in everyone, while also wanting to be her own person and pursue her own dreams. I also really liked Ben, the romantic interest. It’s a slow build romance and Ben is a supportive person to Anna’s dreams – which would have been rare at that time.

Overall, I wanted more of the main story and less of all the additional side-stories. I did enjoy the characters, especially Anna and Ben, but I still felt disconnected at times. While I can appreciate the author attempting to tackle so many different issues, a focus on one or two would have been easier to read and kept the focus on what the synopsis says – Anna climbing the mountain.

Rating Report
Plot
Characters
Writing
Overall:	3 / 5