Heartwood (A Read with Jenna Pick): A Novel

Heartwood runs on a great premise with good pacing. The search-and-rescue plot had me hooked enough to keep going. Beverly Miller, the lieutenant leading the search, is the most compelling presence here: steady, likeable, and the one character I actively rooted for. Lena, meanwhile, feels more like a study in loneliness and neurodivergence than a flesh-and-blood character. Interesting, yes, but she reads more like a symbol than someone you’d actually want to spend a whole chapter with.

Valerie is where it lost me. The novel leans hard on us caring about her “I feel too much, I must escape into the wild” crisis, but the emotional pull isn’t strong enough. Instead of empathizing, I mostly found myself shrugging. If she’s supposed to be the heart of the story, then that heart never fully beats.

In short: strong bones, but a bit hollow in the middle. Worth a read if you like premise-driven novels, but I wouldn’t hike the Appalachian Trail for it.

I went into Heartwood expecting something in the vein of Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, but it didn’t deliver in the same way. I struggled to stay engaged—the shifting perspectives were often confusing, and I frequently had to reorient myself to figure out whose point of view I was reading. While the premise had promise, the payoff just wasn’t there, and overall, I found the book disappointing.

Following the mystery of a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail in New England, the author takes the reader on numerous narratives full of back story and personal relationships built from character who are more independent and limited social connections. It was interesting to see how these characters strive on their own and feel about others yet are connected to others on the AT hike. The ending felt a but long winded and torn together but it was still a pleasant read.

This story pulled me in from the first page. Valerie Gillis, a nurse, decides to do the Appalachian Trail. Before she gets to the end, she dissappears in the woods of Maine. Valerie's journal entries, trail partner's interviews, as well as the perspective of the game warden, Lt Beverly Miller, make for interesting reading. It is a page turner.

“Listen, no one hikes two thousand miles because they’re happy. Even the most cheerful or uncomplaining hikers aren’t “happy.” You’ve got to have a significant fire under you to slog through over two thousand miles of jagged rocks, rain, and snakes. You’ve got to have a deep, unshakable point to prove.” Heartwood is a moving and suspenseful story about Appalachian Trail hiker Sparrow who vanishes in the worst stretch of the AT—the dense Maine woods near the Hundred-Mile Wilderness. It is also a story about relationships, mostly those between children and their parents. Told from various points of view, this book brings Sparrow into focus as well as her mother and those who help with the search. Through Warden interviews with her hiking partner Santo, we learn much about Sparrow, life on the trail and, most endearing, about Santo and his difficult relationship with his father. “Me hiking the AT seemed like craziness to everyone around me, but it was just me trying to treat my own life as valuable.” Then there is Lena, a wheelchair-bound senior who initially thinks the lost hiker is her estranged daughter, connecting her to the case in a manner that forces her to explore her past. At the center of the search is Bev, the Maine State Game Warden, who has been in the business of finding lost people for thirty years, she says, and has a stellar record. As days seem to meld one into the other with thousands of acres covered and no sign of Sparrow, Bev contemplates her long career, the trail-blazing role as the first female Maine Game Warden, and the challenges she faced from male colleagues and her mother. This wonderful book will appeal to a wide audience from outdoor enthusiasts to bookclub groups. “I would press my hand against your chest so that I could feel the center of you—your heartwood, your innermost substance, like the core of a tree that keeps it standing.” —Sparrow writing to her Mother from somewhere in the Maine woods