I won this from Library Thing and found this to be confusing. This book missed the mark for me. ( )

For some reason, I found this book to be very confusing. Needless to say, I didn't like it. It seemed like it was missing something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. ( )

Evvie Mallow is a teenage girl of few words who's good with a gun and knows how to take care of herself. Think Ree Dolly of Winter's Bone or Margo Crawford of Once Upon a River. In other words Jennifer Lawrence would play her in the movie if there ever was one. Spring Bear opens with pregnant Evvie shooting a man in the back then flashes back in time to tell the story of what drove Evvie to such desperate meassures and what ultimately happens to her as a result. Told in spare prose in a brief 79 pages Spring bear is the story of how far one girl will go to do what she feels is best for herself and the child she's carrying.
I thought the book read well and I felt for Evvie even if I didn't always think she made the smartest move she could have.
I won this book in a librarything member giveaway ( )

Spring Bear is the story of a girl called Evvie Mallow who lives in the small town of Soper’s Mills, Maine. Evvie’s father suffered bad head injuries in an accident which left him unable to speak or take care of himself, and her mother has become involved with another man – Lester Darrow, a surly, aggressive man who traps bears in the woods.

Evvie dreams of going to California and escaping from the poverty and misery of her home, but when she discovers that she’s pregnant it seems that her chance of a better life has disappeared.

This self-published book is Betsy Connor Bowen’s debut novel. She has achieved what she set out to do, which is to successfully convey the atmosphere of a small town in Maine. I’ve never been to Maine, and the way of life described in the book was very different from my own - in some ways, a simpler way of life but not without its own set of problems and challenges.

Although I could sympathise with Evvie’s sad, lonely existence, I didn’t really feel any connection to any of the other characters - I would have liked to have been able to get to know them in more depth. Maybe if it had been a longer novel, there would have been more opportunity for character development, but for a quick, short read this book was quite enjoyable. ( )