In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

I finished “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” this morning! It was really good. It pulled at my heartstrings quite a bit as well as being uplifting as well. It’s really a conjecture of opposites. 

Thanks to NetGalley for this e-arc! “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” releases on April 1st 2018. 

I’m reading this for the True Crime prompt of the Popsugar 2018 challenge, because although the story is fiction it’s about the real Rwandan genocide epidemic that took place in 1994.. 

“In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” is the debut novel for author, Jennifer Haupt. The novel was certainly well researched and could have been her second or third novel, I thought. 

4.5 Stars (5 on Goodreads)!

Spoilers Below...

“In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” focuses on the devastation of the Rwandan genocide and its after effects on the people of Rwanda. We follow a young, American woman called Rachel, who’s pregnant at the beginning of novel. She goes through trauma of lots of different kinds throughout the story. She’s trying to find her father, Henry. Does she, though?

Rachel isn’t the only one who suffers. A male character, called Tucker, who is a doctor and who’s looking after a little girl, Rose for the majority of “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” is also suffering as well as Rose, herself. As well as those characters, Lillian, the woman who Rachel seeks out for information about her father is suffering as well as a girl she looks after, Nadine. 

There is clearly A LOT of suffering throughout “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” in a miscarriage for a character, as well as a marriage breakup, as well as death, as well as potentially loosing someone close, but there’s also hope scattered throughout the novel too! 

With all this suffering, though, there are hopeful moments, in a romance that develops between two characters and just an outpouring of love from other characters. 

“It’s this place, so beautiful and full of promise. Rwanda, the people and the land, draw you in, take everything you have and make you dig deep in your soul, willingly, to keep searching for more”, is a prominent quote because the majority of the novel takes place in Rwanda. It’s also meaningful because it draws you in and leaves you wanting more, I think...

I don’t want to write any major spoilers or more quotes because I think this is a book where it’s best to go into it blind and be surprised by how good it is. Also, because it deals with real world problems it’s realistic and doesn’t play with the facts of death. 

What did I like about “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills”? 

I liked the relevance the novel bought to problems in the real world that most don’t see. I certainly didn’t know about the Rwandan genocide before reading this story. 

I liked the characters and how each one bought something different to the story. 

I liked the descriptions of the settings. The African ones, are described in great detail because most reading this, probably won’t have experienced them.  

What didn’t I like about “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills”? 

I didn’t like how we’re thrust into the past for 5 or so chapters in the middle of “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills”. I understand this was showing us what life was like before the genocide but the characters that I really cared about were all in the current story, not the past, so I skim read those. If we’d of had present day chapters breaking the past chapters up, I think it would have been better. 

I’m giving “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills” 4.5 Stars because I really enjoyed it. The characters seemed like they could just jump off the page and into real life, they were written so well. I enjoyed every storyline brought up, particularly the romance. My favourite characters were Rachel, Tucker and Rose. They were the ones I felt closest to while reading, maybe because I’m the same sort of age as Rachel or just younger than her. 

Will you be reading “In The Shadow Of 10,000 Hills”? Does it sound interesting to you?

Stand by for my next review coming soon...