"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" Review

Evening everyone, the book I'm reviewing today is one that I have had lying around for ages now. 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' by Rachel Joyce has been reviewed and praised everywhere, it has won awards and seems to be in every bookstore, W H Smith's and supermarkets in the country. I finally got round to reading it yesterday and I cannot believe I put off doing so for so long. 

The book revolves around Harold Fry who, upon receiving a letter from his old friend Queenie, who is dying of cancer, decides that he will walk from his home in Knightsbridge to a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, where she is being looked after. He believes that the knowledge that he is walking to save her will aid her in her recovery. 

He meets hundreds of people on his walk and it's interesting to see how the author shows the insignificance of one person in the world, but how Harold learns something about life as a whole from each one. The main side plot of the book is about Harold's estranged relationship with both his wife Maureene and his son David. Harold is shown to have failed many people throughout his life, including Queenie, despite being a inherently good person. 

The ending of this book is completely sublime. The story arc about his son was quite close to the bone for me, as I have personal experience of a similar story, so I cried my eyes out reading about it. There are many many themes in the book but what I took from it is that there is an unbelievable amount of power in faith. Not necessarily religious faith, but the faith and belief of a person in something else, whether that's a god, another person, or a group of people. 

I loved the book, and while I'm going to further review the ending in the bit below that can only be seen if you click on the full blog post, I don't want to spoil the ending for everyone else so I will first give my ratings of the novel. 

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 10/10

Overall: 10/10

I am starting a new feature on Tuesday and there should be another lifestyle post on Wednesday as well as (hopefully) another two book review posts by this time next week! Until then, have a good week! 

THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS PLEASE DON'T KEEP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING.

Harold eventually reaches Queenie in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, after having received media attention and gaining a group of followers, who leave him because he is 'too slow' before he reaches his destination. He reaches Berwick and goes to visit Queenie, but she is extremely close to death. Harold hasn't realised how ill she was and the fact that he is going to be unable to save her makes him question why he completed the walk. Then his wife arrives and they reconcile and realise how much they truly love each other. 

The story arc about his son is that David was an alcoholic who slips into depression and eventually commits suicide by hanging himself. Harold is the one that discovers him, and Maurene always blamed him. You can see how truly messed up they both were by there sons death and Rachel Joyce has cleverly written several bits into the book as a whole that make sense when it's revealed that he is dead. 

I truly loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage, and it has gained itself a place on my bookshelf. It's also a book I could see being made into a film in the future, although I'm not sure how they would do certain aspects, like Maurene talking to their son, despite the fact that he is already dead and she is only doing it because she can't accept his death. Overall a wonderful book that I highly recommend!