Last year I read most of W. Bruce Cameron's books (A Dog's Purpose etc.) I enjoyed them so much that I bought them in English and in Spanish. I bought this one without knowing anything about it.

I tried to like this book but just couldn't. Much of the book was about the 13-year-old Charlie and his love life which I could not bring myself to care about. The rest was mostly about the bear and I just did not buy the reincarnation theme (strange since I had no trouble accepting that with the dog books).

Lastly, I hated the Christian message at the end of the book. I wish I had known, I would have given this a miss. ( )

Hmm! I have mixed emotions having just finished this book. I loved the front cover and Emory, the grizzly bear. I liked thirteen-year-old Charlie and his budding romance with Beth. I even thought the book moved fairly well.

However, I did NOT like the implied reincarnation idea, and I thought the secrets Emory held and the messages he was supposed to impart on mankind, totally far-fetched! Had the book just focused on the friendship between a lonely boy and a beautiful, wild animal, "Emory's Gift" would have been a far more appealing read. "A Dog's Purpose" by the same author was so much better. ( )

Emory’s Gift by W. Bruce Cameron
359 pages

★★ ½

I was really disappointed by this book. Taking place in the 1970s, Charlie talks about his time as a 13 year old boy who befriends a grizzly bear, which may be a reincarnation of a Civil War soldier – and the bear has come with a message. Will the message get delivered before it’s too late? I know, sounds a little weird, right? But a few years ago I read the author’s book A Dog’s Purpose and fell in love with it so when I saw this one, I had to give it a try. I would have been better off not.

Besides the story line being a bit weird, I had a lot of trouble getting into this book. The characters were pretty flat. There was so much potential for these characters but it’s like the author just wanted to rush through this one, forgetting that characters can be very important to a book. The main character, Charlie, was somewhat annoying and I had trouble picturing him as a 13 year old – the narrative just didn’t seem to fit. The end of each chapter ended with a melodramatic “And then it all went downhill” or “It was all going great until is all blew up….” – I could just imagine some dramatic music in the background at the end of each chapter. Lastly, the ending was just too convenient and unbelievable. It left me rolling my eyes and wondering what I just spent the last week wasting my time on.

I give credit that the premise was interesting and it was interesting enough to keep me reading but there were times I questioned why I kept reading. I guess I expected I would find the magic I found in the first book I read by the author, too bad it never happened. It had some good parts but not particularly a book I would recommend.
( )

Bruce Cameron read his own book in this audio and what a delight---he knew just how to sound like a 13 year old boy finding his way through some major turning points in his life. This books has everything---great story, great characters, humor, sadness---and all tied up in a bow. ( )

I had really enjoyed A Dog's Purpose, and was really looking forward to Emory's Gift. I wasn't disappointed. Mr. Cameron has a talent for writing books centered around animals, although this one wasn't from the animal's point of view.

Aside from dealing with real-life issues, Charlie has also lost his mother, and in a sense, his father as well. It was interesting to see him befriend an animal as dangerous as a bear, that displays some very un-bear-like qualities. The best gift that Emory was able to bestow upon Charlie, in my opinion, was essentially waking up his father, and helping them to heal.

It's a good story, and, though not quite up to snuff with A Dog's Purpose, it had a bit of a supernatural feel to it. I enjoyed reading it, and look forward to his next novel.