Ariel Djanikian

I found myself completely swept away with this story. As an audio, this narrator was just wonderful and pulled me right into the story.

It's a dual timeline and I appreciated both. One, a great great granddaughter is trying to fulfill a grandfather's dying wish. In another, a young family is trying to strike it big in Alaska during the gold rush and then, eventually, oil. As with any big windfall of money, this family in Alaska encounters sickness, greed, envy and deceit.

I loved learning about this family. The note at the end that this is based on the author's real family was such a nice treat. I agree with others that said they wished they'd known in the beginning. It would have added such an interesting element, but adding it at the end worked too!

Such a fascinating story about survival, adventure, and taking a chance. I loved it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.… (more)

Mixed feelings on this book - it had some highly compelling moments, but I couldn't find a single character I liked or even found remotely relatable. Two intertwined timelines, separated by more than century, unfold in this book, one focused on the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s and one in the recent past about a family grappling with generational wealth. I wanted to like Alice, who journeys north in the Gold Rush to help care for her sister but dreams of a fortune for herself, but she kept manipulating her own family members and her own motivations felt flimsy. The more contemporary characters felt two-dimensional, and as much as I applaud the social justice sentiments of Anna, I lost sympathy for her when her grandfather died and she's still completely focused on his money and how he never really worked for it. Overall, this novel had the bones of a good story, but I think better characters might have made the book more relatable.… (more)

The essence of a good book lies somewhere inside The Prospectors by Ariel Djanikian, but it gets crushed under the weight of too many words. The book tells the fascinating true story of the Bush and Berry families who made a fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush and uses Alice Bush — the plain, middle daughter — as the central figure. Djanikian’s writing moves from decent to good throughout the book, but it could easily lose 50-100 pages and be no worse for the telling as many parts grow redundant, preachy, and boring. Still, readers who enjoy historical fiction and family sagas may want to slog through the long parts for the interesting story of wealth, family, betrayal, and reparations.… (more)