Survive by Alex Morel
My rating: 3/5 cats
like This is Not a Test, this book seeks to answer the question of “what happens to suicidal characters when they are forced into life-or-death decision-making in a crisis situation?” unlike This is Not a Test, this book has zero zombies.
but it does do a good job of depicting a character who wants to throw her life away until she is placed in a situation with someone who really wants to live. jane has been born into a family tradition of suicide. three generations before her have had someone make that decision, and jane feels like it is her turn. she has already tried once, which landed her in a facility for suicidal teens, and she has been savvy enough to trick her minders sufficiently with good behavior to earn her a trip home for christmas. on a plane. a plane in which she plans to kill herself. but then the plane crashes, oh nooo! and she is one of two survivors, the other naturally being a dreamy teen boy.
and now she must survive through the cold and the hunger and the wolves and the mountain climbing, and good lord why does the dust jacket say this:
but the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive.
because that’s spoiler city, really. and in my head, reading that, for some reason, i thought it was going to be about a girl and a boy who were adversaries, because i read the synopsis quickly, and so i was kind of disappointed that this wasn’t more like the movie the edge. it is not. no bears – raaaar.
and it is a really quick read, tense in parts, touching in parts, but at the end of the day, i have loved other survival books more than this one. there isn’t anything wrong with it, other than a couple of questions i have that this review does a good job laying out so there is no need for me to repeat the quibbles.
it’s fine, it just didn’t blow my dress up. for me, books like Hatchet are superior because you actually learn practical survival techniques and not just “have mountain-climbing gear on hand.”
because i am telling you right now, i will never have mountain-climbing gear on hand.
