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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
this author did Hatchet so it's no surprise that this was a great little book about survival that the boys just ate up. the epilogue is fascinating too - turns out much of what he's written has happened to him, and he is a modern day Henry David Thoreau
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
A wonderful sequel to The Hatchet. I felt all of the emotions during this book: sad, disappointed, nervous, inspired, thrilled. I actually cried at the end. A fantastic read.
3.5 stars
First things first, this one seemed to maybe have some consistency issues. Hatchet ended with Brian being rescued in the summer some time. According to The River, it was about a year later when he went back with Derek. Brian's Winter seemed like it was supposed to be a "What-If" novel, but according to this book, Brian's Return, those events actually did happen. So are we supposed to ignore the ending of Hatchet? That part bothered me a lot, because he still owns the canoe given to him in The River, but he also talks a lot about his winter in the wilderness. If we were told to ignore the last few pages of Hatchet, this book would make perfect sense, but nowhere did I believe that to be the case. In Brian's Winter, Paulsen stated that he shifted the idea of Hatchet ending with the rescue via radio signal, to not happening, but I didn't assume that to mean for the entire series. It doesn't really matter, I guess. The story stays the same, but for me, it bothered me because now I'm not sure of the timeline of event.
Moving on to the actual story. I really liked that Brian was returning to the wilderness, this time on his own accord. The gimick of survivor school in The River was far-fetched in my opinion, so just giving the simple reasoning of Brian wanting to go back was enough for me. I also liked seeing how he prepared and getting into Brian's mind of how hard it was trying to adjust to the real world vs how being in the woods made him feel. I loved his interactions with Caleb as well. I was excited to see Brian get back into the wild, but it still felt unfinished and rushed, which is how I've felt with the other books. Even though Brian is taking his time traveling up the river, it never seem fully flushed out. I craved more details and story building. Like please, give me more than 2 pages on this Billy character. I was also looking forward to seeing Brian get back to his old camp and describing it, but unfortunately that never happened. Overall, I would rank this book as #3 out of 4 in the series. I'm interested to see how Brian's Hunt will wrap up Brian's story!
First things first, this one seemed to maybe have some consistency issues. Hatchet ended with Brian being rescued in the summer some time. According to The River, it was about a year later when he went back with Derek. Brian's Winter seemed like it was supposed to be a "What-If" novel, but according to this book, Brian's Return, those events actually did happen. So are we supposed to ignore the ending of Hatchet? That part bothered me a lot, because he still owns the canoe given to him in The River, but he also talks a lot about his winter in the wilderness. If we were told to ignore the last few pages of Hatchet, this book would make perfect sense, but nowhere did I believe that to be the case. In Brian's Winter, Paulsen stated that he shifted the idea of Hatchet ending with the rescue via radio signal, to not happening, but I didn't assume that to mean for the entire series. It doesn't really matter, I guess. The story stays the same, but for me, it bothered me because now I'm not sure of the timeline of event.
Moving on to the actual story. I really liked that Brian was returning to the wilderness, this time on his own accord. The gimick of survivor school in The River was far-fetched in my opinion, so just giving the simple reasoning of Brian wanting to go back was enough for me. I also liked seeing how he prepared and getting into Brian's mind of how hard it was trying to adjust to the real world vs how being in the woods made him feel. I loved his interactions with Caleb as well. I was excited to see Brian get back into the wild, but it still felt unfinished and rushed, which is how I've felt with the other books. Even though Brian is taking his time traveling up the river, it never seem fully flushed out. I craved more details and story building. Like please, give me more than 2 pages on this Billy character. I was also looking forward to seeing Brian get back to his old camp and describing it, but unfortunately that never happened. Overall, I would rank this book as #3 out of 4 in the series. I'm interested to see how Brian's Hunt will wrap up Brian's story!
I really do wish this was longer, this was much better than the previous one.
This time it made sense for Brian to go back, and the author pouring his personal experiences into this is just amazing. I really liked how the author showed a different side to Brian’s trauma in this one.
This time it made sense for Brian to go back, and the author pouring his personal experiences into this is just amazing. I really liked how the author showed a different side to Brian’s trauma in this one.
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I enjoyed this book, but found it to be disappointingly short. It felt like Brian had barely returned to the wilderness, and - poof! - it was over!
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Enjoyed the series and happy to have completed it with this one.
adventurous
medium-paced
