Reviews

With her earliest published novel, I Am Still Alive, Kate Alice Marshall makes quite the impression. While it’s different from a lot of the work she would subsequently publish, as I noted in a prior review, I like that she’s established a precedent for always taking risks and playing with genre and style, regardless of what audience she’s writing for.

And while “survival” stories aren’t really my niche, I really liked Marshall’s take on it. The choice to tell things in a non-linear narrative initially put me off somewhat, but it was ultimately effective in showing the juxtaposition in how things had changed so catastrophically for Jess, with the narrative then switching gears once “Before” and “After” had caught up with one another.

It’s easy to root for Jess, even if there’s not much context for her life before these events. She’s resourceful and determined, and I rooted for her to navigate the tough situations she ended up in, from the relatively more mundane challenge of adapting to living with her off-the-grid father after her mother’s death, to navigating the same environment on her own after he’s killed. With her having these losses so close together, it’s natural for her to be grieving, and to have to deal with basic survival on top of that? She’s a real trooper.

I really appreciated how the story revealed what happened to Jess’ father. While I did feel the marketing emphasized the “revenge” aspect to the point where I expected, it was a somewhat present subplot. However, the overall “survival” aspect takes precedence. However, even with the story focused more on a “girl vs. nature” conflict than anything else, it’s enough that I felt a persistent sense of suspense and danger, and anything on top of that was a bonus.

This was both an emotionally moving and suspenseful read, and I’d recommend it to readers looking for survivalist thriller stories.

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