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lunchbox89 's review for:
I Am Still Alive
by Kate Alice Marshall
I enjoyed Kate Alice Marshall’s story of 16 year old Jess in the Canadian wilderness.
Jess loses her mother in a car accident that also mangles her leg to the point of mobility deficiencies. After a stint in foster care, she gets sent to live with her stranger of a father in the middle of nowhere Canada. One way in, by plane; no one else knows they’re out there, until the bad guys come calling after dear old dad.
I like the way the first half of the book is presented in Before and After chapters; before and after her father’s death. We already know that event occurs, but lack the details. The story unfurls from both ends of the timeline, meeting in the middle until we’re finally clued in.
So, Jess has only a few days with her dad to learn how to survive in the wild; but she squanders most of it by continually reminding him that he abandoned her as a kid, or arguing that her disability means she can’t do the work.
She really regrets ignoring her dad’s lessons when he is murdered and the killers burn down her only shelter and food supply. With the exception of her dad’s dog, Bo, she is truly on her own with winter fast approaching.
Jess definitely digs down deep to survive out there. I will say that I she seemed to get lucky a lot when things were looking really bad. Like, how do I get fire started? Oh look, the canoe, that just so happens to have a tackle box, first aid kit, and flint kit inside. Or, when she’s out of food and starving she stumbles across the float lures in the lake. Winter is coming and her shelter is crap, finds map to OTHER cabin with food supply. Each of these moments saved her from certain death. But I guess her survivability was in adaptability. I still have to give her credit because it took a lot of work and grit to stay alive even with those resources.
Then the book reminded me of The Great Alone meets Home Alone.
Jess started preparing for the inevitable return and revenge on the men that killed her father. They have to come back for the stuff they hid, and when they do she’ll be ready. I liked her tenacity. She’s a wild woman now and she used her knowledge of the land to her advantage.
I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again; she should’ve killed the pilot when she had the chance. That was her plan after all, and because she hesitated, things went awry. She still figured out a way to outsmart the men and turn the tide back in her favor.
BUT, Kate Alice Marshall, you lost a star when you killed Bo! I know Jess had to do it out of mercy, but she had already lost everything else, couldn’t you have let her save the dang dog?!
I felt conflicted about the ending too. It was nice to see Jess make it through and get rescued. But how do you go back to society after living so remotely and intensely for day to day survival? Seeing everyone take modern amenities for granted; things that were literally life or death issues in the wilderness.
Jess loses her mother in a car accident that also mangles her leg to the point of mobility deficiencies. After a stint in foster care, she gets sent to live with her stranger of a father in the middle of nowhere Canada. One way in, by plane; no one else knows they’re out there, until the bad guys come calling after dear old dad.
I like the way the first half of the book is presented in Before and After chapters; before and after her father’s death. We already know that event occurs, but lack the details. The story unfurls from both ends of the timeline, meeting in the middle until we’re finally clued in.
So, Jess has only a few days with her dad to learn how to survive in the wild; but she squanders most of it by continually reminding him that he abandoned her as a kid, or arguing that her disability means she can’t do the work.
She really regrets ignoring her dad’s lessons when he is murdered and the killers burn down her only shelter and food supply. With the exception of her dad’s dog, Bo, she is truly on her own with winter fast approaching.
Jess definitely digs down deep to survive out there. I will say that I she seemed to get lucky a lot when things were looking really bad. Like, how do I get fire started? Oh look, the canoe, that just so happens to have a tackle box, first aid kit, and flint kit inside. Or, when she’s out of food and starving she stumbles across the float lures in the lake. Winter is coming and her shelter is crap, finds map to OTHER cabin with food supply. Each of these moments saved her from certain death. But I guess her survivability was in adaptability. I still have to give her credit because it took a lot of work and grit to stay alive even with those resources.
Then the book reminded me of The Great Alone meets Home Alone.
Jess started preparing for the inevitable return and revenge on the men that killed her father. They have to come back for the stuff they hid, and when they do she’ll be ready. I liked her tenacity. She’s a wild woman now and she used her knowledge of the land to her advantage.
I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again; she should’ve killed the pilot when she had the chance. That was her plan after all, and because she hesitated, things went awry. She still figured out a way to outsmart the men and turn the tide back in her favor.
BUT, Kate Alice Marshall, you lost a star when you killed Bo! I know Jess had to do it out of mercy, but she had already lost everything else, couldn’t you have let her save the dang dog?!
I felt conflicted about the ending too. It was nice to see Jess make it through and get rescued. But how do you go back to society after living so remotely and intensely for day to day survival? Seeing everyone take modern amenities for granted; things that were literally life or death issues in the wilderness.