Four high school students go on a hiking/camping excursion due to a temper tantrum of the highest caliber, hopes of making amends for said tantrum, a lost bet, and attempts at matchmaking. During the trip, mother nature takes a turn for the worse, tempers flair and adolescent testosterone goes wild, a bear assaults their food supply, and love is found amidst lots of John Cusack quotes, mixed signals, and chaos.
I really hoped to like this book despite my initial feelings after reading the "First Impression" excerpt provided by Bookishfirst. The prologue set a tone for the story that I found to become lost amidst way too much description of every single step these kids took on their trip. The chapters themselves were titled either "Colin" or "Ellie". I'm not quite sure why the author chose to focus on telling this story from only the point of view of 2 of the main characters when there was so much more backstory between the 3 male protagonists. I feel like this story couldn't make up its mind as to whether it wanted to be a teenage love story or a thriller (was it supposed to be both?). The author also chose to include flashbacks of Colin's memories, but they didn't seem to flow well with the story. They seemed to be just thrown in randomly. Colin's character seemed to be described with enough detail, as well as Ellie's (to an extent), but not much was said about the other main characters.
I did like the characters despite my initial feelings that they would annoy me and I would've liked to have read a little more description and backstory about all of them and a little less about every step they took from the morning they woke up to start their trip. I also like that the author included a small map of the area they were hiking through as I've never been to Yosemite and have no clue where any of the places described are located. Another plus - I finally found out what all the emphasis on the ax was about - that part of the story was pretty nuts.
Thanks to the publisher and Bookishfirst for providing me with an advance copy of this book.
I really hoped to like this book despite my initial feelings after reading the "First Impression" excerpt provided by Bookishfirst. The prologue set a tone for the story that I found to become lost amidst way too much description of every single step these kids took on their trip. The chapters themselves were titled either "Colin" or "Ellie". I'm not quite sure why the author chose to focus on telling this story from only the point of view of 2 of the main characters when there was so much more backstory between the 3 male protagonists. I feel like this story couldn't make up its mind as to whether it wanted to be a teenage love story or a thriller (was it supposed to be both?). The author also chose to include flashbacks of Colin's memories, but they didn't seem to flow well with the story. They seemed to be just thrown in randomly. Colin's character seemed to be described with enough detail, as well as Ellie's (to an extent), but not much was said about the other main characters.
I did like the characters despite my initial feelings that they would annoy me and I would've liked to have read a little more description and backstory about all of them and a little less about every step they took from the morning they woke up to start their trip. I also like that the author included a small map of the area they were hiking through as I've never been to Yosemite and have no clue where any of the places described are located. Another plus - I finally found out what all the emphasis on the ax was about - that part of the story was pretty nuts.
Thanks to the publisher and Bookishfirst for providing me with an advance copy of this book.