An Interesting Premise, But Didn't Stick the Landing
Thanks to BookishFirst for an advanced copy of this book to review!
An interesting premise that was unfortunately overshadowed by the author's inability to decide on what kind of a villain she really wanted.
Neena and Josie have been best friends throughout high school. But now, all of that is coming to an end - Neena is moving away to go to college and start her life, while Josie will remain behind, continuing to work at K-Mart and take care of her ailing mother. The two decide to take one last trip together before their lives change for good. After spending most of their high school years being ostracized by their peers, they decide camping is the best choice; everyone else in town frequently goes, and they have never been. What starts as an innocent three-day hiking trip quickly morphs when they realize there is more to fear in the woods than bears, and getting home might not be as easy as they once thought.
It took a bit for this book to pick up - honesty, close to half the book. The beginning is mostly just two girls traveling in the woods and being hostile with each other. Once things kick off, you see some great writing happen, but it's a shame it took so long to get there.
The overall idea of the book is interesting but nothing novel. Where things really go down is the inability to pinpoint what kind of an enemy the book will be using. As the girls meet various people in the woods, they frequently lament on how no men can ever be trusted (except for their fathers and siblings), and the book takes an interesting anti-men approach. However, it's clear the author doesn't want that to be the big takeaway, because she desperately tries to interweave the backstory of these characters into her book.
This is where everything fell apart for me. Rather than doing chapters dedicated to these side characters, we instead realize that somehow Neena and Josie are miraculously able to "see" the past of these characters, giving us a glimpse into their upbringing. It's completely out of place in a book that otherwise seems firmly planted in the realistic fiction territory, and frustrated me greatly. The ending was no better - as I got closer and closer to the end I was more and more confused as to how things would so quickly resolve. The answer was complete lunacy, unfortunately.
Three stars because the idea itself definitely is interesting, and I feel like the author has some hidden talent buried in her writing. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the utter nonsense that managed to make its way into the book.
An interesting premise that was unfortunately overshadowed by the author's inability to decide on what kind of a villain she really wanted.
Neena and Josie have been best friends throughout high school. But now, all of that is coming to an end - Neena is moving away to go to college and start her life, while Josie will remain behind, continuing to work at K-Mart and take care of her ailing mother. The two decide to take one last trip together before their lives change for good. After spending most of their high school years being ostracized by their peers, they decide camping is the best choice; everyone else in town frequently goes, and they have never been. What starts as an innocent three-day hiking trip quickly morphs when they realize there is more to fear in the woods than bears, and getting home might not be as easy as they once thought.
It took a bit for this book to pick up - honesty, close to half the book. The beginning is mostly just two girls traveling in the woods and being hostile with each other. Once things kick off, you see some great writing happen, but it's a shame it took so long to get there.
The overall idea of the book is interesting but nothing novel. Where things really go down is the inability to pinpoint what kind of an enemy the book will be using. As the girls meet various people in the woods, they frequently lament on how no men can ever be trusted (except for their fathers and siblings), and the book takes an interesting anti-men approach. However, it's clear the author doesn't want that to be the big takeaway, because she desperately tries to interweave the backstory of these characters into her book.
This is where everything fell apart for me. Rather than doing chapters dedicated to these side characters, we instead realize that somehow Neena and Josie are miraculously able to "see" the past of these characters, giving us a glimpse into their upbringing. It's completely out of place in a book that otherwise seems firmly planted in the realistic fiction territory, and frustrated me greatly. The ending was no better - as I got closer and closer to the end I was more and more confused as to how things would so quickly resolve. The answer was complete lunacy, unfortunately.
Three stars because the idea itself definitely is interesting, and I feel like the author has some hidden talent buried in her writing. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the utter nonsense that managed to make its way into the book.