Adventure and Excitement
Details
- Author: Tim Wynne-Jones
- Publisher: Candlewick Press (September 10, 2019)
- Genre: Young Adult/Suspense
- Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher’s Synopsis
Four months after his best friend, Dodge, disappeared near their families’ camp in a boat accident, Nate is still haunted by nightmares. He’d been planning to make the treacherous trek to the remote campsite with a friend — his first time in winter without his survival-savvy father. But when his friend gets grounded, Nate secretly decides to brave the trip solo in a journey that’s half pilgrimage, half desperate hope he will find his missing friend when no one else could. What he doesn’t expect to find is the door to the cabin flung open and the camp occupied by strangers: three men he’s horrified to realize have escaped from a maximum-security prison. Snowed in by a blizzard and with no cell signal, Nate is confronted with troubling memories of Dodge and a stunning family secret, and realizes that his survival now depends on his wits as much as his wilderness skills. As things spiral out of control, Nate finds himself dealing with questions even bigger than who gets to leave the camp alive.
My Thoughts
This book was a bit hard for me to connect with. I thought if Nate, the main character, was up against the elements as well as the fact that escaped convicts had taken over the family cabin, that the story would be suspenseful. But it wasn’t for me. Perhaps I didn’t feel enough empathy to really understand or for that matter, care about the protagonist.
I wasn’t all that impressed with Nate’s judgement from the beginning. Heading to a remote place by his self and allowing his folks to think a friend was going with him was concerning, to say the least.. Especially since this was his first trip to the cabin in the winter without his father.
The story goes back and forth between Nate’s relationship with his best friend, Dodge, who disappeared near the campsite while boating. And then the story goes back to the present trip to the cabin.
Nate works through memories of Dodge while trying to survive the storm and the convicts, who have escaped and moved into his family cabin.
To add to Nate’s situation, he discovers an unexpected surprise.
What Concerned Me
I had a very hard time relating to the characters. And I also felt some of the story was pretty unbelievable.
What I Liked Most
I’m always a sucker for a mystery. And at times this book kept me guessing.
I also liked the writing style. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.
Rating
It was okay. You might like it, you might not.
About The Author:
I was born at a very young age in a very old country—England. I ran away from home when I was three with a tea cozy on my head. And if you don’t know what a tea cozy is, that’s because it’s something only people in very old countries use to keep their tea warm when it’s in a pot. Somehow, I ended up in northern British Columbia, Canada, just a raven’s flight from Alaska. We moved a lot when I was a kid, and that’s a big part of what I write about, I guess: not the moving so much as how great it is to have a place you can call home and friends and all that. I grew up. Well, it was bound to happen. But I didn’t grow that far up, if you know what I mean. I went to university and all that and got married and have three fabulous kids, all of whom are grown up, more or less, themselves. But what I mean is that, while I grew up I didn’t grow away from childhood. I still have a whole bunch of it inside that I’m sorting through: an attic’s worth of mostly junk but with some gems of memStli aiiories and a lot of unanswered questions. That’s probably why I write for kids.
Whatever I write it’s always a mystery. I’ve written more than thirty books: picture books, middle-grade novels, novels for young adults and older adults. But whatever I write there is always something that someone is looking for and there is usually someone who doesn’t want them to get it! I’m thrilled about my thriller Blink & Caution. Blink is a street kid living hard—living on his wits. He stumbles into a big con game and thinks he might get in on the action. Wrong! Luckily, he also runs into Caution, as in “Caution: Contents under Pressure.” Their relationship starts off rocky, to say the least, but then she joins up with him and—well, you’ve got to see what happens. I am crazy about this book.
