Book Jacket:
What begins as a training run with sled dogs turns into a race against time for Tatum and her new friend, a Siberian Yupik boy named Cole. When a freak blizzard hits this remote island off the coast of Alaska, the duo seeks shelter overnight in a dilapidated hunting cabin. Their harrowing ordeal goes from bad to worse when wind-driven snow forces them to risk an alternate route. Stranded in the untamed wilderness, they must rely on each other—as well as their faithful huskies—to survive sub-zero temperatures and bone-numbing exhaustion. Worse still, their food supply is dangerously low. The most daunting decision comes when the strongest dog runs away. One person must go for help, while one must stay behind. Either way, they’ll both be alone in the wild for an uncertain amount of time.
You can read an excerpt here (just click on the book cover).
Review:
I’m a sucker for survival stories – I read many a Drama in Real Life (a feature in Reader’s Digest) as a kid – but while I enjoyed the atmospherics of this story, from the strange, icy landscapes, to the real-life, ever-present danger of sub-zero temperatures, all in all it just wasn’t enough to overpower this narrative’s lack of personality. There wasn’t enough character to this story to be fully satisfying.
Tatum, our lead, is a nice enough girl, but she doesn’t really have much of a personality outside of her love of dogs and dog-sledding. She honestly felt like a cipher for Iditirod/dog-sledding 101 – but luckily, Iditirod 101 is absolutely fascinating. I’ve never had any particular interest in the Itidirod, but after reading this book – which touches on Iditirod history, and the many, many perils its participants face over every mile – now I find myself hoping ESPN covers the race. But as for Tatum, herself – as a character I found her to be utterly forgettable. Emotionally there just wasn’t much of anything going on with her, aside from a little bit of conflict with her mother over the dangers of dog-sledding. And even that never went beyond Tatum feeling a bit guilty about making her Mom worry. Similarly Tatum’s “friendship” with Cole basically breaks down to – you like dogs? Me too! – and not much more. And that’s it, that’s the extent of this book’s character development. Now I read a ton of action/adventure stories, MG and otherwise, so it’s not like my expectations were towering on the character front, but this book’s absolute lack of personality just robbed this story of all vitality.
Yet despite it all, the travelogue nature of this book absolutely kept me hooked. Shahan clearly knows her way around the frozen north, and the strange reality of a place so beautiful and so deadly is just breathtaking. The peril Cole and Tatum find themselves in is so wonderfully, mesmerizingly real – and it was so refreshing to read a story that didn’t need to invent a sense of danger – that I easily made it through to the end. The frozen vistas of this novel are brilliantly rendered.
And so I find myself wildly unimpressed by this book on one level, and yet utterly fascinated on another. Weirdly I can’t help but wish this story had been non-fiction, because if it was a real story I would have forgiven it all its sins – but standing as a work of fiction, it lacks character.
Still, it was wonderful to explore the Alaskan wilds and the close, insular world of the dog-sledders who brave its dangers – I just wish the characters had been half so interesting. But if nothing else, this book will definitely make you want to visit Alaska. Or at the very least, watch Eight Below.
Byrt Grade: B
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
Riveting and atmospheric…Told a fast-paced third-person, this survival adventure creates an almost otherworldly experience within a treacherous and bracingly beautiful landscape.
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