Be not far from me by Mindy McGinnis

A Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults 2021 suggests that this is an outstanding read and I certainly could not put it down. It has all the ingredients for an enthralling story, engrossing plot, terrible odds and wild forest and a  great heroine in Ashley. After a fight with her boyfriend and drinking too much at a party in the woods of the great Smokey Mountains, she flees through the trees and becomes lost. She pushes herself to her absolute limit, trying to find her way home, determined to survive against the odds even though her foot is badly injured, and she has little food or water.

The book is divided into three sections by an atmospheric illustration of the trees and Smokey Mountains, and little illustrations appear at the top of each chapter as well. Told in the voice of Ashley, the reader is carried along on her harrowing journey (some incidents are not for the faint-hearted), while at the same time learning much about Ashley, her ability to run, the poverty that she endures and the friendships that she realises mean so much to her. Davey Beet, who taught her how to survive in the wilderness when she was at summer camp, is another character who adds tension to the story. After disappearing somewhere on the mountains because his girlfriend had broken up with him, the reader is left wondering whether he is still alive.

Readers who enjoyed Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter and Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake will be happy to move onto Be not far from me, and I am looking forward to reading more books by Mindy McGinnis.

Themes: Survival, Poverty, Adolescents.

Pat Pledger