Review by Amber_lb -- Stranded In The Wild
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Amber_lb
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Review by Amber_lb -- Stranded In The Wild
[Following is a volunteer review of "Stranded In The Wild" by Gary Rodriguez.]
Stranded in the Wild by Gary Rodriguez looked very promising when I started out reading it. This book tells the story of four teens attending an adventure summer camp who embark on a white water rafting trip together. They end up with more adventure than they bargained for when they lose their guide and get stranded miles from their camp. Despite the exciting adventure promised in the summary, I had to give this book only 2 out of 4 stars.
The main thing that this book has going for it is its premise. There’s so much that could be done with four teenagers stuck in a survival situation together. But unfortunately, it didn’t deliver on that for me. I wanted to like it. I really did. I love young adult literature and I love stories about nature and outdoor adventure. However, while the four main characters are supposed to be teenagers, their dialogue makes them come across as much younger than they are. The writing, while being well edited and free from typos, seemed very juvenile to me, more like middle grade or children’s than young adult. To me it came across as an adult author writing about teenagers without having much grasp on how actual teenagers talk and interact. As someone who has worked with high schoolers at a summer camp, I can guarantee you that they do not spend a bus ride sitting in contemplation about the safety talk that the counselor just gave. They also do not reply in unison to questions you ask. Teenagers have mastered the art of giving you blank stares.
The other thing that it made it hard for me to like this book was how unrealistic some of the situations were. The characters encountered animal after animal that was intent on attacking and killing them. This is a huge misconception about wild animals, and actual leads to wild animals being killed by humans even when they pose no threat. Most bears, wolves, and other predators do not go out of their way to attack humans. They would much rather avoid humans if they can. The only time they would attack is if they felt threatened or corned, which never happened in the situations in this book. At one point a black bear was stalking the teens and attacked the minute it saw them. Black bears hardly ever attack humans and if you encounter one, you can usually scare it away by making loud noise. Same with wolves; they hardly ever attack humans and do not actively hunt them. I know this is fiction and maybe not everything needs to be entirely accurate. But this is realistic fiction, it is a survival story, and it really didn’t teach anything useful about being in a survival situation. The bigger threats are weather, extreme temperatures, hypothermia, and dehydration. But the book didn’t really spend much time talking about those.
The last thing I have to say about this book, is that it would have benefited from some sensitivity readers, particularly looking for instances of racism and sexism. I don’t think the author was trying to be offensive, but there were some racial stereotypes used for some of the characters. Also, the whole book the male characters were taking charge instead of the female characters. There were several times were the male characters were fighting off wild animals while the female characters were cowering and screaming. For this reason, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone looking for a book with strong female characters.
All in all, if you like survival books and can get past the unrealistic situations, you might give this a try. But it just wasn’t for me.
******
Stranded In The Wild
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Stranded in the Wild by Gary Rodriguez looked very promising when I started out reading it. This book tells the story of four teens attending an adventure summer camp who embark on a white water rafting trip together. They end up with more adventure than they bargained for when they lose their guide and get stranded miles from their camp. Despite the exciting adventure promised in the summary, I had to give this book only 2 out of 4 stars.
The main thing that this book has going for it is its premise. There’s so much that could be done with four teenagers stuck in a survival situation together. But unfortunately, it didn’t deliver on that for me. I wanted to like it. I really did. I love young adult literature and I love stories about nature and outdoor adventure. However, while the four main characters are supposed to be teenagers, their dialogue makes them come across as much younger than they are. The writing, while being well edited and free from typos, seemed very juvenile to me, more like middle grade or children’s than young adult. To me it came across as an adult author writing about teenagers without having much grasp on how actual teenagers talk and interact. As someone who has worked with high schoolers at a summer camp, I can guarantee you that they do not spend a bus ride sitting in contemplation about the safety talk that the counselor just gave. They also do not reply in unison to questions you ask. Teenagers have mastered the art of giving you blank stares.
The other thing that it made it hard for me to like this book was how unrealistic some of the situations were. The characters encountered animal after animal that was intent on attacking and killing them. This is a huge misconception about wild animals, and actual leads to wild animals being killed by humans even when they pose no threat. Most bears, wolves, and other predators do not go out of their way to attack humans. They would much rather avoid humans if they can. The only time they would attack is if they felt threatened or corned, which never happened in the situations in this book. At one point a black bear was stalking the teens and attacked the minute it saw them. Black bears hardly ever attack humans and if you encounter one, you can usually scare it away by making loud noise. Same with wolves; they hardly ever attack humans and do not actively hunt them. I know this is fiction and maybe not everything needs to be entirely accurate. But this is realistic fiction, it is a survival story, and it really didn’t teach anything useful about being in a survival situation. The bigger threats are weather, extreme temperatures, hypothermia, and dehydration. But the book didn’t really spend much time talking about those.
The last thing I have to say about this book, is that it would have benefited from some sensitivity readers, particularly looking for instances of racism and sexism. I don’t think the author was trying to be offensive, but there were some racial stereotypes used for some of the characters. Also, the whole book the male characters were taking charge instead of the female characters. There were several times were the male characters were fighting off wild animals while the female characters were cowering and screaming. For this reason, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone looking for a book with strong female characters.
All in all, if you like survival books and can get past the unrealistic situations, you might give this a try. But it just wasn’t for me.
******
Stranded In The Wild
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Homecoming by Jude Austin
