Kate Alice Marshall

"This tense wire of a novel thrums with suspense. . . . [this book] just might be the highlight of your summer.”–The New York Times Cheryl Strayed's Wild meets The Revenant in this heart-pounding story of survival and revenge in the unforgiving wilderness. After: Jess is alone. Her cabin has burned to the ground. She knows if she doesn’t act fast, the cold will kill her before she has time to worry about food. But she is still alive—for now. Before: Jess hadn’t seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded. After: With only her father’s dog for company, Jess must forage and hunt for food, build shelter, and keep herself warm. Some days it feels like the wild is out to destroy her, but she’s stronger than she ever imagined. Jess will survive. She has to. She knows who killed her father…and she wants revenge.

I Am Still Alive

Nessa Luna

I read Rules for Vanishing by the same author last year and really enjoyed that one. This one sounded like something that would scare me in a different way and it actually did. I did very much enjoy this and it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. But ffs that ending fucked me up. (view spoiler)[Why? Why Bo? Tell me, Kate. WHY?! (hide spoiler)]

Alexa M

2.5**  
i read this in one sitting because i skimmed the F out of it LOL. im not a big fan of survival stories so what did i really expect right? i thought this would have a bit more mystery aspect and was wrong. this was so repetitive, literally every chapter was the same which is like duh since she is in the woods trying to survive but like not fun to read about ya know? I really thought the Before timeline was going to be a lot more fleshed out and interesting but no thats like 3 chapters and then BAM she's in the woods. okay anyways this book was not poorly written by any means and i can definitely see how people who are interested in survival stories would enjoy this! i think after this i am definitely going to leave this genre alone lmao. 

(view spoiler)[ also the fucking DOG DIES BRO LIKE WHAT THE FUCK  (hide spoiler)]

jannike van den biggelaar

This book was so confusing. I loved it. Im heartbroken because of Bo!

Grace O'Callaghan

*3.5 ⭐️

I’ll admit that this was going to be a three star before the ending. It wasn’t bad before it by any means, I just think it could’ve been shorter.

After her mother’s death, Jess has nowhere to go other than her Dad’s in Alaska. At least that’s where he’s supposed to be. But he actually lives off the grid in a cabin in the woods in Alaska. He has secrets he’s keeping from Jess. And when those secrets catch up to him, Jess must learn how to survive in the wilderness alone.

I wasn’t so sure about Jess in the beginning. She’s quite whiny in the beginning about her situation. I do completely understand why she’s like this. Having her mother die and then being forced to live in an isolated cabin is a pretty big change. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to read over 300 pages of whining. But once Jess is only relying on herself (and her dog, Bo) she grew a lot as a character. I enjoyed following her learn how to survive and toughen up.

My biggest complaint is that I wish we had more flashbacks to her time with her dad. She tells us that he told her all about how to survive, but we don’t see much of that. I just think it would’ve been more realistic if we’d seen more of them being together.

The pacing overall wasn’t the best. The middle dragged quite a bit once the flashbacks were done. I think it would’ve been good if we’d had Jess reflecting on some of the people from her old life. We got a bit, but not enough that I could see her outside of the Canadian wilderness setting.

All of the secrets surrounding Jess’s dad were very exciting. The ending was so explosive and satisfying in my opinion and definitely brought up the rating. There was one choice that I wasn’t the happiest with.

Overall, if looking for a pretty decent survival story with a bit of revenge thrown in there, this is for you. Not too sure if I’ll pick up more from the author but I did enjoy this.

Content warnings below:
(view spoiler)[dead parents, animal death, violence, murder, pain, wounds (hide spoiler)]

Kath Lau

The story is written in Jess' perspective and I really liked it. The "before" and "after" narration worked out perfectly as well. Jess is a great character. She made mistakes which was frustrating at times but it didn't stop me from rooting for her. Also, I liked the disability rep in this book. Some of the scenes were quite unbelievable but still entertaining to read. I personally didn't like the element of revenge in the story probably because I wasn't satisfied with how it was written. There were some action scenes that made me sit on the edge of my seat. The ending felt a little anti-climactic, in my opinion. But there's an incident towards the end that made me cry. I was somehow expecting it but it's still sad. Overall, this was an engaging and a fast read.

trigger warning: death of animals (graphic), car accident, ptsd, death of a parent

"This tense wire of a novel thrums with suspense. . . . this book] just might be the highlight of your summer."-The New York Times Cheryl Strayed's Wild meets The Revenant in this heart-pounding story of survival and revenge in the unforgiving wilderness. After: Jess is alone. Her cabin has burned to the ground. She knows if she doesn't act fast, the cold will kill her before she has time to worry about food. But she is still alive--for now. Before: Jess hadn't seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded. After: With only her father's dog for company, Jess must forage and hunt for food, build shelter, and keep herself warm. Some days it feels like the wild is out to destroy her, but she's stronger than she ever imagined. Jess will survive. She has to. She knows who killed her father...and she wants revenge.

Stephanie Vischer

Loved every second of this book.

I’m not sure if it counts as a thriller but I’ll refer to it as one 😉
The way the author was able to keep the story interesting, suspenseful and thrilling with just one person (and a dog) for the most part is just amazing.

It also felt sooo authentic! I never thought 'hm, that doesn’t seem possible' or 'that injury couldn’t have had these effects', etc. It felt very real, and on more than one account I asked myself how I would’ve dealt with a situation. If I could’ve handled it or not.

It just felt so close to life that I actually don’t think you can read this without asking yourself whether or not you would be able to survive in those circumstances, and ponder some other hard moral questions.

The storyline itself makes it feel wrong to say that I enjoyed reading the book, yet I did. The author’s style of writing was right up my alley and I read whenever I had a few minutes to spare - coffee brakes, lunch time, home after work.

I can recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading mystery and/or thriller. Though I think it’s not too overbearing on the thriller side, so I think this could be a good book to get your toes in and test the waters 😉

Jeni Enjaian

I have read several survival stories while I have read through the nominees for the SCLA book awards (third summer). Out of all of them I have read, Marshall's story tops them all. That's not to say that I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. What I appreciated was that Marshall dealt with Jess' disability realistically. She didn't magically summon the ability to do different things like others that I have read. 
The thing holding me back from five stars is the gruesome nature of some bits of the narrative (though not as bad as the wolves story from last year's list) as well as the rather optimistic epilogue. (I won't say any more to avoid potential spoilers.)

I Am Still Alive

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