Junior Library Guild

• A suspenseful tale of survival. Tension builds as additional details about Tom’s kayaking accident are slowly revealed in well-paced flashbacks and his situation becomes dire as months go by and colder weather approaches.
• Tom is a strong protagonist. The first-person narrative is compelling, and Tom’s reflections on his relationship with his father and memories of his late mother add emotional complexity to the story.
• Paul Greci writes with authority about Alaska’s Prince William Sound, capturing the beauty and brutality of the environment: “At the shore my stomach clenched when I saw the continuous white blanket in the high country. Snow had fallen and accumulated up there while it had rained at sea level. And the snow line was lower than I’d seen it. I hoped it wouldn’t get any lower, but I knew winter was closing in.”
• The ending is satisfying, with a genuinely surprising yet believable reveal.