Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis
Katherine Tegen Books/ Harper Collins
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 9780062561626
Ashley always knew that she was a survivor. She had been trained, and she trusted her instincts. Surviving the drama of high school though, may prove to be her undoing. Just another summer camp out with a group of friends quickly leads to a realization that forces Ashley, in a drunken stupor, to take refuge deep in the woods. Her rush for escape ends up leaving her in a fight for her life. Now she will have to use all of her strength, and every bit of survival training she has learned to make it through the woods to civilization, alive.
For every bit of this books that is about the Ashley's physical survival, so too is about coming to grips with her own emotional survival in a world that has done nothing, up to this point, but let her down. The isolation of Ashley's stint in the woods helps mirror the isolation that Ashley has begun to feel herself. A part of group, but not connected, and left to figure out where that leaves her, and how to then find herself. Be Not Far From Me connects us to our primal call for help unto anything out there that will give us strength and see us through.
Fans of Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone, and Gary Paulson's Hatchet will have no trouble keeping up and surviving along with Ashley as she makes her journey home.
-Kristie Hill, Library Associate
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