On Your Radar: Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

Publisher’s Book Description:

Hatchet meets Wild in this harrowing survival story from Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis.

The world is not tame.

Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the realization that she’s alone – and far off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with nothing but the clothes on her back, Ashley must figure out how to survive despite the red streak of infection creeping up her leg.

Karen’s Thoughts: This is an outstanding adventure/survival story with some fierce feminism and deep, thoughtful looks at poverty and small town life. Authentic, real, raw and engaging, teens will devour this book.

And for those keeping track (like me), McGinnis plunges her female character into the wilderness while on her period and it’s talked about openly and without stigma and shame. Yes, we do need more of this in YA. Some people have periods.

I’ve read every Mindy McGinnis book and one of the things she does very well is authentically represent both poverty and rural small town life. BNFFM is no different. She takes that one step further in this story by plunging us into the actual wilderness where survival in the present and of the past becomes an imperative. And as dehydration, hunger and sepsis start creeping in, moments of flashback help the reader tie who Ashley is and where she has been into how she just might survive in a situation that seems truly un-survivable. Everything matters and it all comes together in satisfying ways.

Definitely recommended. Unfortunately it doesn’t come out until March of 2020 and I read it super early because I’m a fan. So go back and read the other works of Mindy McGinnis and put this one on your TBR list for 2020.

Filed under: Book Reviews