This is our review of the book we discussed at the Page Turners group meeting on 4 June 2026:

Jack and Wynn are best friends from college, who decide to take a canoe trip through the wilderness and enjoy a journey where they can live by fishing and foraging, taking in the beauty of the North Canadian landscape. Their plans are first scuppered as a wildfire makes progress through the forest. In their haste to avoid being caught up in it, they do not stop when they hear a man and woman arguing in the fog on the riverbank, but the next day they come across a man who says his wife has disappeared. Wynn and Jack go to search for her, all the while aware of the danger of the spreading fire. When they find her it is apparent she did not get lost but had been attacked. The friends find themselves in a battle to get themselves and the woman to safety before the fire and the attacker reaches them.

The Group had mixed reactions to this novel. Most of us did feel it was not to our taste to start with, we agreed it felt had too much detail. It describes the minutiae of the logistics of such a trip (the amount of various supplies, what they are carried and stored in, the pros and cons of various equipment, the make and model of canoes, guns, fishing rods, oars, etc.), which none of us were interested in.

Once through the initial descriptions and the story began to unfold most of the Group began to appreciate the style of writing with many stating how atmospheric they found it, with the tensions running underneath the main storyline, the dangers involved with the forest fire closing in on the boys increasing the suspension. There were many parallels in the book between the dangers of nature and the dangers of the boys own situation the tension building through the story. Most of the Group liked the descriptive style of writing and how the story drew you in but some did not like the story and it did not grab them. Some found it depressing and were waiting for something good to happen. The ending was sad and certainly unexpected There were many questions left unanswered such as what happened to the woman? The story seems to stumble to an awkward conclusion that some felt decidedly anticlimactic.

In conclusion it was agreed it was a well written novel with very good descriptions but some of the Group liked it whilst others did not. This is reflected in the scores which range from 5 to 8 with an average score of 6.85.

Jo Tovey, 23 June 2026