Recent Reads: Into That Forest by Louis Nowra

Into That Forest by Louis Nowra
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Publication Date:  September 3, 2013

 

Format: paperback ARC
Source: BEA 2013 (Yes... I am that behind reading them). Receiving this book in no way effects my opinion or review of the book.

Rating:
 


 



Goodreads Synopsis: 

Two girls.
Two tigers.
Four years in the wild.

Two girls survive a terrible flood in the Tasmanian bush and are rescued by a pair of Tasmanian tigers who raise them in the wild. Their story of survival is remarkable, as they adapt to the life of the tiger, learning to hunt and to communicate without the use of human language. When they are discovered and returned to civilization, neither can adapt to being fully human after their extraordinary experience. Totally believable, their story will both shock and captivate readers as it explores the animal instincts that lie beneath our civilized veneer.

 Review: 
This is one of those books that I will likely remember snippets of forever, but it was a strange book on so many levels. I enjoyed the book, it was interesting... however there were a lot of things I was not too fond of.

So the likes: this was an interesting story, girls living with tigers and how they adapt. I found it neat how they became so animalistic and how they learned to interact with the tigers. 

My ehhhh moments: this book was so sad, everything about it was kind of depressing. First the girls experience a flood, then loss of family, then throughout the book there are other instances where I was gasping out of surprise and sadness at what happened. I even teared up a lot at the end.

My 'nope' moments: First thing, I think it is important to understand while reading this book, that they aren't tigers like we know tigers - they are Tasmanian tigers -- which are extinct... so I was super confused for a while about when this was taking place. I was also a little weirded out by Hannah in the beginning of her time with the tigers, she just all of a sudden is fine with eating a dead (not even plucked) non-cooked bird. Now I know that hunger does a lot of crazy things to a person but this seemed SO extreme given the timeline and I was a little put off by it.

Like I mentioned, I will remember this book for a long time... so it did have an impact, but not all good.