Audiobook Review – Be Not Far from Me by Mindy McGinnis, Narrated by Brittany Pressle (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Survival
Length: 5 hours and 28 minutes
Publisher:‎ HarperAudio
Release Date: March 03, 2020
ASIN: B07WM2MLQF
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars

“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 with the red streak of infection creeping up her leg.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.

Thoughts: This was an amazing and intense survival story. I absolutely loved it and was completely glued to the audiobook. This book was so hard to stop listening to.

This book follows Ashley. Her and her friends go hiking into the Smoky Mountains for a night of partying. After some heavy drinking Ashley stumbles out of her tent to find her boyfriend messing around with another girl. Ashley runs off into the woods in a rage and falls into a ravine and severely injuring herself. Suddenly she finds herself in a life and death situation. Her friends assume she’s gone home but she’s wandering through the woods trying not to die. She will have to call on every survival skill she has and really push herself to try and make it through.

This was an intense and gory survival story. The book jumps between the strangely dull, yet intense situations Ashley is forced to survive in and Ashley’s past, as her mind wanders back to things that have happened to her throughout her life. In particular there was an older boy who was a counselor at her summer camp who loved how dedicated she was to survival and he really helped her learn. She had a bit of a crush on him at the time but then he disappeared into the Smokies himself to never return.

There is a lot of brutal and gory description here that was necessary to convey what Ashley was going through. Just be aware that this book isn’t for the faint of heart. I loved Ashley as a character. She had a tough childhood; her dad has always done the best he can but they struggled a lot financially. Ashley learned to make due and is a tough, determined character. Her determination is inspiring and her stubbornness to not let the stupid mistake she made rule her is admirable.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narration is very well done. The narrator captures Ashley’s sardonic humor and toughness perfectly without making things sound overly dramatic. This was incredibly hard to stop listening to. You just have to know what is going to happen to Ashley! I went on vacation halfway through this and didn’t have time to listen to it; I was dying to finish it when I got back!

My Summary (5/5): Overall this was a very well done survival story. I enjoyed how intense it was and how resourceful Ashley was. It’s never overly dramatic but does get pretty gory at times. The format of having Ashley deal with survival issues in the present and then spend time revisiting her past was perfectly done and really balanced the story out nicely. I plan on checking out more books by McGinnis the next time I am in the mood for an intense, yet personable, survival read like this!