Gone Wild

Gr 8 Up—Two troubled teens meet by chance in a Vancouver wilderness park where they have gone to escape seemingly insurmountable personal problems. Eighteen-year-old Brooke fears that she is pregnant and will not go to university as her parents wish. A laid-back student but confident camper, she packs for a short trip to clear her head and think about the future. Nearly 16, Seth bolts from his house after his adoptive mother's abusive boyfriend chides him about trying to locate his birth mother. With nothing but the clothes on his back, he enters the park with no forethought and is soon drinking untreated water and willing to steal food. The two come together out of necessity after Brooke has a bear encounter, gets stuck in the mud, and is suffering from cramps. Seth tends to her for a share of the food and thinks she looks like how he imagined his birth mother would look. The relentless chill of wet clothing, the metallic taste of iodine-treated water, and diarrhea and other personal hygiene issues are among the realistic and gritty survival details. Chapters alternate between characters, as the omniscient narration strives to provide the thoughts and actions of both, but neither character is fully developed. The isolated setting forces them to deal with their problems, though resolutions come too easily, in lightbulb revelations and tidy endings.