When We Were Lost by Kevin Wignall

"They had been in a plane crash. Their plane had crashed, torn itself apart, and they had survived .... For now."

"There would be no rescue party, he was certain of that now. He'd already sensed they might have a long wait, but unless someone had actually see or heard their plane cutting through the early morning dark, they might as well have vanished off the face of the earth. Right now, they would have become a mystery, filling news bulletins all over the world. But this was the reality of that mystery--most of them were dead, and the survivors would have no choice but to find their own way out of this vast and undoubtedly hostile jungle."

My thoughts:  You know I love disaster/survival novels and When We Were Lost by Kevin Wignall is a good one. It centers around a bunch of teenagers from the same high school who aren't exactly friends... until their plane crashes in a remote jungle and they are forced to band together in order to survive. Tom is the outsider. He's not okay with blindly following orders from anyone else because he has his own ideas on how to survive. I liked him a lot. He's quiet, self-effacing and definitely not interested in being designated the leader of their group. But others keep looking to him for what they should do next...and he really doesn't want anyone else to die because of his own inaction. So in a way, besides being a story of survival, this is also a coming of age story.

The jungle itself has many hazards: snakes and other predators, rough terrain, sweltering heat and a lack of clean water, as well as other hidden dangers. But the greatest threat of all may be from the other people in their group. This YA novel is well-written, has great pacing, and I thought the teens themselves were well-drawn and believable. I liked Barney, the smart nerdy kid, and Alice and Kate, two fiercely independent girls who aren't afraid to speak their minds. Then there's George. And Shen. So many characters to like. Parts of the story did feel a little predictable, and I could have totally done without the prologue and epilogue (I didn't think either added to the story). But overall, I'd give this one 4 stars.

Happy Reading!

Girl Underwater

"Oxygen masks bounce on seats like coiled springs. Someone's leopard-print luggage lands in the doorway between first class and coach. Lights are flickering. Alarms blaring. ... It occurs to me then, finally, that we're going down. There are other people sharing this nightmare, two hundred of them, seeing the same horrors and experiencing the same despair and hearing the same staccato beat of air and engines. Our paths were supposed to diverge again in Boston, but they didn't. We're here. We're ending. Together."

 

Sophomore Avery Delacorte is flying home for Thanksgiving when her flight crashes in the Colorado Rockies. The plane lands in a remote mountain lake. There are only five survivors: Avery, three little boys, and Colin Shea, a fellow swimmer on Avery's college swim team. Together they must face the cold, the snow, the fears of three small boys, and the uncertainty that all of them will be rescued in time.

Girl Underwater by Claire Kells is more than a story of wilderness survival; it's also the story of the aftermath of that plane crash and how Avery is affected by everything that happened before, during, and after. Not only does she have to deal with the psychological and physical trauma, she has to deal with her feelings for Colin, and her hopes and fears for the future. This novel is nicely complicated, well developed and very absorbing. I read it in two days. But then I'm a sucker for survival stories, especially when they end well. And this book's ending made me smile.

Happy Reading!