(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When Sequoiah "Jess" Cooper's mother dies in a car accident, the 16-year-old is sent to live with her father, a survivalist whom she hasn't seen in ten years.  Although he officially resides in Alaska, Carl Green really lives in a rustic cabin in a remote stretch of the Canadian wilderness.  There's no running water, no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no Internet, and no other people.  It's just the way Carl likes it.  Jess, on the other hand, feels like she's time traveled to the 1800s; she needs to find a way to beam herself back to civilization and the sooner, the better.  

Jess has only started getting to know her father when two men helicopter in, murder Carl, and set fire to his cabin.  A horrified Jess is left alone without food or shelter to fend for herself in a strange, hostile environment.  With no way to communicate with the outside world, she can't call in the authorities.  Knowing her father's killers will return, she has only one option—prepare herself.  With a frigid winter on the horizon, it will take all of Jess's skill just to stay alive.  But that's not her only goal.  She will bring her father's murderers to justice, even if it costs her her own life, which it probably will ...

I Am Still Alive, a debut YA novel by romance writer Kate Alice Marshall, tells a tense, gritty tale about one girl's determination to survive against all odds.  Jess is a tough, determined heroine, one for whom it's easy to root.  Her story is spare and grim, but it's also exciting and thoroughly engrossing.  I couldn't put it down.  If you like Hatchet-type stories, be sure to give this one a go.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of the Hatchet series by Gary Paulsen as well as other outdoor survival stories)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, and blood/gore

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of I Am Still Alive from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.