Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis *REVIEW*

Be Not Far From Me

By Mindy McGinnis

Thank you to the publisher, HCC Frenzy, for sending me a copy to read and review.

I have this weird love of survival stories, no matter if they're in the form of a book or movie/tv show, and I was a little hesitant about this one since I haven't really meshed well with the other works by the author but Be Not Far From Me was one of the better survival stories as well as books from this author that I've read to date.

The book follows Ashley as she tries to survive on her own in the wilderness after she runs off from the camp she and her friends had set up when she witnesses her boyfriend cheating on her. I really loved this book after we start to pick up and get to the part where Ashley has to start surviving on her own. I enjoyed how the story was told through present moments and flashbacks as it allowed me, as the reader, to get to know the main character better since it was really only her on the page for the majority of the book. I think the pace of the story was really well done and it didn't feel too short even given its length. I enjoyed the wilderness aspect, and of course the survival, however some things felt like they just happened too coincidentally to be believable, especially the one scene towards the end. I did take half a star off due to it feeling kind of repetitive after a while; hobble, drink water, sleep. I get that its a survival story and theres only so much a person can do when survive but I felt like it needed maybe a few more believable twists to become a full five star read for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Be Not Far From Me and thought it was a pretty solid survival story even with the minimal problems that I had with it. I definitely recommend picking it up if you enjoy survival stories as well as characters who are really strong willed.

I should mention some triggers that I think some people might have issues with. This book deals with drugs, teenage drinking, cheating, death; both human and animal, gore and some bodily harm (out of necessity for survival). I just wanted to put these out there so if any of those might trigger you, please proceed with caution.

.5