Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

I am a huge fan of Mindy McGinnis and was really looking forward to reading her newest release, Be Not Far From Me.  This novel did not disappoint.  I really cannot say enough good things about this novel.  It is phenomenal!  It is such an incredible story about survival and self-reliance.  At the same time, it is a story about the importance of those people who play a role in our lives.  It is about understanding that each of us is trying to survive every day, whether that is lost in the woods or just trying to navigate our daily lives.

Be Not Far From Me is intense and gritty.  It will keep you turning the page as fast as you can while you hang of every move that Ashley makes as she tries to survive.  You will watch in wonder at the extremes she goes through in order to make it out alive.  And as a reader, you will be rooting hard for Ashley to not only survive, but to find her place in world that is often cruel and dangerous.  

From Amazon:

Hatchet meets Wild in this harrowing YA survival story about a teenage girl’s attempt to endure the impossible, from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Female of the Species, Mindy McGinnis.

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.