01/22/2018
Set in the dense Alaska wilderness, Bradbury’s quiet yet haunting debut novel is equal parts back-to-the-land adventure story and foreboding psychological thriller. Fresh on the heels of her mother’s sudden death and an expulsion from school, 17-year-old Tracy spends most of her days hunting and trapping in the forest abutting her family’s backcountry home and kennel. When a hulking stranger attacks her in the woods, she defends herself and almost kills him—or does she? The plot is slow but gripping: it changes course after a 17-year-old drifter named Jesse answers Tracy’s father’s ad for a tenant and helps take care of the dogs in preparation for the approaching Iditarod. Though Jesse and Tracy become close in more ways than one, Tracy suspects he’s hiding something—especially after she realizes he lied about his past and might be connected to the person who accosted her in the woods. Bradbury builds suspense by keeping Tracy—and the reader—mostly in the dark about what’s actually going on until the gruesome reveal at the end. She also adds other elements to keep interests piqued: Tracy’s ability to sense her kills’ thoughts adds a mystical element to the narrative, and the detailed depiction of mushing is captivating. It’s a unique take on rural noir. Agent: Michelle Brower, Aevitas. (Mar.)
[Jamey] Bradbury cultivates vivid atmosphere with visceral action and a dynamic cast of characters…readers who like earthy, genre-blending, coming-of-age stories should be pleased.
An unusual love story and a creepy horror novel — think of the Brontë sisters and Stephen King...The architecture of the storytelling is faultless.
An unusual love story and a creepy horror novel — think of the Brontë sisters and Stephen King...The architecture of the storytelling is faultless.”
%COMM_CONTRIB%John Irving
03/01/2018
Tracy has kept a dark secret her whole life. She adheres to rules set by her late mother, and everything seems fine until she is attacked in the woods. After waking up alone, she must figure out what happened. When a new man shows up in town, Tracy feels like he is hiding something. To make matters worse, he insinuates himself into her family, and she is pulled into an alarming situation where she cannot tell fact from fiction and neither can those around her. This immersive novel is effectively told from Tracy's perspective. Not only are the situations Tracy finds herself in formidable, dangerous, and unpredictable, but so is the Alaskan setting. The ever-changing nature of the wilderness reflects Tracy's mind-set. Part thriller, part horror, this book will keep readers on the edge of their seats. VERDICT Give this visceral page-turner to those looking for a thriller with a twist.—Tegan Anclade, Lake Villa District Library, IL
2017-12-24
An Alaskan teenager on the cusp of adulthood is drawn to the feral life.Although the folksy and stubbornly ungrammatical voice of Bradbury's first-person narrator, Tracy Petrikoff, takes some getting used to, it conveys a visceral sense of her world. In the nearly two years since her mother's death, a month before Tracy's 16th birthday, her home life has been thrown into disarray. Now nearing 18, Tracy hopes to enter her first adult Iditarod. But her father, Bill, a champion musher, has given up the sport and is deaf to Tracy's pleas to let her train. Younger brother Scott has retreated into his books and photography. Other than tending the fleet of sled dogs her family still maintains, she is officially grounded—she's been expelled from school for fighting. However, Tracy easily evades her father's halfhearted discipline to set woodland traps. Her catches—martens, minks, hares, and squirrels—provide meat for the family and pelts to sell in the nearby village. Furthermore, trusty hunting blade in hand, Tracy gains essential strength from drinking the blood of her prey while also temporarily mind-melding with victims. One day in the woods, a strange man slams Tracy against a tree root and she blacks out. When the man, Tom Hatch, shows up at her home, bleeding from a stab wound, Tracy assumes she inflicted it. Returning to the scene of her supposed crime, Tracy finds a backpack containing wads of cash, enough to enter the Iditarod. Jesse Goodwin, a young drifter, appears, taking on the role of hired factotum. Tracy and Jesse develop a special bond after she learns Jesse was fleeing Hatch. However, Jesse is not what he seems. The ingredients of a thriller with surreal elements are all in place, as Tracy suspects that Hatch has recovered and may be seeking revenge. From here the plot veers off in directions that are not only unexpected, but at time beggar belief. Still, readers will warm to the unconventional persona Bradbury has crafted for Tracy, that of wilderness savant.A strange and soulful debut.
A uniquely American coming-of-age tale set on the Alaskan frontier where the borderlines between civilization and savagery...become blurred...A remarkable fable of growing up in the new world.
A taut, atmospheric thriller...Jamey Bradbury has crafted a stunning debut full of secrets and hunger, grief and longing. Like the cold of an Alaskan winter, this book chilled me and wrapped me in quiet dread.
Original and compelling.
[Jamey] Bradbury cultivates vivid atmosphere with visceral action and a dynamic cast of characters…readers who like earthy, genre-blending, coming-of-age stories should be pleased.
★ 01/01/2018
Set in the Alaskan wilderness, this debut introduces Tracy Petrikoff, the daughter of seasoned Iditarod racer; she is a musher herself, having competed in the Junior Iditarod, and she's planning to race in the Iditarod as soon as she turns 18. Tracy spends her days hunting and caring for the family's dogs. As the novel opens, her family is in crisis. Tracy's mother was recently struck and killed by a car, and her father and brother aren't coping well. Running low on cash, they have to sell several of their dogs to make ends meet. Meanwhile, an increasingly secretive Tracy hides the fact that a stranger who has moved into the shed on their property isn't quite what he appears to be. Of course, living in the wilderness can make anyone a little strange, but perhaps what has affected Tracy is more otherworldly and disturbing. VERDICT Bradbury has written a lovely and intense novel about the precarious balance of life and death, what it means to be human and fragile in a hostile environment, and, perhaps, what it means to be something other than entirely human. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage P.L., AK
