True Grit meets The Road in this post-apocalyptic psychological thriller--narrated by a young girl who has just learned that her adopted father may be a serial killer, and that she may be his next victim.
In the remote wilds of a ravaged land, Elka has been raised by a man who isn't her father. Since finding her wandering in the woods when she was seven, he has taught her how to hunt, shoot, set snares and start fires--everything she needs to survive. All she knows of the world outside is gleaned from whispers of a cataclysmic event that turned the clock back on civilization by a hundred and fifty years and reduced governments and technology to shambles, leaving men at the mercy of the elements--and each other.
Everything changes when Elka learns that the man she has been calling father is harboring a terrible secret. Armed with nothing but her knife and her wiles, she decides to escape his clutches and sets out on a long journey to the frozen north in the hope of finding her long-lost parents.
But as the trail of blood and bodies grows in her path, Elka realizes that daddy won't be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she's going to survive, she'll have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about what he's turned her into.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I bought this book because it was suggested to me by Audible based on my previous books listened to. Now, these suggestions are usually hit or miss. Often as not, it's a miss. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised this time!I started listening to it on my way to work one morning and had to drag myself out of the car. I sat in the car listening to the book until the very last minute for me to get inside the school on time. It was that good from the start!! The next day I listened to it, Amber was in the car with me. She told me I couldn't listen to it if she wasn't in the car too. She had gotten hooked. Needless to say, it played in my car every time the two of us were together and both of us would come up with reasons to go somewhere in the car. It was THAT GOOD!The book is set in post apocalyptic what sounds like British Columbia because she keeps calling it "The BC". Elka is lost in the woods as a child and is found by a man she calls Trapper. Trapper takes her in and raises her as his child. He's not exactly loving to her but he does seem to care about her. He teaches her to survive in the wild (something that will prove to be helpful later on) and to always be on her guard around strangers. When she is older, she finds out that Trapper is not the man she thought he was. Now, she's on her own, trying to survive in the wild and Trapper is looking for her. And it's not because he wants to bring her back home safe and sound.... She decides to go North to search for her parents who left her as a toddler so they could go make their fortune in the Yukon. The people she meets, both good and bad, make an impact on Elka and change her in ways she never could have imagined. I was late to work a couple of days just because I had to find out what would happen next. It kept me (and Amber) enthralled the entire time we listened to it. Never once was I tempted to fast forward or skip over parts. This was an AWESOME book and I plan on buying it in actual book format to give to my dad. I give this book 5/5 stars~Laurie
