Survive by Alex Morel

Title: Survive

Author: Alex Morel

Release Date: 31st July 2012

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

Jane is running away from everything. From the facility she’s been living in, from her pain, from her guilt, from life. She boards a plane to Montclair, New Jersey, though her destination isn’t important – she doesn’t plan to be alive when the plane lands.

Jane has devised the perfect suicide. She’ll fall asleep on the plane and never wake up. But as she’s reaching for her pills in the tiny bathroom, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black.

Jane wakes amid the charred wreckage of a plane crash on a snowy mountaintop, and discovers just one other survivor – a boy named Paul. Lost in a perilous, icy landscape, with little food and water, their chance of survival seems small. But as the pair unite against the vast wilderness, Jane discovers a reason to fight for her life.

In a Nutshell:

This is a story about survival and hope. It’s about conquering your fears, perseverance and pushing yourself beyond what you think is possible, even when every aspect of your body is telling you that it’s impossible.

My Review:

This is a story about survival and hope. It’s about conquering your fears, perseverance and pushing yourself beyond what you think is possible, even when every aspect of your body is telling you that it’s impossible.

After a plane crashes in snowy isolated mountains, a suicidal Jane is left dumbfounded as to why she survived when others did not. But with the delicate rescue of the only other survivor, Paul, and the possibility of hyperthermia, she has little time to consider letting the elements take her away. Under Paul’s instructions, together they seek higher ground and shelter while desperately trying to figure out how to survive until rescuers reach them. Jane doubts herself and her capabilities, yet with a bit of tough love from Paul, her survival mode and instincts kick in. Even when your own life seems pointless, if someone else’s survival depends on you, there really is no choice in the matter. Jane very quickly see’s things from a new perspective and fights to keep the cold from devouring her and Paul. 

Survive was a gripping, emotional, fast paced read that I powered through in one sitting. I loved the relationship that formed between Jane and Paul and I was desperate to find out how their story, and fight for survival in the harsh, snow covered mountains, would be resolved.

There was also some cool little survival tips included. As someone who has never been in the snow, but who plans to be this time next year, I now know not to eat snow (obviously I hope to never be in this kind of situation in the first place)!

I also can’t help but compare it to another novel I read recently This is Not a Test in which another suicidal teenage girl is randomly stopped from carrying out her plan and is ‘forced’ to work with people fighting to survive. Both follow the same principle but I found Survive so much more enjoyable and gripping. I’m not sure why but I think possibly because it was more realistic; fighting the elements of Mother Nature rather than zombie’s. Survive also felt like it had more heart.