Ashley Hawkins is partying in the Smokies with her friends when she comes upon her boyfriend in a compromising position with another girl. Drunk and delirious with rage, she flees the scene and ends up falling into a ravine and injuring her foot. Now she is miles from help (as if she were a person who would accept the help of others, ha), and wandering alone in the threatening woods. She must endure countless challenges (at one point, she wakes to find an opossum chewing on her diseased foot - yikes) in order to survive. Her best hope, she believes, is to channel the wisdom she learned from her mentor, Davey. But Davey went into the woods and never came out. This isn't a comforting thought in her precarious situation.
I am impressed by this author's ability to secure and hold the reader fast. Her writing makes you forget that there is a puppet-master manipulating the strings of the dance before you. You become so deeply involved that you forget there is a writer at all (a mark of a good one). While I winced at some scenes, I never looked away. Ashley's voice of narration is unique. She is quite a character and her strength, while it sometimes gets her in trouble, carries her through tremendous obstacles. This was an entertaining and educational read. Still, I hope I never find myself in the woods, reaching back in my mind to pull forth the wisdom Ashley exhibits.
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