Blood Mountain by James Preller

Abstract

Reviewed by: Blood Mountain by James Preller Wesley Jacques Preller, James Blood Mountain. Feiwel, 2019 [240p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-250-17485-7 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-250-17484-0 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-7 Almost immediately after the Taylors—big and brawny dad, thirteen-year-old star athlete Grace, eleven-year-old brat Carter, and shepherd mix Sitka—arrive on the portentously named Blood Mountain for a family hike, everything goes awry. Carter races up the hike path as if to make a point, and while their dad gives the go ahead to Grace speeding up to keep tabs on her little brother, he struggles with the path himself, eventually becoming separated from the children and subsequently suffering a heart attack alone on the trail. Grace and Carter are lost, and when Grace takes a bad tumble, severely injuring her ankle and head, Carter prioritizes proving himself over staying at his sister's side and awaiting help. The third-person narration floats inventively from the perspectives of the children to a potentially threatening but visibly traumatized military vet lurking in the mountains to Makayla, a nature-loving ranger from Brooklyn, to some elegantly anthropomorphized natural elements surrounding the story, which gives this survival story a unique sense of the mountain as omniscient storyteller. The staunchly off-the-grid vet eventually provides Carter shelter without making it clear whether or not there's any choice, and Makayla eventually finds Grace at the end of the fifth day on this mountain. By day six and the novel's conclusion, Makayla is able to reunite the whole family, and her non-confrontation with the vet reveals a shared sense of respect and reverence for the natural world that each of the characters—and readers who ever ruminate on running away from it all—come to in their own way. [End Page 136] Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois