How To Survive a Bear Attack
I received an ARC of the Audio Book, and this is why I’m rating the work
My first thoughts when finishing the book is, this is not really a memoir. Yes, there are parts of the work that deal with the main character and their journey through a troubling time. But that takes up less than half the book. I believe it is only 1/3 of the book that deals directly with the main character. The rest deals with information on black bears and their habits, a point of view from the bear, and a fictionalized retelling of an encounter between two campers and a bear.
The interjection of the bear incident turns the work basically into a fiction, while the information on black bears makes the work a research based story. Ony the insertions of the writer’s story makes it a memoir.
I always tell authors to never read the audio for the audio book. They are not trained for the vocals and tend to not add the right inflections. The pacing of the reading will also suffer.
While the book was entertaining, I knocked down the score due to the aforementioned points. Also took off a little due to the cover, for it seems lacking to me as a reader. If could have been so much better.
The good news is the editing of the work was well done, and from an audio book review, I did not find any issues. The work did read well, and it supplied entertainment and information I did not have concerning bears. For someone who spends a lot of time in the Near North of Ontario (usually another 4 hours drive north of Algonquin), I appreciate the research. As a reader, I’m a little disappointed with the memoir genre this went into, and suggest rethinking that step.
The book, though, is something that can be considered a must read for those who hike and camp in Algonquin Park, for it will help them in how to deal with their camp site, and dealing with an unintentional encounter with the wild.