Castaway with a companion and better ending.
You know it promises to be a good book when the first sentence is “I AM DRUNK and about to chop my hand off.”
A woman has awoken on an island but has no memory of what happened or who she is.
Through her POV, we are treated to an endearingly sarcastic narration of survival on a desert island. I thoroughly loved being in her head as she experienced dehydration, fever, and suspected hallucinations. Despite her circumstances she always retained a sense of drive and respect for luck and good fortune.
She soon discovers she is not alone and she sets out through the jungle to discover who has been watching her. Will the mysterious footprint lead to her savior?
This short book was really good. I wouldn’t have dreamed of putting it down. There were exactly the right amounts of description and dialogue. Always interesting and never boring. We don’t even discover who the castaway really is until the very end.
I was really blown away by a writing choice the author made toward the end. Where who the castaway was is referred to as a completely different person. And that was just genius to me. Really worked to make you feel how separated from that woman she was to the island person.
The ONLY thing I did not care for was the French dialogue used without a translation. The author quickly went into English so that we would understand, but that first bit was still confusing to me.
But really, this was super good.
I recommend to those who love the outdoors, survivalists, romance, dogs, backstory, broken word, and clams…