You are on a plane flying to an exciting destination, but then something more exciting happens: the plane crashes and everyone on it dies, except for you! You are stranded with little food, no shelter, and no way to contact help. All you have is a hatchet, and the determination to survive. Welcome to the world of Hatchet (1986) by Gary Paulsen.

Hatchet tells a story of an unlucky thirteen-year-old boy named Brian Robeson who flies to Canada and, obviously, never makes it there. Instead, he’s all by himself in a Canadian forest. The rest of the novel plays the game of survival, with many exciting events along the way.

Have you ever felt desperately stuck somewhere? This is what Brian felt throughout the book. Paulsen writes, “He would never leave now, never get out of here”. A plane passes by him but it does not see him, despite Brian waving every part of his body to be seen. Not only did this happen once but twice! He feels hopeless and “stuck”. On the other hand, you don’t stay stranded forever: you either live, push through it or die. Brian refuses to stay where he is, no matter how hopeless he feels. Paulsen gives us a detailed description of methods of survival skills bound to inspire people who enjoy the feeling of surviving with limited resources. The book makes you think about what you would do. The book intensely describes his feelings and thoughts. It's a real page-turner!

I love the scenes in which Brian forages for food in beautifully outlined natural settings, creating a bond between the reader and mother nature. Paulsen writes, “Remembering the crash he had a moment of fear, a breath tightening little rip of terror, but it passed and he was quickly caught up in the beauty of the scenery. It was so incredibly beautiful that it was almost unreal. From his height, he could see not just the lake but across part of the forest, green carpet, and it was full of life. Birds, insects- there was a constant hum song...” At the same time, some extreme scenes of mother nature’s harsh conditions are not fit for a modern-day human.

The Hatchet has weaknesses. Firstly, this book is repetitive. It has a pattern of Brian’s predicament he triumphs and then sometimes bad happens; he triumphs and then something bad happens again; and so on. This is what I would definitely change about the novel, replacing them with scenes where he explores the plane to make survival tools from its ruin. I would also change the ending of the book. It was somewhat joyful, yet unsatisfying. Lastly, I would change the title. The title itself doesn’t make the book seem very interesting, because “The Hatchet” doesn’t tell you what the book is about in the slightest. So picking up a book with that title wouldn’t pique my interest. Overall, the book is action-packed and even educational, and I enjoyed reading it.

I rate this: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ IB stars out of 8 stars!