The Starlight Claim by Tim Wynne-Jones

The Starlight Claim by Tim Wynne-Jones

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoyed The Starlight Claim so much that I sat up most of the night reading it. Nate, haunted by nightmares and guilt, feels he has to try to find his friend Dodge. Nate takes an emotional & physical journey against the elements and some unexpected issues hoping to find his best friend whose body was not recovered with the others after an accident.

Nate and his parents have a good honest relationship, but he goes to their family cabin / camp alone (horrible idea) and misleads his parents into thinking a friend accompanied him. A very unexpected mess. I appreciated the small flashbacks sprinkled throughout the story which highlight the boy’s (Nate & Dodge’s) friendship since childhood. Enough family and friendship history is provided to carry the story along. Just the right amount of suspense and a sprinkle of humor.

My complaint (as a person raised around guns) is that IF you are somewhere secluded with BEARS and other dangers ... it is a little unbelievable that he didn’t HAVE a weapon on him at all times. It also took him way too long to retrieve the gun his neighbor kept knowing his life was in danger. Even though ... still a 5 star read in my opinion.

Plus moment ... You can’t go wrong with a reference to The Walking Dead (no it’s not a zombie story, but I did wonder if or how Dodge would appear.) No spoilers here.

I was provided this book free of charge for the purpose of giving an honest review.

Book description:

Fast-paced, evocative, and intensely suspenseful, Tim Wynne-Jones's latest psychological thriller finds a teenager setting his wits against the frigid wilderness and a menacing crew of escapees.

Four months after his best friend, Dodge, disappeared near their families' camp in a boat accident, Nate is still haunted by nightmares. He'd been planning to make the treacherous trek to the remote campsite with a friend -- his first time in winter without his survival-savvy father, Burt. But when his friend gets grounded, Nate secretly decides to brave the trip solo in a journey that's half pilgrimage, half desperate hope he will find his missing friend when no one else could. What he doesn't expect to find is the door to the cabin flung open and the camp occupied by strangers: three men he's horrified to realize have escaped from a maximum-security prison. Snowed in by a blizzard and with no cell signal, Nate is confronted with troubling memories of Dodge and a stunning family secret, and realizes that his survival now depends on his wits as much as his wilderness skills. As things spiral out of control, Nate finds himself dealing with questions even bigger than who gets to leave the camp alive.



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