Into That Forest

This was a pretty amazing book. The reader was exceptional. When you first start listening you think - there's something wrong with her (the character? the reader?)... but then you find out - there IS... she's (the character) just different... built from a completely different set of experiences - and the reader really captures that. Really worth the read.. really worth the listen... just excellent. and then I went to look up about the Tigers (long extinct... except.... maybe they're not!)... I am really hopeful that they are not all gone... let there be a family or two - what an amazing animal!

This story was beautifully written. The writer writes similarly to Newberry Award winning Robert Newton Peck. Two girls survive in the jungle after being adopted by a family of Tasmanian tigers. What I loved was how the voices of the characters were consistently true to the time and place so that one could immerse one's self into the book and not be jarred by modern language. If you dislike eating meat, you may not like the book as much. I found the descriptions of what the girls ate and how they felt about it disturbing but exactly what one might expect. I have found a new author to enjoy and am very grateful to have read this book. I would recommend it to teens and adults.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was with Hannah the whole time, wanting to fit in right away with the tigers, understanding what was going on. The story is just long enough to get your emotions involved while not dragging on. My heart hurt for the girls and the tigers over and over again. It has sad points, but the excitement of the book makes it one I'd recommend to anyone.

I had spent over a month looking for the next book I would read, but I felt bored. Every book I picked up and started seemed like a character or a story I had read before hundreds of times. I wanted something new! something different, something that would grab me from the first page. I wanted a character I could care about and would remember long after I finished the book. I must have started 5 books before finally stumbling on this one. I came across this book on bookbrowse and when I read the description I knew right away that this was what I had been looking for. And it did not disappoint! The story was intriguing and engaging and the main character Hannah will live in my heart for a long time!

I really enjoyed this book. Such an off-the-wall premise for a book for someone like me who, well, doesn't live in the outback. I simply loved the characters, all of them, especially the "tigers". They were so frustrating at times, but that's a good thing. That tells me that I'm fully vested in the story. And I truly was. It was, for me, the kind of book I either had to force myself to put down so I could get a few hours of sleep before work, or I fell asleep while reading because my exhaustion finally won the fight. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for something inspired, a great deviation from the more mainstream-fiction rut we sometimes find ourselves in.

Hannah and Becky are lost emotionally and geographically when a boat ride from a picnic goes awry. The girls are taken in by Tasmanian Tiger couple and the girls learn to hunt, live and communicate with their tiger family. I was mesmerized by the story of the girls living with the tigers, how they learned to hunt, the passion they all had for the hunt and the family they became - human and dangerous animal. I was fascinated by how the girls adapted to their new lifestyle and how eventually the became less 'human' while still maintaining their 'humanity', The book became disappointing when the girls left the tigers. I do understand that at some point the girls would have to leave the tigers behind in order for them to survive since the tigers were so heavily hunted. I think the book would have earned 4 stars for me if their time in the wilderness had been prolonged. Overall, a good, quick read. Great for young adults to explore the themes of friendship, loyalty, love, humanity and empathy.

I ordered "Into That Forest" knowing it was different that most of the books I read. Even though it was an obvious work of fiction, the author made the girls seem real and that the tigers could have raised them. The story was sad, but parts were funny and warming. The hunting by the tigers and girls were exciting and I could imagine if you were starving a "fresh kill" wouldn't be bad. Also the role reversals where the girls helped the tigers as well as the tigers helping the girls was fitting. The way it was written also helped in the "real" story idea. Hannah never learned to read or talk well, in fact she learned "tiger talk" and had to relearn English. That showed and made her endearing.

The basic problem with this book is that the story is not believable. The narrator claims she "lost" all her language and has had to relearn it, but the only way this is expressed is that she uses "was" for "were" and vice-versa. Second, I found it hard to believe that a tiger, having just given birth, would choose to adopt two nearly girls who wash up on the shoreline. Third, humans do not run faster on all fours. We are simply not built that way, so that to say the girls could run as fast as the tigers by running using both arms and legs unfortunately stretches the credibility of the narrative to the breaking point.The real story here seems to be the relationship between the two girls, one who longs for home and one who longs for the wilderness. When describing the narrator's longing for the closeness the girls experienced at times while "missing" from civilization, the story hits the mark. But for the most part, unless you are completely willing to suspend your belief in reality and read through a pretty sloppy use of pidgen, the book just isn't very good.

It's strange to think that, under the right conditions, humans can revert back to the wild state our ancestors worked so hard to detach civilised society from. After all, we still have the tools; keen eyesight and hearing, a decent sense of smell and a predators' ability to problem solve, we just fail to utilise them, or simply employ them in different ways. And regressing to the wild-side is exactly what happens in Into That Forest; stranded in the Tasmanian wilderness, two young girls, Hannah and Becky, are adopted by a pair of Tasmanian tigers and spend the subsequent four years learning to hunt, read the outback and generally live as wild animals.As the girls integrate themselves with their new parents, they lose the use of English, instead opting to employ the grunts, snarls and body language of the tigers. They also disregard their clothes and reject the two-limbed approach to running. The harsh realities of the wilderness also start to stimulate the girls' animal instincts; they begin to give into the passion of the hunt and even develop a taste for warm blood and raw flesh ‒ there are no punches pulled here, this is a full and, at times, brutal transformation.The book is narrated from the perspective of a seventy-six-year-old version of Hannah (in a slightly non-standard English) as she looks back on her time with the tigers. However, this doesn't take away from the deeply absorbing plot, far from it. The events are described in such a way that a subtle sense of foreboding begins to infiltrate the text, and this foreboding is realised in a series of heart-wrenching events beginning around the book's halfway point, and culminating in the devastatingly effective ending.A central theme is the concept of wilderness, or, more specifically, the question: once the wilderness is inside you, can you ever truly leave it behind? But there are other themes at play too, perhaps most notably the effect of loss (Hannah loses her parents early on and the tigers adopt the girls having been robbed of their own cubs) and these themes intertwine wonderfully, inferring the novel's ultimate question: if you lose something precious, would you want it back even if it's changed?Often with a novel like this, it's the portrayal of the animals that can be the let down ‒ they can be too Disney-fied, stifling the immersive effect of the prose no matter how good the writing. But that's just not the case with Into That Forest; the tigers (Hannah names them Dave and Corinna) bite the girls when they don't like something they're doing, viciously establish a precise feeding order, and, when another male tiger arrives on the scene, battle commences over mating rights with Corinna. It's a wonderful account of predatory life and contains some beautifully written, intimate moments which are all the more touching because of the savagery surrounding them.The final thing to say about Into That Forest is that the text is interspersed with the occasional illustration. Joe McLaren's drawings are beautifully subtle, and mirror the powerful effect of the sublime and deceptively simplistic writing. Together, both text and illustration ensure that thoughts of Hannah, Becky and the tigers will linger in your mind for days after you've finished the novel, probably much longer.

This was recommended to me by a young friend who enthused so much that I bought it on kindle straight away. I was not disappointed. A difficult story to read sometimes but the characters developed so much that I was sad to reach the end. I wanted to know more about life in Tasmania and the strange animals that lived there, including some humans it seemed! Great story telling with an anthropological twist.

I enjoyed the story immensely it had all the elements of a factual account but was a novel it I'd amazing how many species have been wiped from this planet through our ignorance however looked on the Internet at some footage from Tasmania from 2012 of what can only be a tasmanian tiger walking slowly up a hillside maybe just maybe they are not all dead yet.

This is a fabulous story. I was completely smitten, I felt I was with them every inch of the journey. I have given this to my year 7 book club to read. We meet this week, I know some of them have struggled with the language, but I hope they have pushed through and accepted the challenge.

First book I've read for a long time and it kept me captivated from the start. I will certainly telling my friends and family about it.

Absolutely loved it. The language is weird to begin with, but you get used to it. A wonderful story of friendship.

horrible style of writing. avoid if you don't like ungrammatical patois

Great quality fast delivery

Oh my, what a read! It took me a couple of pages to adapt to the style of writing but once I got used to it I didn't notice it. Such a beautiful story, very eye opening and emotional. I feel like it's changed a part of me forever.

the book itself was in great condition and the story itself is a work of art i could not put it down a must read. tragic but inticing with a ray of light at the end

I found this novel intriguing, an unusual tale that held my interest throughout. The story flows well and although initially the dialogue seems strange, after a few pages it seems natural. Recommended.

This book was such an amazing read. The story was told in such a way that i felt i was a part of the story, a ghost watching over the two little girls as they learned how to survive. I would recommend this to anybody who loves books that are heart warming to there core.

The book arrived in good time, but the sleeve was tatty at the edges and gave the book a 'used-very good' appearance. It was a gift for my cousin but I don't think he noticed.

I dont read much, but I couldn't get into this book. It is intentionally written with poor grammer which I kept trying to correct as I read- very annoying.

Haven't read anything like this before, most unusual.Can't quite decide if I liked it or not.Might have to read it again!