Book Review: I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

by The Book Pup on [Current Date]

Blurb for the book (on Goodreads):

After
Jess is alone. Her cabin has burned to the ground. She knows if she doesn’t act fast, the cold will kill her before she has time to worry about food. But she is still alive—for now.

Before
Jess hadn’t seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded.

After
With only her father’s dog for company, Jess must forage and hunt for food, build shelter, and keep herself warm. Some days it feels like the wild is out to destroy her, but she’s stronger than she ever imagined.

Jess will survive. She has to. She knows who killed her father… and she wants revenge.

My Summary:

After a tragic accident kills her mother, Jess is sent to live with her survivalist father in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as she's starting to adjust, violence from her father's past arrives, leaving her completely alone in the brutal wild.

With winter closing in and only her father's dog as a companion, Jess must use every survival skill she's learned to stay alive. But survival in the wilderness is brutal, unforgiving, and sometimes heartbreaking.

A story about resilience, survival, and endurance in the face of impossible odds.

My Review

⚠️ MAJOR DISCLAIMER: I'm sorry if you loved this book, but I absolutely HATED it. ⚠️

⚠️Warning: This review contains SPOILERSSSSSS ⚠️

Like, genuinely one of the worst reading experiences I've had in a while. This was a 1-star read for me, and honestly, if I could give it less, I might. I know some people connected with this survival story, but I am NOT one of them. 💔

Let me explain why this book made me so frustrated and upset.

It was not only very boring, but REPETITIVE. 😴🔄 The entire book is just... Jess surviving. And I know this is a survival story but this was repetitive on another level. Day after day after day. She's cold. She needs food. She builds something. She's still cold. She needs more food. She does another survival task. Repeat. REPEAT. REPEAT.

There wasn't an actual PLOT. 🎭❌ Seriously. The setup happens (father dies, Jess is stranded), and then the rest of the book is just... existing. Surviving. There's no investigation into who killed her father, no plan for revenge or justice, no journey toward anything. She's just in the woods, trying not to die, for hundreds of pages.

A book needs more than just "character endures hardship." It needs a story arc, character development, forward momentum, SOMETHING. This had none of that. It was just repetitive survival scenarios that felt like they were going nowhere. 🌲😕

Now, let me talk about why I'm not just bored but actively UPSET by this book:

The main character has a dog companion—literally her ONLY companion—that helps her survive throughout the entire book. This dog is her emotional support, her survival partner, her reason to keep going. You get attached to this dog because it's the one bright spot in this bleak, repetitive survival story (also because you can be a natural dog lover like me). 🐕💕

And what does the author do? Makes the main character SHOOT THE DOG at the end to relieve him of his pain from injuries. 😭💔

*lets that sink in*

I'm sorry, WHAT?! 

After everything, after this poor dog helps her survive, after we've spent the whole book with this being her one companion, the author just... kills the dog. In a brutal, traumatic way that the main character has to carry out herself.

And it's not like this leads to some meaningful resolution or character growth. It's just SAD. Pointlessly, cruelly sad. 😢 Injuries can be HEALED. 

As you can see from my name (The Book PUP), I LOVE dogs. I can't stand seeing them killed, let alone by the main character. 

My next point: In the end, NO ONE is alive except the main character. Her mom: dead. Her dad: dead. The dog: dead. And ALL her home, belongings, everything is DESTROYED. She's left with literally nothing and no one. 🏚️💔

If you're okay with sad/VERY bittersweet endings, you MIGHT like this book. But honestly? This isn't even bittersweet. It's just BITTER. There's no sweet. There's no hope. There's no redemption or growth or meaningful resolution. It's just "congratulations, you survived, but you lost absolutely everything and everyone and you're traumatized forever."

Where's the payoff? Where's the point? What was I supposed to take away from this story other than "survival is hard and everything terrible happens and then you're alone"? 🤷‍♀️

I don't mind dark books. I don't mind sad books. But I need them to MEAN something. I need the darkness to serve a purpose beyond just being bleak for the sake of bleakness. This felt like just piling misery on top of misery without any narrative purpose. 😞

I felt like I wasted my time reading this. It gave me nothing—no entertainment, no emotional catharsis, no satisfying story, no characters I could root for (because they all die!), no hope, no meaning. Just repetitive survival descriptions and then soul-crushing sadness at the end. 💔

If you love bleak survival stories where everything goes wrong and everyone dies and there's no real plot, maybe this is for you. But for me? This was a miserable reading experience that I wish I could unread. 😤

Life is too short to read books that make you this unhappy. I should have DNF'd this one, but I kept thinking "surely it gets better, surely there's a point to all this." There wasn't. Learn from my mistake. ⚠️

1/5 pawprint 🐾 (and that's being generous)

You can find the book on Goodreads here.

Who I think this book is for: People who enjoy bleak survival stories with no plot, readers who don't mind repetitive narratives, anyone who's okay with VERY sad/bitter endings where literally everyone dies and everything is destroyed, and people who can handle animal death (especially traumatic animal death).

NOT recommended for: Anyone who wants an actual plot, readers who need hope or meaning in their stories, people who love dogs (PLEASE protect yourself and skip this), anyone looking for character growth or satisfying resolution, or readers who prefer stories with purpose beyond just "everything is terrible."

Content warnings: Animal death (graphic and traumatic), human deaths, violence, isolation, starvation, extreme cold/survival situations, hopelessness, depression

Happy reading (literally anything else)!

The Book Pup

P.S. I'm going to go read something happy and hopeful to cleanse my brain from this experience. Why did I finish this book?! 😭📚

P.P.S. Seriously, if you love dogs, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Save yourself the heartbreak. 🐕💔