I’m going to preface this post/review with this: This post contains SPOILERS! And also, this will be a long post as I will be reviewing all 5 books, and then the saga in general.
This is quite simply the shortest saga/series I have ever read. Five books for a total of roughly 650 pages (I can’t remember the exact lengths of all the books, but the longest was 176 (Hatchet) and the shortest was 99 (Brian’s Hunt.))
I read Hatchet for the first time when I was in 5th grade. I hated everything about 5th grade, including Hatchet. Realistically, I think I hated being told I had to read Hatchet. (I am still not a fan of being told what I HAVE to read or HAVE to do. Book club seems to be the exception to that, and honestly, I think it’s because I know that my friends are reading the same books, and at least one of them will suffer with me if a book is horrible. Plus, there are no real consequences for me if I can’t finish a book. I won’t flunk out of book club… or, at least, I hope I won’t…) Hatchet was not, and still is not, a book I would generally pick up to read for fun. I chose to re-read Hatchet, and then the entire Brian saga for a few reasons:
- I remembered very little of Hatchet, 5th grade was a long time ago. I went into it with an open mind thinking that I would appreciate the story and writing much more as an adult, and because I was not being forced to read it. To me, I was reading Hatchet for the first time, again.
- My husband claims this is the only book he read in school. (I mean, probably, this is true. At least, required fiction reading. He tends to find more enjoyment in non-fiction books, specifically hunting, trapping, and mountain men. I guess I can understand why he read Hatchet, regardless of it being fiction.)
- I was in a reading slump, and these books are short, and not typically something I would read. Variety is the spice of life?
- I found 3 of the 5 books at Goodwill for 99 cents a piece. Brand. Spankin’. New. I ordered the other two from Barnes and Noble, used. I spent a whopping $6 on these books.
- This is probably the most embarrassing reason, but I have no shame in my reading game…. I am afraid I will not hit my Goodreads goal for the year, and this was a quick and easy way to check 5 more books off my list. #comeatmebro
So, now for the reviews…
Hatchet
The original. Copyright 1987.
Thirteen year old Brian Robeson is going to visit his recently divorced father in Canada for the summer. The pilot of the little bush plane Brian is flying on has a fatal heart attack, the plane crashes, and Brian is stranded in the Canadian wilderness to fend for himself, with only the clothes on his back, and the hatchet his mother gave him, until he is rescued. Brian has, quite possibly, the worst luck of any 13 year old boy I have ever hear of. First, the plane crash. Then, not knowing anything about the outdoors at all. Not having a fire, or shelter, or food, or water, or… anything, really.
This is where I think Brian has the worst luck of all. It is more than being involved in the plane crash with literally nothing. For every problem Brian encounters, he finds a solution… and then some “unexpected” event happens and knocks him back a step to make his problem prominent again. Examples:
- Brian has no food and is days-hungry. He scavenges for berries, finds some and gorges on them. Ten minutes later, he is extremely sick, vomits everything back up, and is back to square one until he eventually finds some raspberries, learns to fish, and learns to hunt.
- Brian has no shelter. He builds a small lean-to against a rock to protect him from some of the elements and to store some of the food he now has. A bear comes along and smells his stash of food, swipes away his lean-to trying to get the food. Brian has no shelter and has to rebuild.
- Brian has no fire. A porcupine comes wandering into his shelter one night, Brian kicks it and gets swiped with quills, therefore throwing his hatchet to try to hit the porcupine, which misses and bounces off a rock causing sparks. Brian eventually gets the fire going and can finally cook some fish and game, and lo and behold, a tornado rips through his camp and destroys his shelter, his fire, his little holding net of fish…
…and on and on and on. I understand that there has to be good and bad events to make a story come together and stay interesting. I just feel that in this particular saga, the good and bad were so predictable. Maybe not necessarily HOW the good would be turned into the bad, but I definitely could tell for every new thing that Brian learned or accomplished, there would be something to knock him back down. Would my 5th grade mind catch on to that? Hard to say, but probably, just not to the extent that my adult mind did. Also, Brian is supposedly in the woods for, I believe, 54 days. How many awful things could one human possibly encounter in those 54 days? Let’s see…
- the pilot has a heart attack and dies
- a plane crash
- stranded in the wilderness with only a hatchet
- mosquitoes and flies galore (if you have never been to Minnesota, or presumably Canada, you don’t know mosquitoes and flies. Trust me)
- gut cherries, which make you sick
- a porcupine which smacks your leg full of quills
- a bear which tears apart your shelter
- a moose which attacks you
- a tornado which destroys your entire camp
That seems to be a lot to endure in a short amount of time. But, aside from having the worst luck of any other 13 year old, Brian does fairly well overall until he is rescued. Which then leads us to book number 2…
The River
The beginning of The River starts with a couple men showing up to Brian’s house and asking him to go back into the woods (with one of them) to teach them how he survived in an attempt to better their survivalist classes. Brian eventually agrees, and, surprisingly, tells the pilot who drops them off that they aren’t unloading any of the gear they brought with them with the exception of Brian’s hatchet, a map, and a radio in case of absolute emergencies.
The River is a much slower paced book than Hatchet, and definitely less eventful. The biggest problem Brian encounters is a bad storm in which Derek, the survivalist who came with Brian, deems “emergency” level and reaches for the radio to call for help as a bolt of lightning strikes the radio, fries it, and also zaps Derek, putting him into a coma. *eye roll* Brian’s bad luck continues. Now, Brian is left alone in the woods with a man in a coma who will die if he doesn’t get proper medical attention, with no way to call for help. So, Brian makes a raft and flops Derek onto it and a-floatin’ they will go. According to the map, there is a trading post about 100 miles or so down river, and Brian hopes the map is accurate enough that he can make it to the post, and more importantly, the post is still operational. I don’t really recall any major events happening after Derek is electrocuted and they set off down river for help. I think, maybe, there was a bear and/or a moose, and they went through and extremely shallow part of the river where Brian had to basically pull the raft through. There was a waterfall of sorts that they encountered and Brian strapped Derek to the raft so he wouldn’t fall off on the way down. It worked, though Brian briefly lost Derek and the raft and spent some time looking for him. Eventually they make it to the trading post, they get help, Derek is admitted to a hospital, and as a thank you for saving his life, sends Brian a canoe which is named “The Raft.” End book 2.
I remember reading this book at some point before, although I don’t know why. I don’t believe it was required reading for school, but I also have no idea why I would have just randomly picked it up after disliking Hatchet so much. Either way, I remembered more about The River than I did about Hatchet. I don’t necessarily like it more than Hatchet, I feel they are about the same wavelength of interesting to me. I do think that Brian is stronger in this book than he was in Hatchet, even with everything he had learned being in the wilderness all that time. He was more prepared this time, maybe, is more accurate. I still feel as though Brian has the worst luck in the woods, and if he was my son, I would probably never let him out of my sight again. but then, that would make for a rather boring saga; “Brian joins his mother on the couch for an evening of Wheel of Fortune and crocheting a blanket in preparation for the coming winter…”
Brian’s Winter
Brian’s Winter is an alternate ending for Hatchet; if Brian would not have been rescued at the end of Hatchet, this story is what he would have endured instead.
Brian, despite being one with nature by this point, missed all the signs that winter was imminent. He was not prepared with dry wood to keep his fire going, did not have a weather resistant shelter, did not have food stored for more than a few days at a time, and most importantly, had no way of staying warm during the freezing temperatures he was about to endure. His strength and knowledge of the wilderness, although it was ever-changing, helped him to prepare for things he could not have expected to happen, and to think more quickly when a new problem would arise. He learned to follow tracks in the snow to make hunting easier, he was able to hunt larger animals because the snow and cold temperatures acted as a freezer and kept the meat longer. He learned to sew animal hides to make warmer clothes to protect himself from the elements.
This was, perhaps, my favorite book of the entire saga. This book made the most sense to me, the problems Brian faced seemed realistic and had realistic solutions as well as consequences. I also thought the writing in this book was the strongest of the entire series. Although it is still a middle-grade novel, the writing seemed a little more young adult to me. There was less repetition and more descriptions of objects and events. The story flowed more easily. The alternate ending seemed to complete the story of Brian being stranded in the woods. Hatchet felt like it was abruptly ended when Brian was rescued, and according to an author’s note in Brian’s Winter, apparently a lot of other readers thought so too. Brian’s Winter feels more complete, and more like the reality of what would happen if someone was stranded after a plane crash. One of the only things that didn’t make much sense to me in this book was that towards the end, after Brian had learned to follow tracks while hunting, he came across sled and dog tracks, followed them, and ended up at a little trapping cabin where he was introduced to the Smallhorn family. David, the father, says to Brian upon his arrival, “I was wondering when you would show up.” This was strange to me. Brian was obviously shocked that he had never seen these people but they had seen him, and not said a word or made any effort to ensure Brian was okay. Now, David says something along the lines of, “some people come to the woods and don’t want to be bothered.” Great, I totally get that. My husband is definitely one of those people. HOWEVER, David could clearly see that Brian was a kid, 13 at the time, and alone. It bothers me that David didn’t think to check on Brian, a child, alone in the wilderness in the winter, even ONCE to make sure he was there on his own accord and okay. That really, really bothers me. After that, the Smallhorns let Brian stay with them until their little bush plane full of supplies to sustain them for the next month or so returns, and ultimately, that is how Brian is rescued this time.
Brian’s Return
Brian’s Return was strange for me. I simultaneously liked it more and less than the first books in the saga. Brian’s Return starts with Brian returning to high school and trying to fit in after being stranded in the woods after the plane crash. He is very anti-social, not wanting to partake in typical high school things like gossip and football games and dances. He strikes the fancy of a young lady named Susan, who is the apple of the eye of a young man named Carl. Carl does not like the fact that Brian and Susan are friends, and Carl thinks that being a big football player, he will knock Brian off his feet with the door to a pizza shop. Wrong. Brian moves before Carl can open the door into him, instead hitting his friend and Susan. Out of self defense for trying to attack Brian and hurting his friends, Brian retaliates on Carl, beating him senseless. Brian is arrested and told he must attend therapy to get his issues under control. Cue Caleb, the blind therapist Brian sees for one, count them, ONE session before Caleb tells Brian he is not mentally ill or suffering from any sort of PTSD. (Brian does continue to visit Caleb, though, upon Caleb’s request, free of charge, to hear more about the woods.) He agrees that Brian was acting in self defense, and that after surviving and fighting off animals in the woods, Brian was defending himself the only way he knew how. Caleb’s suggestion to Brian is to return to the woods to, basically, recenter himself and take a break from normal life. Off to the woods Brian goes. He has so much gear with him this time, including tea and sugar, a treat he and Caleb shared during their conversations at Caleb’s office. Who goes into the woods to live off the land to recenter themselves from normal life and takes tea and sugar? This was where Brian’s adventure seemed to get strange. In Hatchet, he was literally scrounging for everything he needed, but now, he takes everything but the kitchen sink. This annoyed me because it felt like the saga took a complete turn into what Paulsen was trying so hard to avoid in the beginning. This book almost seemed forced to me because readers were pestering Paulsen for more of Brian (another author’s note.) Another thing I didn’t like and didn’t necessarily understand in this book was this man named Billy just all of a sudden appears with his canoe at the shore of Brian’s camp one day while Brian is out hunting. He sits down and starts cooking potatoes and onions over Brian’s fire, just makes himself at home, and Brian just kind of… embraces it. Strange. Stranger yet, the next morning, there is absolutely no sign of Billy anywhere. He is just gone. He tells Brian, the day before, that his “medicine” is a deer. (I believe “medicine” in this context is similar to “spirit animal” or something of the like. It was the only thing that really made sense to me.) The deer was looking a certain direction, continuously, and that is supposedly how Brian knew he was headed in the right direction while traveling. Later on, after Billy is gone and Brian is thinking about his sudden arrival and even more sudden disappearance, Brian seems to think that he is (sort of) seeing what he will look like in the future. Brian thinks that Billy was a good representation of what he will look like and be like: old, leathery, wrinkly from the sun and harsh weather in the woods. So, that makes me wonder if that means that Billy was a figment of Brian’s imagination the whole time, just a deep thought that he felt in his soul that made it seem real. (Think: Wilson to Tom Hanks in Castaway.) Brian continues on his journey, with his end point being the Smallhorn’s trapping cabin, but after Billy and the “medicine” deer, he decides to just wander the woods and head to the cabin before the plane is due to pick him up instead of spending the majority of his time with his friends. End of book 4.
Brian’s Hunt
This was probably my least favorite of the saga, and also the shortest, coming in at 99 pages. It was also the slowest, most boring, and most disturbing book of the saga. I didn’t really think much happened until the end, and even then, for the end of a five-book saga, was very anticlimactic.
I am not entirely sure Brian’s purpose for being in the woods this time, unless it is a continuation of Brian’s Return, where Brian never actually left the woods and was on his way to meet the Smallhorn’s. It never really says whether Brian has returned or was still in the woods, so I am going on the assumption that he never left and this is a continuation, because it is the only thing that really makes sense to me. I am also not really sure of the point of this book. Brian is out in the woods, presumably on his way to the Smallhorn’s cabin, and he encounters a dog that is wounded. He stitches up the dog, and they set off to find the bear that he believes did the damage, as well as find where the dog came from. There are really no difficulties for Brian during this adventure, other than he needs more food to feed the dog and needs to make sure that the dog doesn’t tear it’s stitches. Eventually, they get to the Smallhorn’s cabin and Brian finds David and his wife, and two of their three children dead, which he also attributes to the bear. So, a while later, the Smallhorn’s supply plane comes and they learn what happened and Brian tells the authorities that they need to find and kill the bear, and the authorities tell Brian they have no way of figuring out which bear it was, so they can’t kill it. Brian then takes matters into his own hands with the Smallhorn’s daughter, the only survivor of the bear attack, and they put their wilderness skills to use and track the bear’s prints and movements and eventually kill the mean old bear. The End.
Seriously, that is how the book and the saga ends. Brian and the dog and the Smallhorn’s daughter, with a dead bear they are about to skin. The most disappointing ending to a book or saga ever. What happens after that? Does Brian stay in the woods? Does he return home? Does he visit Caleb? What about the dog? Does she survive, ward off infection? I feel like there are so many unanswered questions at the end of this book than there have been throughout the entire saga. But, I guess Paulsen was perhaps tired of writing about Brian and wanted to move on to something else. The end of Brian’s Return states that was the last book in the saga, then four years later, he writes Brian’s Hunt. (Young readers are apparently ruthless when it comes to finding out what happened to Brian over the years.) Safe to say, that fifteen years later, there will probably not be another Brian book, or at least not one that fits with this saga.
Overall Rating
This is possibly the only saga that I have read, at least that I can remember at this point in time. I don’t typically like books in a series; I much prefer stand alone novels. I also like to give authors the benefit of the doubt and don’t usually rate a book less than a 3/5 unless it is absolutely horrifyingly bad. I also have to keep in mind that this is a series written for 10-14 year old kids, which I also typically do not read.
Hatchet 
The River
Brian’s Winter
Brian’s Return
Brian’s Hunt
Overall Saga
Librarian Wannabe 