A amazing story of bravery and just how far you go to survive just about anything that tries to make it impossible to do. As well as a story about friendship .

An amazing memoir about a teenage boy surviving a bear attack while on a six hundred mile canoe trip in Canada. This coming of age story will bring you nightmares if you’re a parent of a teenager. The measures his group took, his state of mind and ability to seek safety while horribly, unimaginably wounded. Brilliantly written.

This was so intense. A detailed account of the sheer terror and power of nature and how dangerous it can be. It gave me chills. True stories with this level of intensity are so disturbing.

While exploring remote areas as part of an educational project, a young man is attacked and mauled by a grizzly bear. The story builds background, giving us a sense of who these individuals are and how the attack will test their survival skills. With no good way to transport their injured, they must work together to make their way to the pick up point while avoiding any more dangers. I've been in areas such as described in this book and while beautiful, the rugged terrain and hidden dangers would test even the most experienced adventurer. An excellent book for anyone who has ever thought about setting off on a wilderness expedition.

Fantastic memoir/adventure set in the wilderness of Alaska. A group of young men go on a weeks-long river rafting trip in the remote northern section of the state. Carrying their supplies, camping in tents, hunting/fishing to supplement their diet, while traversing the rough terrain by kayak, they are in for the trip of a lifetime. The adventure is eventually interrupted by a brutal grizzly attack that leaves the author on the brink of death in a situation where a rescue is delayed by the weather and difficult terrain. I highly recommend this book.

***I was provided an ARC by NetGalley for an honest review.***

What an intense thing to go through! The canoe trip, the bear attack, and all that went on afterwards.
The author's descriptions were very good. I could picture the scenes so clear.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows the trip of a lifetime of Alex Messenger at the age of 17. A canoe trip that will take 40 days of travel through Canada's far north. Alex puts down his thoughts about the friends he is travelling with, the land they are crossing and the challenges they face on a daily basis. Their trip encounters a hitch when Alex is attacked by a bear on their 29th day in the middle of nowhere. They try to continue on to finish the trip until the extent of Alex's injuries call for him to be airlifted out to receive medical treatment.
The descriptive writing gives you a good feeling of travelling along with the group. It gives you an incite into a boy's journey that helps shape the man he will become.

This book recounts the true story of the author's trip through the Canadian wilderness at 17. Alex Messenger spent summers and winter breaks trekking through the wilderness building up to this longest and most remote trek available from Camp Menogyn. 42 days of hiking, canoeing, portaging.....sleeping, eating and living in the wilderness with five other teens. 42 days of wild rivers, lakes, and forest. Fresh air and freedom. A 17 year old boy's dream. Until.....

......the grizzly bear.

I love adventure stories, especially those set in remote wilderness areas. This book was such an exciting and enjoyable read. It grabbed my attention immediately and held it throughout. I can't imagine what I would do if I was badly mauled by a grizzly bear far away from a hospital or any assistance other than a group of friends. These boys wanted an adventure....and they got much more than they bargained for. It definitely proves wilderness is beautiful....but also very dangerous and unpredictable.

This is an incredible story of strength in incredibly dangerous circumstances. Great book!

**I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book from Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

The first thing you need to constantly remind yourself while reading this book is: Alex is 17 years old! Even without the bear attack, he spent a month canoeing in the Canadian tundra. That is impressive all on its own. I enjoyed that even though everyone is waiting to read about the attack itself and how he survived it (not really a spoiler, right?), he still takes the time to walk through the events in the days leading up to the attack. Several times I leaned over and told my BSA Scoutmaster husband that he really needed to read this book. What great insight into an amazing adventure! One drawback was that I did not feel like I was able to get to know most of the others on the trip with him. I wish a bit more attention had been paid to them, but can understand that it might take focus off of Alex and the attack. I did like how after the attack when the group is struggling to take care of Alex, that this is offset by a beautiful migration of caribou! It provided a nice little break from the tension of the situation.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for letting me check this one out.
If you've followed any of my reviews, or even read any of my work - you'll know I have a soft spot for woods based thrillers/horror.
I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere in BC, Canada. Hunting was a part of life and my grandfather had a trap line for many, many years. It was a way for him to bring in some extra money when he was laid off from logging. The wild has always been something that I've been told to respect. Things can change in an instant, no matter how well prepared you are.

This is the case for Alex and his group. Part of a wilderness survival type group - Alex and the other's head off far north, into the Canadian tundra, on a journey of a lifetime. Essentially 30 days of back country survival, living off of the land and testing their personal boundaries.

On day 29 - disaster. Alex is mauled by a grizzly bear. Now it's a fight against time - against infection, the possibility of rabies as well as the land itself.

The book itself flows along nicely. We get some fantastic wilderness descriptions and the accompanying photos were a nice touch.

Some people might be put off that the 'attack' part isn't a long section, but this is real life, not a movie. Grizzlies work to kill their prey quick, exerting as little energy as possible. Why Alex survived, who knows? But he did.

I really enjoyed the portion after the attack. We get to see the group band together and do what it takes to make sure their partner and friend makes it out alive.

I liked hearing the follow up at the end, how he was doing post attack. And while this may sound morbid - my only gripe were there were no photos of the attack damage. I think this would have really solidified just how phenomenal of an ordeal this was.

Really great read, made my heart hammer my chest when the bear arrived, but kudos on telling a very level survival story.

I have an acquaintance who was geocaching by himself on the eastern slopes of the Rockies in Alberta. He startled a grizzly and was attacked. He fought the bear and was able to walk out to safety, even with his injuries. As I read this story, I gained a little bit of understanding of what my friend went through.

Alex Messenger does a fine job of sharing the story of his 600 mile canoe trip through northern Canada. It’s a good read before the 29th day. And then of course there is the 29th day and the aftermath. The description of the attack was horrific. The description of attending to his wounds in the days that follow was not for the faint of heart.

Although this a story of young men on an adventure that goes bad, it is also a story of a man who loves the land he walks on, and respects the peoples who have walked on it before him. A good, easy read.

4.25 enthralled ★★★★✩
This book is for you if… a stunning cover, combined with an autobiographic survival story with lots of love for the wonders and weirdnesses of nature, wake your interest.

⤐ Overall.
Gut-wrenching doesn't even begin to describe what I've felt reading Alex's words. I think at some point I even experienced sympathy pains. The simplicity of Alex's story-telling bears an honesty to it that makes it hard for the reader not to be sucked into this book. He managed to portal me from my rainy home in Nürnberg to the Canadian tundra whenever I opened the book. It made it hard to put down and easy to come back, just what I look for in my reads.

⤐ What’s happening.
‘As my gaze snapped onto the horizon, the brown shape becomes instantly visible. It was not a musk ox. This was much worse.’

Alex and five of his friends set out for the adventure of a lifetime, paddling through the stunningly picturesque wilderness of Canada. What starts out to be a light survival trip changes drastically on their 29th day in the boat: Alex is mauled by a bear. Now the real fight to survive begins.
Con:
⇢ no rabies vaccine
⇢ grizzly bears are not the only threats nature holds
⇢ spending weeks weith the same 5 people is strenuous
Pro:
⇢ friends are expertly trained at treating injuries
⇢ landsacpe still mesmerising
⇢ nothing like getting bit by a bear to become friends for life

_____________________
Writing quality + easy of reading = 4*

pace = 4*

enjoyability = 4*

insightfulness = 4*

At seventeen, Alex Messenger was already an accomplished wilderness traveler. He had hiked and canoed through forests and mountains across the northern United States and into Canada, and so a forty-two-day expedition sounded like the perfect ending to the summer before his senior year of high school. And so he and five friends journeyed hundreds of miles from the nearest town to embark on a canoe trip that would test their wilderness skills to the limit. They were not quite alone, as a group of five young women were on a course parallel to theirs, but aside from a few brief meetings, Alex and his friends were alone. Everything was going fine for the first four weeks but on the twenty-ninth day, while Alex was exploring part of an island near their camp, he was attacked by a Grizzly bear. While he was fortunate to have survived the initial mauling, Alex and his friends had to make the most of their skills and supplies while pushing through the wilderness, while simultaneously aiding their gravely injured friend.

While wilderness adventure memoirs are a genre in their own right, few of the authors have a survival story as extreme as Messenger’s. How many of those who are mauled by Grizzly bears live to tell the tale? That Messenger did so– and that he kept his wits through the encounter– is a testament to his cool-headedness and survival training.

But The Twenty-Ninth Day is not entirely about the bear attack, which occurs near the halfway point. It is also a love letter to the wilderness and the story of young friends bonding in extreme circumstances. Messenger’s descriptions of the tundra flow with a sort of uncouth grace and his explanations of canoeing maneuvers would seem dry and unnecessary if he didn’t follow them up with descriptions of dangerous river passages and the threats posed by massive sheets of lake ice. What Messenger lacks in writing skill he more than makes up for in his passion for the subject.

“Finding the shells served as a reminder that even though we were bushwhacking, we were not the first people to walk this esker. We were guests here. The tundra of Nunavut had been home to the people who made that stone kayak stand, the man who fired those shells, and the countless others over the centuries. This ground held a history we barely understood, and secrets we would never know.”

On the day of the crisis, the titular twenty-ninth day, Messenger wakes up like it’s any other day and, finding that his friends have left camp to do some fishing, he decides to explore the area near their camp. Though it seems like a safe thing to do on an island in the middle of a deep river, Messenger soon has his fateful encounter with a Grizzly bear. Though he keeps a level head and does everything he was trained to do to ward off such an attack, the Grizzly bear charges him anyway. The description of the attack is riveting and filled with enough detail that one can almost hear the bear’s breathing and feel it striking Messenger.

In the wake of the attack Messenger– bleeding, disoriented, and afraid for his life– still keeps his wits about him and struggles back to camp where his friends find him and treat his injuries as well as they can while preparing to leave the island. The bear is still there, after all, and Messenger isn’t the only one afraid that it will come back.

What follows is an account of field medical treatment that is not for the faint of heart. Though they have packed extensive first aid kids, none of the young men are doctors, nor is the extent of Messenger’s injuries obvious at first. Because they are hundreds of miles from aid, they have to push on, with Messenger contributing as best he can while his condition slowly deteriorates.

Though The Twenty-Ninth Day is not the most polished of wilderness travel memoirs, it is memorable if only for the Grizzly bear attack. But what shines through the entirety of this story is Messenger’s boundless love for the wild places of the world. Though physically scarred by the mauling, he has refused to let it prevent him from returning to the forests he loves. The attention and passion he devotes to every part of his journey sets this book apart from many of its peers and makes it linger in the reader’s mind.





Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with a free eGalley in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion.

This was an amazing tale. I dont remember ever hearing about this on the news and it was wild to read about. Not only the fact that he survived a grizzle bear attack but then he didnt get evacuated until 7 days letter. The fact that it happened so long ago and was still written so vividly was awe inspiring. I didnt realize there was a glossary and got a little lost in the canoeing terms but the story was so gripping that it was easy to forgive. I wish there had been more at the end about the recovery but the epilogue seemed to wrap it up quickly

This book was vividly detailed and intriguing. I feel any true outdoorsman would love it. I was fascinated by the plot and interaction between characters. I highly suggest this book.i was given a copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review and I am so glad I ad the pleasure of reading it. It is highly suspenseful and written very well.

This is an intriguing read about a group of adventurous young men who traversed miles of lakes on Ann epic journey. Over halfway through the journey, the author, was mauled by a grizzly. Sustaining a serious leg injury he had to be helicoptered out. The writing was authentic and it feels as if readers are taking the trip themselves. I would have liked to know the year is occurred, but Messenger didn't include that information. He was very fortunate to have not only have survived the attack, but also to have recovered as well as he did.

It’s hard to give a star rating to someone’s life story and experiences so I am not going to for the purpose of this blog. Sorry not sorry.

On websites that require me to give my star rating, I will give this book 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5) because:

At times I forgot that I was reading a nonfiction story because I was so engrossed by the events that he was reliving.

Alex Messenger does a great job with recounting his experiences and delivering them to us as readers in a way that is entertaining while still sticking to what truly happened.

I mean, this man SURVIVED a GRIZZLY BEAR attack in the wilderness. Like how can I rate that badly? And not only did he survive, but he was able to go home and live his life in a way to help others do what he loved to do.

I enjoyed seeing these 6 boys turn into men in one trip into the Canadian Tundra. I not only loved seeing how Alex survived but how his friends rose to the occasion and made due with what they had.

Those boys lost a canoe, ended up short on supplies, figured their way out of an ice filled lake, and helped their friend survive a terrible Grizzly Bear attack.

If you are looking for a book similar to the Revenant, then you will be disappointed. There is no one on one with a Grizzly for revenge. No alone in the wilderness to die without any aid. There is no drama.

If you are looking for an intense coming of age story that is true then you will be very pleased.

I personally love hiking, kayaking, camping, and being outdoors in general so I may be a bit bias, but this story made me feel for Alex and his friends. Being in these situations can be difficult and strenuous on relationships and they made it all look easy.

There were several moments when I had to think about what I would have done if I were in their shoes.

Alex, thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope it resonates with others as much as it has with me.

- with thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Net Galley for this ARC text -

As someone who is fascinated by dangerous animals and how our interactions with them impacts their conservation, I was very excited to read Alex Messenger's The Twenty-Ninth Day. A sort of modern day Hemingway, Messenger takes part in a dangerous boating adventure in the Canadian subarctic with three other young men. A junior in high school at the time the events of the book take place, Alex will impress readers with his descriptions of this little-seen landscape, his fortitude, and his journalistic entries. The chapters are short and headed with appropriately adventure-themed quotes. My sole critique would be that the bear - though impacting Alex's life greatly - actually makes up a far smaller part of this story than the rivers and lakes and landscape (the book's true adversary) and Alex's companions sometimes fade into the background a bit. A solid armchair adventure for those who like their bears at a bit of a remove!

This is a very intense read with a lot of detail about canoeing in just about every scenario there is, I learned a lot about this sport, including the fact I never want to do what they did in this book. The story was written at times making me feel like I was right there with them. I highly recommend this book if you love the outdoors, canoeing, white water rafting and back woods extreme camping.

Instagram:
What better place than an #arboretum to get a shot of a #memoir about a wilderness canoeing adventure that ended in a bear attack? Alex Messenger recalls both being attacked by a bear on the taiga and the aftermath in vivid detail. I do wish it had said more about him and his relationships with the other teens on the trip. Thanks to @netgalley for the advanced copy!

GoodReads:
The author does a great job describing the attack by the bear, and his feelings in the aftermath, while also admirably maintaining an appreciation for nature. He expresses fear of the bear without demonizing it. However, this is a memoir, and everything surrounding this was a bit dry. The book jumps right in to the trip in Canada. There's very little information about Alex, who he was at the time What were his interests? What was his family like? Did he have siblings? (I still have no idea). These may seem minor but they give you a sense of knowing the person going through this difficulty, and the context is important.

Similarly when later Alex must name a person to accompany him to the hospital it is a very dramatic scene but I had no sense of who any of the other boys on the trip were or what his relationships with them were like. I know what a few people did but I don't have a strong sense of their relationship to Alex.

The wrap-up of the book was too quick with the medical procedures and recuperation being told as an Epilogue. Healing is a key part of the event, and it seemed a shame to me that it was left to the Epilogue. There was also a confusing scene about a sweat lodge ceremony, and I'm still uncertain if it actually happened or was a dream. While the Epilogue tells us Alex works as a wilderness guide and in search and rescue, it's unclear what role, if any, his experience in Canada with the bear attack played into this. I want to know what Alex thinks about wildlife and protection and preservation. How does he use this experience in his life and work now?

I appreciate that the author shared this experience with us, but I think more context was needed and more sharing about the impact on his life overall for it to reach deeper meaning.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*