The first half of this story was a very entertaining survival-type story, and I gravitate towards those like a moth to a flame. But then the second half took a very jarring and odd turn, that I just didn't enjoy.

Josh is on the last part of his leadership camp--a solo night in the wilderness--when an earthquake destroys the rest of camp. Josh and three others leave the campsite and head into the Alaskan wilderness in a race for survival against the elements, starvation, and time.

Hostile Territory had a solid, albeit familiar premise. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat. There was way too much time jumping between chapters to be effective. Okay for middle school readers, but just not solid enough writing for high school. There are better survival stories out there.

A small group of teens on a solo camping trip find themselves trapped in the wilderness after an earthquake wipes out their base camp and some of their friends. The ragtag group of four must hike it out to civilization before they become snack food to the local wildlife or they starve. The survival part was interesting but I lost interest after it turned into a paramilitary maneuver instead of just getting out of the wilderness type of story. While I think it will appeal to some teens who need a storyline with all action and adventure all the time, it wasn't my kind of read. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

This book had a lot of potential that it failed to live up to. The story sounded a bit like Tomorrow When the War Began, but what we got was what feels like two separate stories. The portion that is survival story was actually quite compelling, but by the time it got to the military/political parts I was through with it. I DNF'ed it around 60 percent. Unfortunately, this is not one I would recommend to others.

Hostile Territory by Paul Greci was an awesome read! First, let me say that when I began the book I already had chosen the exact student(s) that I wanted to read it. This book was one that any teacher or librarian could use not only to teach story elements but life skills—perseverance, self-actualization, etc.

At the beginning of the book, Josh goes to leadership camp for the summer. As he begins his challenge with three other students, an earthquake hits Alaska and almost kills him and the three other campers who are also on this challenge. Over the course of the story, the four endure hardships and challenges to become friends.

I wish that I still had the freedom to decide what my students were reading, but I do not. I will, though, be making a trip to the librarian asking for a classroom set of books in case we are allowed some Lea way to teach over and beyond set criteria.

The first half of this book was an exciting outdoor adventure story set in Alaska. I was fully immersed in the story and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. It was not predictable nor trite. I really enjoyed it and would recommend the first half to everyone.
Then about half way through we the reader (and the characters) got a breather to set up for the second half of the story. This is where the story fell apart for me. The story line became rushed, the dialogue became repetitive and the characters got annoying. Then it all just ended with a quick wrap up. This was so disappointing to me because the writer had me hooked through the whole first half.
There are probably 5 or 6 Alaska stories out there now as well as outdoor adventure stories. I would say this falls in the middle of the pack.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts are not affected by the free copy.

No one is more disappointed than I am about me having to put this on my DNF pile. Though I technically did read the ending, I stopped about halfway through and skimmed pages after that. Maybe it's partly my fault for not reading the whole synopsis of this book and just going in assuming it was going to be a simple tale of survival. But yeah, this is NOT just a simple tale of survival. If anyone else is going in thinking that's all there is, I feel the need to say something so they won't end up disappointed and upset like I was.

Honestly, I love survival fiction, and I don't feel like there's enough of it anymore. It's getting harder and harder to believe that such a thing is possible with our technology. At first, this posited a believable enough scenario that I was engrossed in these four struggling to survive as they trekked across the Alaskan wilderness. They encountered real, believable dangers like grizzly bears, moose, blisters and allergic reactions, the search for clean water and food, and of course clashing personalities. We don't get to dive too deeply into three of the characters since this is done in first person POV, but I still think that was all done pretty well.

Yet there are a few things in the survival scenario that were frustrating or could've been expanded on more. We modern-day people would certainly struggle to survive in a hostile environment, and I guess I can accept that these kids at first don't really think of doing things differently. But when Josh (the POV character) says that they can't fish or hunt, I have to squint my eyes suspiciously. Were there really no animals at all besides the dangerous ones? No rabbits or birds or fish? Did they not have access to rocks and thick branches to make into improvised weapons? I'm not going to pretend I wouldn't be crying and freaking out, but if it was between starving and stabbing a fish with a sharp stick, I'd learn how to make that stick sharp enough to stab the fish. And I don't know Alaska well, but if it was getting dark enough for stars to come out, couldn't they tell directions by finding the North Star? One character is basically a walking Wikipedia page, knowing things from the behavior patterns of moose to how to climb trees. Couldn't she, at least, have suggested these alternative methods?

After a while, I was starting to suspect there was more going on than just a simple survival story. There were some weird things going on and the kids seemed to keep running into problem after problem. Again, I know these are real hazards, but to run across so many in the span of a few hours was super suspicious to me. But then I hit the halfway mark and I found out I was right, just not exactly. Either way I would've been upset, but this... I don't want to explain for spoiler reasons, but let's just say I don't like it. Not just the situation itself but the way the kids blindly believed everything they were hearing. Even more, the way Josh initially describes the discovery is so rushed after days of these kids being on their own. How about more of an emotional response, guy? Shock, surprise, relief, anything other than "oh and then we came across this, moving on". The next half of the book is completely different from the first half to where it feels like two separate stories.

If I were rating just on the first half (the survival portion), I would rate this a four star easy, maybe even four and-a-half. Even the second half wouldn't be so bad on its own. But putting them together makes it feel like it's cheating people who love survival fiction like me out of the experience, and it's also cheating people who would enjoy the second half. I guess I'll have to go back to Hatchet and Island of the Blue Dolphin if I want my fix of survival fiction.