No Shelf Control

By Gary Paulsen

At the request of some of my most dedicated fans, who are very persistent, I have read and reviewed Hatchet. Please enjoy this spoiler-free review of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen! As always, feel free to request reviews through email or the in-website messaging system!

Rating:

Review:

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a classic coming-of-age novel filled with adventure and angst. Whilst on a bush plane to visit his father, 13-year-old Brian’s day takes a turn for the worst. Mid-flight, Brian’s pilot suffers from a heart attack and promptly dies, leaving Brian to navigate the air himself. To survive, Brian tries to contact help to no avail. Left with no other options, Brian guides the plane into a lake as it runs out of fuel, narrowly escaping with only himself and his trusty hatchet, a gift from his mother. Battling Mother Nature, Brian was left with no other option than to learn how to survive. After all, the only other option is death…

Ultimately, the novel had interesting themes and a decent plot, but the writing and the story weren’t quite for me. I found the entire story and the events quite “out there,” and unlikely to occur to any extent, making the novel far less enjoyable. Furthermore, Brian, while he showed growth throughout the novel, wasn’t very well-developed or multifaceted. Considering he was the only prominent character in the novel, this was disappointing. This led to a lack of connection with the characters, or in this case, the only character, and hindered the impact of the overall themes in the novel. Also, while Hatchet is a classic man vs. nature novel, it is simply just that. There is hardly any strong women representation. The only female in the entire book is Brian’s mother, who is painted in a bad light most of the time and is the only reason Brian is in this situation in the first place. I find this troubling considering the number of young girls reading this novel who find positive female representation and instead will see a strong, independent man who refuses to process his emotions properly and has a problematic mother. Lastly, Hatchet contains many heavy topics, but they are all glossed over. To avoid spoilers I won’t elaborate too much, but the novel honestly continually shows themes of suppression and skips over the hard topics that could make the book good. And then, to leave off on a positive note, while this novel was not necessarily the book for me, the symbolism of the Hatchet integrated throughout the novel was impressive and often touching. The hatchet was more than just a tool, it represented the character Brian was before, and who he became later, and this was well-written.

Hatchet is a novel of growth, self-discovery, and perseverance to survive against all odds. It plays with themes of resilience and has a well-paced plot. While I can see the appeal that this novel would have to young boys aching for an amazing adventure, this book was not for me and I wouldn’t recommend this book to older audiences.

P.S. This is definitely beside the point but the author repeatedly implied that fish was not meat. But by the technical definition and regular human standards, I believe most people consider fish meat. While this little bit of info is unrelated and did not influence my rating of Hatchet, I did find it quite irking.

FYI, I closed my book to write this.