Review by Deb Vail
Dundurn Press, 2022
266 pages, paperback, 14.99 CDN,
9781459748316
Young Adult, Ages 14+
Action/Adventure, Fiction
The slice of the moon peeks out from behind a cloud as if startled out of hiding itself. In that microsecond, Jon sees coarse yellow fur, flashing eyes, and huge claws. Nearly losing his grip, he thanks fate it’s a grizzly, and not a black bear. Grizzlies don’t climb trees.
Can a bossy, righteous seventeen-year-old big brother, an angry, moody fourteen-year-old sister, and their nonverbal eight-year-old brother who identifies with his Icelandic Viking ancestry survive three winter months in the mountains with no one to rely on but each other?
When their parents die in an avalanche, Jon is just a few months away from his eighteenth birthday when he can assume responsibility of his siblings. With the threat of Aron being institutionalized because of behaviour that only their family understands, the three agree that running is their best chance to stay together. But are the wilderness survival skills they learned from their parents sufficient? Skills are put to the test as the siblings face mountainous terrain, wild animals, and the constant threat of being followed by Constable Vine whose ego is bruised after Jon and Korka rejected his offer of a home without Aron.
The critical issue that haunts the Gunnarsson kids on their daunting quest is how their parents could be so careless that it cost them their lives. This question remains unanswered by the end of the story, and I enjoyed how the author trusts her readers to decide if their death was sheer accident or something more sinister, as suggested by a woodsperson they meet on their journey.
Young Aron’s obsession with Viking lore frames this story as an epic journey strewn with both internal and external conflicts. Grieving their parents every step of the way, they keep their sorrow hidden from each other: “The loss they’ve suffered is too big, too overwhelming, too flammable to risk exposing to oxygen. They must keep it locked inside them until they are safe, or there will be no energy to survive.”
When Jon’s big-brother-authority wears thin, sibling rivalries threaten their survival. Death is certain if they cannot co-operate through illness, injury, and distrust of one another. Unable to accept the skills his siblings possess, Jon buckles down with more rules resulting in more power struggles until he finds himself alone and in desperate need of their help. The author takes time with his reversal and allows us into his head to witness the regret and fears that have fuelled his behavior.
Well-researched wilderness survival skills, such as how to start a fire without matches, how to carve into the side of a snowy mountain to check for avalanche risks, and how to snare a rabbit all work to make this story believable. I was there with the three Gunnarsson kids shivering under a Douglas Fur bough, hungry and waiting for my first morsel of freeze-dried food, and with them as they huddled together, dead quiet as searchers hike passed just metres away.
With profound insight into the mindset of their different ages, Withers shifts from one point of view to the other, allowing us to understand the deep emotional trauma Jon, Korka, and Aron face. Throughout Mountain Runaways, the Gunnarsson kids cultivate a deep understanding about what it means to be a family, adding tremendous depth to this narrative.
This book is perfect for anyone looking to read both an adventure and a deeply moving family story about loss, survival, and the power of love.
Deborah Vail writes YA, adult fiction, creative non-fiction, book reviews and interviews with notable authors. Her short fiction has appeared in Grain Magazine, The Antigonish Review and The New Quarterly. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
YOUNG ADULTING 