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Into That Forest
Two girls.
Two tigers.
Four years in the wild.
Two girls survive a terrible flood in the Tasmanian bush and are rescued by a pair of Tasmanian tigers who raise them in the wild. Their story of survival is remarkable, as they adapt to the life of the tiger, learning to hunt and to communicate without the use of human language. When they are discovered and returned to civilization, neither can adapt to being fully human after their extraordinary experience. Totally believable, their story will both shock and captivate readers as it explores the animal instincts that lie beneath our civilized veneer.
Two tigers.
Four years in the wild.
Two girls survive a terrible flood in the Tasmanian bush and are rescued by a pair of Tasmanian tigers who raise them in the wild. Their story of survival is remarkable, as they adapt to the life of the tiger, learning to hunt and to communicate without the use of human language. When they are discovered and returned to civilization, neither can adapt to being fully human after their extraordinary experience. Totally believable, their story will both shock and captivate readers as it explores the animal instincts that lie beneath our civilized veneer.
162 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
48 people are currently reading
1,724 people want to read
About the author
Louis Nowra
53books40followersLouis Nowra (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. His most significant plays are Così, Byzantine Flowers, Summer of the Aliens, Radiance, and The Golden Age. In 2007 he completed the The Boyce Trilogy for Griffin Theatre Company, consisting of The Woman with Dog's Eyes, The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney. Many of his plays have been filmed.[1]
He was born as Mark Doyle in Melbourne. He changed his name to Louis Nowra in the early 1970s. He studied at Melbourne's La Trobe University without earning a degree. In his memoir, The Twelfth of Never, Nowra claimed that he left the course due to a conflict with his professor on Patrick White's The Tree of Man. He worked in several jobs and lived an itinerant lifestyle until the mid-1970s when his plays began to attract attention.
His radio plays include Albert Names Edward, The Song Room, The Widows and the five part The Divine Hammer aired on the ABC in 2003.[2]
In March 2007, Nowra published a controversial book on violence in Aboriginal communities, Bad Dreaming.
Nowra has been studied extensively in Veronica Kelly's work The Theatre of Louis Nowra.
He resides in Sydney with his wife, author Mandy Sayer.
From Wikipedia
He was born as Mark Doyle in Melbourne. He changed his name to Louis Nowra in the early 1970s. He studied at Melbourne's La Trobe University without earning a degree. In his memoir, The Twelfth of Never, Nowra claimed that he left the course due to a conflict with his professor on Patrick White's The Tree of Man. He worked in several jobs and lived an itinerant lifestyle until the mid-1970s when his plays began to attract attention.
His radio plays include Albert Names Edward, The Song Room, The Widows and the five part The Divine Hammer aired on the ABC in 2003.[2]
In March 2007, Nowra published a controversial book on violence in Aboriginal communities, Bad Dreaming.
Nowra has been studied extensively in Veronica Kelly's work The Theatre of Louis Nowra.
He resides in Sydney with his wife, author Mandy Sayer.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 294 reviews
October 23, 2014
I wavered on what to rate this book. I ended up going with 5 stars because this book for me was exactly that. Hannah and Becky get to have a "spend the night" which is rare because the area where Hannah lives in Tasmania is remote. Hannah's parents take the girls on a picnic/boat ride. During the ride a storm comes up and the girls end up alone.
They are taken in by a couple of Tasmanian tigers. (I had no clue about these animals before this book. They carry their young in their pouches similarly to kangaroos.) The girls are adopted into the tiger family. They call their foster parents Dave and Corinna. Corinna had recently lost her cubs and so the girls become truly their cub/children. This book reads so well that it's easy to believe this scenario happening. The language used is different but it fits the story and is easy to follow.
The girls end up living with the tigers for four years. After that time Becky's father finds them. He never gives up searching for the girls and forcefully brings them home. The girls do not adapt to living with people again very well.
This book broke my heart. Then I had to learn about the tigers and sadly they don't exist anymore. Man killed them out. There has been some rumors of sightings of these wonderful animals and I hope they are out there...and that man leaves them alone.
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
They are taken in by a couple of Tasmanian tigers. (I had no clue about these animals before this book. They carry their young in their pouches similarly to kangaroos.) The girls are adopted into the tiger family. They call their foster parents Dave and Corinna. Corinna had recently lost her cubs and so the girls become truly their cub/children. This book reads so well that it's easy to believe this scenario happening. The language used is different but it fits the story and is easy to follow.
The girls end up living with the tigers for four years. After that time Becky's father finds them. He never gives up searching for the girls and forcefully brings them home. The girls do not adapt to living with people again very well.
This book broke my heart. Then I had to learn about the tigers and sadly they don't exist anymore. Man killed them out. There has been some rumors of sightings of these wonderful animals and I hope they are out there...and that man leaves them alone.
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 10, 2017
3�
A peculiar book inspired by a purportedly true (and very peculiar) story from another continent. Two young girls, aged about six and seven, are stranded in a storm and adopted by a pair of Tasmanian Tigers, living with them in a forest cave for several years.
The story is told in broken English by the older of the two in her old age. She begins:
“Me name be Hannah O’Brien and I be seventy-six years old. Me first thing is an apology—me language is bad cos I lost it and had to learn it again. But here’s me story and I be glad to tell it before I hop the twig.�
A violent storm wrenches the two children from their families, and the raging river separates them from their homes.
A female Tasmanian Tiger (now extinct) drags the older girl, Hannah, out of the river and onto the bank. The next day, it returns, and they follow it for a day or so back to its den. Hannah names her and her mate Corrina and Dave, after an aunt and uncle. Becky remains terrified, but is glad for the warmth of the den.
Long story short, they live there for several years, lose their language, and become animals themselves. I found too much of this unrealistic. I doubt children of this age would crave food so desperately that they would develop a taste for blood or a tiny dead bird on the second day.
“The bird felt warm when I touched it and I dipped me finger into its bloody chest and licked the blood off me finger. It tasted rich like molasses. . . I were starving and the tasted of blood made me feel even more hungry. . . I could feel the blood dribbling down me chin and for some reason it made me happy—I could feel me tummy filling up a little and that felt good.�
Becky is horrified, until eventually she wholeheartedly dives into the slaughter of other animals. When they do see a man, they realise he’s the dreadful hunter that Hannah met at home who shoots all the tigers, so they dodge him.
I found it too unbelievable that girls this age would lose all language and become dogs. Maybe one child with nobody to talk to would. While there have always been popular stories about children raised by animals (Romulus and Remus, Tarzan, Jungle Boy), this one is based on an apparently true one, and I found those accounts more interesting than the book.
This is written as a Young Adult novel, but I’m not sure what difference that makes. Here are links to the other stories I mentioned. The third link has photos of children who were found.
The Diary of the Wolf-Children of Midnapore
Written by The Reverend J. A. L. Singh
Missionary S. P. G. Mission and the Rector
The Orphanage, Midnapore
Midnapore, India.
A peculiar book inspired by a purportedly true (and very peculiar) story from another continent. Two young girls, aged about six and seven, are stranded in a storm and adopted by a pair of Tasmanian Tigers, living with them in a forest cave for several years.
The story is told in broken English by the older of the two in her old age. She begins:
“Me name be Hannah O’Brien and I be seventy-six years old. Me first thing is an apology—me language is bad cos I lost it and had to learn it again. But here’s me story and I be glad to tell it before I hop the twig.�
A violent storm wrenches the two children from their families, and the raging river separates them from their homes.
A female Tasmanian Tiger (now extinct) drags the older girl, Hannah, out of the river and onto the bank. The next day, it returns, and they follow it for a day or so back to its den. Hannah names her and her mate Corrina and Dave, after an aunt and uncle. Becky remains terrified, but is glad for the warmth of the den.
Long story short, they live there for several years, lose their language, and become animals themselves. I found too much of this unrealistic. I doubt children of this age would crave food so desperately that they would develop a taste for blood or a tiny dead bird on the second day.
“The bird felt warm when I touched it and I dipped me finger into its bloody chest and licked the blood off me finger. It tasted rich like molasses. . . I were starving and the tasted of blood made me feel even more hungry. . . I could feel the blood dribbling down me chin and for some reason it made me happy—I could feel me tummy filling up a little and that felt good.�
Becky is horrified, until eventually she wholeheartedly dives into the slaughter of other animals. When they do see a man, they realise he’s the dreadful hunter that Hannah met at home who shoots all the tigers, so they dodge him.
I found it too unbelievable that girls this age would lose all language and become dogs. Maybe one child with nobody to talk to would. While there have always been popular stories about children raised by animals (Romulus and Remus, Tarzan, Jungle Boy), this one is based on an apparently true one, and I found those accounts more interesting than the book.
This is written as a Young Adult novel, but I’m not sure what difference that makes. Here are links to the other stories I mentioned. The third link has photos of children who were found.
The Diary of the Wolf-Children of Midnapore
Written by The Reverend J. A. L. Singh
Missionary S. P. G. Mission and the Rector
The Orphanage, Midnapore
Midnapore, India.
April 23, 2013
Now seventy-six years old, Hannah O'Brien puts pen to paper to tell the story of her unique childhood: when she was just six years old, a tragedy leaves her and a friend, seven-year-old Becky, lost and alone in the bush. They are rescued by a female Thylacine - a Tasmanian Tiger - who takes them back to her den where her mate is. For about four years they live in harmony with the pair of Thylacines, learning to hunt and communicate through grunts and yawns - the distinctive wide-open mouth. Hannah takes to it quickly, Becky more cautiously, but soon enough the girls are more Thylacine than human.
But this is the 19th century and with a bounty on the head of every tiger in the island state, life on the upper end of the food chain is far from a safe one. And while Hannah may be an orphan, Becky still has a father out there, a man who has never given up looking for his little girl.
This book is powerful, magical, enthralling and - for someone who grew up in Tasmania and loves it more than any other place on earth - hugely sentimental in a deeply personal, nostalgic way.
International readers may not be as familiar with the Tasmanian Tiger as Australians are, so I'll give you a bit of background. Thylacines (as they are properly called) are carnivorous marsupials. This means they have a pouch, like koalas, wombats, devils, kangaroos and pretty much every other native animal in the country. They once roamed across the whole continent of Australia as well as New Guinea, but after Tasmania separated from the mainland, they became confined to the island (probably the Dingo, which the Aborigines brought with them about 20,000 years ago, were too competitive for the tigers on the mainland). Then came the English settlers, and their flocks of sheep and poultry. When sheep started turning up mauled or missing, the farmers blamed the tigers. Classic scapegoat situation: do you blame the dogs you brought with you, or do you blame the weird and little-known native carnivore that might just be creeping you out?
The last Thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo in the early 20th century; they have since been classified as extinct and have certainly not been seen in the last 70 years or so since that time (though Tasmania is a wild place and we all live in hope that they're just hiding out - it's a vain hope though). Between the bounty on their skins, introduced disease and a shrinking gene pool, the Thylacine didn't have much chance of survival in the long term. It's just such a handsome, stunning animal, and very unique. It's jaw could open incredibly wide, much like a Tasmania Devil, and it was a distinctive creature, looking part dog, part tiger, but was actually neither. Sometime during the 20th century, the Thylacine became a Tasmanian icon, an emblem that captured everything we were proud of. The tiger figures prominently in our collective consciousness, our culture, and most certainly in our art.
The other aspect of Australian culture that figures prominently in Louis Nowra's Into That Forest is the idea of people, especially children, being lost in the bush. (I studied this at university in one of my Honours English classes.) Australia is so untamed and wild, but that's not entirely it. There's just some quality to the Australian bush (forest) that lures us in. There are stories from early colonies of people just dropping what they were doing (like hanging the laundry on the line) and walking into the bush, never to be seen again. Certainly your chances of finding your way out again are pretty slim. Think Picnic at Hanging Rock as a story (book and film) that really exemplifies this.
In the case of Into That Forest, the two girls didn't wander off; circumstances caused them to be lost in the bush with no hope of rescue. Being taken in by Tasmanian tigers isn't as far-fetched as it might sound at first: there are stories from settlers, even hunters, of tigers helping people. They were shy, elusive but very curious and very protective animals. Hannah gives them names - Dave and Corinna - but even without them, the tigers come alive. They aren't anthropomorphised at all, but by being so close to them the animals' personalities and individual characteristics become vivid. Hannah's transformation to pseudo-tiger happens quickly; she's so young, and less attached to her human life than Becky, and quickly grasps that if they don't do what they need to do to survive, then they'll die.
What's really extraordinary is how the two girls take to hunting, how the imminent chase and blood-letting makes them excited - this never really leaves them. So much of their life with the tigers becomes more real to them than the human world and society. They become nocturnal, because that's when the thylacines hunt. Their sense of smell and hearing becomes more acute, and they can identify all the bush sounds that they hear.
But the story isn't just about their time in the bush those four years; it's also about what came after. Hannah and Becky struggle to adjust to being human girls, and fight it, and the two parts of them are never really reconciled.
This is a tragic story, make no mistake, and a deeply human one - "human" as it encompasses "animal". Written in Hannah's distinctive voice - one of the first things she does is apologise for her poor spelling and grammar - there are hidden layers to the story that make it so much richer. Life in the wilderness becomes more real and beautiful than anything human society can offer. This is magical storytelling at its best, effortlessly blending fact and fiction and recreating a long-gone historical setting in all its smells and sights and textures and colloquialisms. It raises questions of what it really means to be human, and what it means to be a "good" human. Readers of all ages will devour this, and it deserves to go onto school reading lists. One of the best books I've read this year.
But this is the 19th century and with a bounty on the head of every tiger in the island state, life on the upper end of the food chain is far from a safe one. And while Hannah may be an orphan, Becky still has a father out there, a man who has never given up looking for his little girl.
This book is powerful, magical, enthralling and - for someone who grew up in Tasmania and loves it more than any other place on earth - hugely sentimental in a deeply personal, nostalgic way.
International readers may not be as familiar with the Tasmanian Tiger as Australians are, so I'll give you a bit of background. Thylacines (as they are properly called) are carnivorous marsupials. This means they have a pouch, like koalas, wombats, devils, kangaroos and pretty much every other native animal in the country. They once roamed across the whole continent of Australia as well as New Guinea, but after Tasmania separated from the mainland, they became confined to the island (probably the Dingo, which the Aborigines brought with them about 20,000 years ago, were too competitive for the tigers on the mainland). Then came the English settlers, and their flocks of sheep and poultry. When sheep started turning up mauled or missing, the farmers blamed the tigers. Classic scapegoat situation: do you blame the dogs you brought with you, or do you blame the weird and little-known native carnivore that might just be creeping you out?
The last Thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo in the early 20th century; they have since been classified as extinct and have certainly not been seen in the last 70 years or so since that time (though Tasmania is a wild place and we all live in hope that they're just hiding out - it's a vain hope though). Between the bounty on their skins, introduced disease and a shrinking gene pool, the Thylacine didn't have much chance of survival in the long term. It's just such a handsome, stunning animal, and very unique. It's jaw could open incredibly wide, much like a Tasmania Devil, and it was a distinctive creature, looking part dog, part tiger, but was actually neither. Sometime during the 20th century, the Thylacine became a Tasmanian icon, an emblem that captured everything we were proud of. The tiger figures prominently in our collective consciousness, our culture, and most certainly in our art.
The other aspect of Australian culture that figures prominently in Louis Nowra's Into That Forest is the idea of people, especially children, being lost in the bush. (I studied this at university in one of my Honours English classes.) Australia is so untamed and wild, but that's not entirely it. There's just some quality to the Australian bush (forest) that lures us in. There are stories from early colonies of people just dropping what they were doing (like hanging the laundry on the line) and walking into the bush, never to be seen again. Certainly your chances of finding your way out again are pretty slim. Think Picnic at Hanging Rock as a story (book and film) that really exemplifies this.
In the case of Into That Forest, the two girls didn't wander off; circumstances caused them to be lost in the bush with no hope of rescue. Being taken in by Tasmanian tigers isn't as far-fetched as it might sound at first: there are stories from settlers, even hunters, of tigers helping people. They were shy, elusive but very curious and very protective animals. Hannah gives them names - Dave and Corinna - but even without them, the tigers come alive. They aren't anthropomorphised at all, but by being so close to them the animals' personalities and individual characteristics become vivid. Hannah's transformation to pseudo-tiger happens quickly; she's so young, and less attached to her human life than Becky, and quickly grasps that if they don't do what they need to do to survive, then they'll die.
The tiger dropped the bird on me lap. It were bloody and its head chewed, its belly tore open. I knew it were a present. Thank you, I said, and I swear, I swear on me mother and father's heart, that it knew what I said cos it kind of nodded as if saying Eat it and trotted outside. The bird felt warm when I touched it and I dipped me finger into its bloody chest and licked the blood off me finger. It tasted rich like molasses. Becky made disgusted noises. It's not cooked, she groaned. I told her I remember me father telling me stories 'bout how he ate snakes and cockroaches, so a bird were fine to eat. [pp.38-9]
What's really extraordinary is how the two girls take to hunting, how the imminent chase and blood-letting makes them excited - this never really leaves them. So much of their life with the tigers becomes more real to them than the human world and society. They become nocturnal, because that's when the thylacines hunt. Their sense of smell and hearing becomes more acute, and they can identify all the bush sounds that they hear.
Our world were a dark world. Most of our prey were creatures of the night like us. Sometimes at night it were like the whole of the bush were humming. There'd be the scratching, hunting, searching, fighting, snorting, barking, clicking noises of the dying bandicoots, the quolls, the mice, rabbits, dunnarts, possums, pademelons, grumpy wombats, swamp antechinus, potoroos, bettongs ... it may be the secret dark world to humans but to me and Becky it were easy to see in. I knew what every silhouette, every shadow meant, no matter how quick the animal or bird were. Day were when animals hid in their burrows or in hollow trees, night were when we all came alive. [pp.108-9]
But the story isn't just about their time in the bush those four years; it's also about what came after. Hannah and Becky struggle to adjust to being human girls, and fight it, and the two parts of them are never really reconciled.
This is a tragic story, make no mistake, and a deeply human one - "human" as it encompasses "animal". Written in Hannah's distinctive voice - one of the first things she does is apologise for her poor spelling and grammar - there are hidden layers to the story that make it so much richer. Life in the wilderness becomes more real and beautiful than anything human society can offer. This is magical storytelling at its best, effortlessly blending fact and fiction and recreating a long-gone historical setting in all its smells and sights and textures and colloquialisms. It raises questions of what it really means to be human, and what it means to be a "good" human. Readers of all ages will devour this, and it deserves to go onto school reading lists. One of the best books I've read this year.
March 11, 2022
What a book!! I loved the first half of it but also hated the second half! And the end made me cry too... This is a very powerful story but parts of it are so heartbreaking especially if you have a connection to animals. And sometimes animals are way better than people.
It's the humans in here that are cruel and do unspeakable things. And reading a few bits near the end, when you realize that they knew but did it anyway, well, that makes it even worse.
This is the story of two girls, Hannah and Becky, who get lost from Hannah's parents in a boating accident. They are six and seven years old - and suddenly lost in the wilds of Tasmania. And through some miracle they end up living with a pair of tasmanian tigers. And the girls themselves become tigers too in action and sound. The descriptions in here are just incredible! It seems all so real... The communication between the girls and the tigers are just amazing. And how they work as a team. It's pure magic. Loved this part!
But I hated the second half. Especially certain incidents which I thought was so wrong. Becky's father clearly has no gratitude at all. He is a just awful man! I believe the real tragedy in here are the things he does. Its certainly worse than the boating accident..and that says a lot. I just had a gut feeling when those scenes started it was going to be bad and it was. It was like a nightmare.
And the end was a tearjerker too.
And yes this story reminds me of The Jungle Book except I think this is a tad more realistic, especially the aftermath.
I love the book cover too. So beautiful and colorful. In fact it was the cover that made me pick this up.
I am editing this review now the following morning to say I was thinking a LOT about this story last night in bed before I fell asleep. And it made me cry again. It is just SO powerful! And it certainly shows that in many cases animals are way better than people. I do think this is a book that animal lovers will enjoy greatly.
And that the drama in here is so dramatic that I think this would make a very powerful movie.
And people who enjoy books like Clan of the Cavebear would love this too I think. The girls certainly do revert to a more ancient way of life. Unfortunately there is a huge price to pay for that later and you are never the same after it either.
I have also upped my rating from 4 stars to 5.
It's the humans in here that are cruel and do unspeakable things. And reading a few bits near the end, when you realize that they knew but did it anyway, well, that makes it even worse.
This is the story of two girls, Hannah and Becky, who get lost from Hannah's parents in a boating accident. They are six and seven years old - and suddenly lost in the wilds of Tasmania. And through some miracle they end up living with a pair of tasmanian tigers. And the girls themselves become tigers too in action and sound. The descriptions in here are just incredible! It seems all so real... The communication between the girls and the tigers are just amazing. And how they work as a team. It's pure magic. Loved this part!
But I hated the second half. Especially certain incidents which I thought was so wrong. Becky's father clearly has no gratitude at all. He is a just awful man! I believe the real tragedy in here are the things he does. Its certainly worse than the boating accident..and that says a lot. I just had a gut feeling when those scenes started it was going to be bad and it was. It was like a nightmare.
And the end was a tearjerker too.
And yes this story reminds me of The Jungle Book except I think this is a tad more realistic, especially the aftermath.
I love the book cover too. So beautiful and colorful. In fact it was the cover that made me pick this up.
I am editing this review now the following morning to say I was thinking a LOT about this story last night in bed before I fell asleep. And it made me cry again. It is just SO powerful! And it certainly shows that in many cases animals are way better than people. I do think this is a book that animal lovers will enjoy greatly.
And that the drama in here is so dramatic that I think this would make a very powerful movie.
And people who enjoy books like Clan of the Cavebear would love this too I think. The girls certainly do revert to a more ancient way of life. Unfortunately there is a huge price to pay for that later and you are never the same after it either.
I have also upped my rating from 4 stars to 5.
December 20, 2013
Warning: this book will break your heart.
In college, as a sociology minor and over all sociology groupie bum, I became aware and a little obsessed with the happening of feral children. There were cases of children who had been locked in one room for all their developmental years, knew nothing of language or social interaction, and later, either their remains were found, or they were rescued and the long process began of assimilating these children back into society. There were cases of children who had run off or were abandoned who claimed to have been raised and reared by wolves. These stories were and still are completely fascinating to me.
This is probably why I was destined to love Into That Forest. But not for the sole reason that two girls were accepted by tigers, but also because this book is about adventure. The book would've been enough with just the main element, but instead the author went even further into taking us into life in Tasmania, which before this book, I had only very basic knowledge of ("Um, it's got like Tasmanian Devils? And it's near Australia... I think?").
This is easily one of my new favorite books, and I will be recommending this to people whom I think would see it for the heart-breaking beauty that it truly is.
In college, as a sociology minor and over all sociology groupie bum, I became aware and a little obsessed with the happening of feral children. There were cases of children who had been locked in one room for all their developmental years, knew nothing of language or social interaction, and later, either their remains were found, or they were rescued and the long process began of assimilating these children back into society. There were cases of children who had run off or were abandoned who claimed to have been raised and reared by wolves. These stories were and still are completely fascinating to me.
This is probably why I was destined to love Into That Forest. But not for the sole reason that two girls were accepted by tigers, but also because this book is about adventure. The book would've been enough with just the main element, but instead the author went even further into taking us into life in Tasmania, which before this book, I had only very basic knowledge of ("Um, it's got like Tasmanian Devils? And it's near Australia... I think?").
This is easily one of my new favorite books, and I will be recommending this to people whom I think would see it for the heart-breaking beauty that it truly is.
November 4, 2022
Two young girls in the late 1800s find themselves lost and alone in the woods and follow a mama Tasmanian tiger to her den. There, the tigress and her mate look after the girls for several years. Eventually, the girls stop using English and adapt tiger sounds and habits. So, when one of the girls' fathers finally finds them in the woods, the girls have a lot of difficulties adapting to human culture. Ultimately, the father's intolerance of Tasmanian tigers leads to the girls pulling further away and tragedy.
I found myself turning pages quickly in the first part of the book when the girls were being raised by tigers. The last part was a slower go. I only wish it hadn't ended so sadly. But, if you think about the fact that Tasmanian tigers were hunted out of existence, turning this into a happy feel-good book probably wouldn't have been the best path forward. This book had to be one steeped in melancholy.
I found myself turning pages quickly in the first part of the book when the girls were being raised by tigers. The last part was a slower go. I only wish it hadn't ended so sadly. But, if you think about the fact that Tasmanian tigers were hunted out of existence, turning this into a happy feel-good book probably wouldn't have been the best path forward. This book had to be one steeped in melancholy.
March 27, 2017
So the in general story, two girls are marooned away from civilization in Tasmania and taken in by a couple of "tigers" (pretty sure they don't mean tigers like the rest of the world thinks of tigers, as they also refer to them as Tasmanian Tigers and Dingos, but they are never very clear) who help them survive in the wild for four years. After they are re-claimed by humanity, the story follows their struggles in re-learning how to be people.
So a couple of reviewers have hit on two of my issues with this book. First, the "dialect" language which the author decided meant incorrect gramatical english and slang or curse words wherever they can put them instead of the proper english term. Supposedly, this is to give the feel that the character "lost" their language and had to re-learn it, but having read "dialect" language before, this gave more a sense of wanting to shock the reader to get more attention. The second problem that other reviewers have mentioned is the lack of chapters. I got the sense this was to share the experience with the main character, as she mentions loosing all track of time except for the seasons, and to that extent it worked. As the reader, I felt soooo bogged down without chapter breaks that rather than being drawn into the story, it made me much less eager to pick up the book each time, eventaully pushing me to the point of forcing myself to a certain page number just to finish. My last issue is one I haven't noticed in other reviews, but it is my biggest problem with the book; it feels like a smart-alecky wink/nod saying "Just give me an award for my writting". It is horribly pretentious! The story isn't that good, none of the characters are likable, the main plot is depressing and the writting is weak (as mentioned before, relies way too heavily on the shock factor). I've kept a fairly good record of books I've read since middle school, and of this over a thousand collection of books, there are eight that I hated and found no redemptive aspect to at all. After finishing this book, there are nine. I would recomend this book for no one, particularly not for anyone struggling with english or reading. If animal behavior is of interest to you, (it is one of my favorite subjects) there are many better sources, don't waste your time with this.
Content notes: Language is atrocious. Both the amount of swear words, crude terms and incorrect grammer, all of which are highly prevalent, I'm guessing one page would have at least three bad words on average, most more. Sensuality-wise, the tigers breed near the girls, one girl is almost raped, they observe a man doing "rude" things to himself and after re-joining society the girls are often the punch line of crude/suggestive jokes. Violence is probably the least objectionable, it's mostly nature-show-type-animal-violence; though when the girls are first back, their animal behavior to other people, including being willing to bite them and considering riping peoples' throats out with the teeth is rather disturbing.
February 25, 2013
It’s strange to think that, under the right conditions, humans can revert back to the wild state our ancestors worked so hard to detach civilised society from. After all, we still have the tools; keen eyesight and hearing, a decent sense of smell and a predators� ability to problem solve, we just fail to utilise them, or simply employ them in different ways. And regressing to the wild-side is exactly what happens in Into That Forest; stranded in the Tasmanian wilderness, two young girls, Hannah and Becky, are adopted by a pair of Tasmanian tigers and spend the subsequent four years learning to hunt, read the outback and generally live as wild animals.
As the girls integrate themselves with their new parents, they lose the use of English, instead opting to employ the grunts, snarls and body language of the tigers. They also disregard their clothes and reject the two-limbed approach to running. The harsh realities of the wilderness also start to stimulate the girls� animal instincts; they begin to give into the passion of the hunt and even develop a taste for warm blood and raw flesh � there are no punches pulled here, this is a full and, at times, brutal transformation.
The book is narrated from the perspective of a seventy-six-year-old version of Hannah (in a slightly non-standard English) as she looks back on her time with the tigers. However, this doesn't take away from the deeply absorbing plot, far from it. The events are described in such a way that a subtle sense of foreboding begins to infiltrate the text, and this foreboding is realised in a series of heart-wrenching events beginning around the book’s halfway point, and culminating in the devastatingly effective ending.
A central theme is the concept of wilderness, or, more specifically, the question: once the wilderness is inside you, can you ever truly leave it behind? But there are other themes at play too, perhaps most notably the effect of loss (Hannah loses her parents early on and the tigers adopt the girls having been robbed of their own cubs) and these themes intertwine wonderfully, inferring the novel’s ultimate question: if you lose something precious, would you want it back even if it’s changed?
Often with a novel like this, it’s the portrayal of the animals that can be the let down � they can be too Disney-fied, stifling the immersive effect of the prose no matter how good the writing. But that’s just not the case with Into That Forest; the tigers (Hannah names them Dave and Corinna) bite the girls when they don’t like something they’re doing, viciously establish a precise feeding order, and, when another male tiger arrives on the scene, battle commences over mating rights with Corinna. It’s a wonderful account of predatory life and contains some beautifully written, intimate moments which are all the more touching because of the savagery surrounding them.
The final thing to say about Into That Forest is that the text is interspersed with the occasional illustration. Joe McLaren’s ink drawings are beautifully subtle, and mirror the powerful effect of the sublime and deceptively simplistic writing. Together, both text and illustration ensure that thoughts of Hannah, Becky and the tigers will linger in your mind for days after you've finished the novel, probably much longer.
As the girls integrate themselves with their new parents, they lose the use of English, instead opting to employ the grunts, snarls and body language of the tigers. They also disregard their clothes and reject the two-limbed approach to running. The harsh realities of the wilderness also start to stimulate the girls� animal instincts; they begin to give into the passion of the hunt and even develop a taste for warm blood and raw flesh � there are no punches pulled here, this is a full and, at times, brutal transformation.
The book is narrated from the perspective of a seventy-six-year-old version of Hannah (in a slightly non-standard English) as she looks back on her time with the tigers. However, this doesn't take away from the deeply absorbing plot, far from it. The events are described in such a way that a subtle sense of foreboding begins to infiltrate the text, and this foreboding is realised in a series of heart-wrenching events beginning around the book’s halfway point, and culminating in the devastatingly effective ending.
A central theme is the concept of wilderness, or, more specifically, the question: once the wilderness is inside you, can you ever truly leave it behind? But there are other themes at play too, perhaps most notably the effect of loss (Hannah loses her parents early on and the tigers adopt the girls having been robbed of their own cubs) and these themes intertwine wonderfully, inferring the novel’s ultimate question: if you lose something precious, would you want it back even if it’s changed?
Often with a novel like this, it’s the portrayal of the animals that can be the let down � they can be too Disney-fied, stifling the immersive effect of the prose no matter how good the writing. But that’s just not the case with Into That Forest; the tigers (Hannah names them Dave and Corinna) bite the girls when they don’t like something they’re doing, viciously establish a precise feeding order, and, when another male tiger arrives on the scene, battle commences over mating rights with Corinna. It’s a wonderful account of predatory life and contains some beautifully written, intimate moments which are all the more touching because of the savagery surrounding them.
The final thing to say about Into That Forest is that the text is interspersed with the occasional illustration. Joe McLaren’s ink drawings are beautifully subtle, and mirror the powerful effect of the sublime and deceptively simplistic writing. Together, both text and illustration ensure that thoughts of Hannah, Becky and the tigers will linger in your mind for days after you've finished the novel, probably much longer.
October 5, 2013
There have been plenty of plot summaries of this book, some describing this story in a repulsive, disgusted sort of sense as if the book itself presented a threat on some very visceral level, while choosing to ignore content altogether and instead seemed preoccupied with the author's writing style and chose not to finish the book but rated it anyway, a practice I personally don't hold with. How can you fully assess a books merits if you've jumped ship? I choose to file these books as abandoned as I feel if haven't really read the book, I should leave the the ratings and dialogue to those who have a better understanding. But back the "Forest."
In my opinion, the real issues in this very unusual short novel are difficult to confront but ultimately essential, in our current circumstances more than ever necessary to explore! Louis Nowra in creating a story where human children, due to misfortune, come upon tigers who after some time come to accept them as their own, and conversely those same children bonding with the tigers parentally, and consequently slowly shedding their humanness to identify more and more as wild animals, brings up interesting yet seriously uncomfortable issues to confront and be truly honest about. Some of the deep issues posed by the author range from how repellent is it that these young girls are reduced to wild animals versus the behavior of adult humans as hunters and the horrible lengths they go to in their own type of unraveling to bring down their animals as their prey. And lastly what does humanity truly mean?
There are also other insightful and deep issues to ponder, and I have found my mind continually returning to this book like a magnet over and over again. In that Forest is not by any means an easy read, but for it's unique voice, it's utter beauty, and it's thought-provoking insight, it held me rapt from the first page to the last and left me feeling I'd had a unique experience and for those reasons I gave this book 5 stars and would give it more were it possible.
I won this book in a giveaway from First Reads for Amazon Publishing and in exchange have given an honest review.
In my opinion, the real issues in this very unusual short novel are difficult to confront but ultimately essential, in our current circumstances more than ever necessary to explore! Louis Nowra in creating a story where human children, due to misfortune, come upon tigers who after some time come to accept them as their own, and conversely those same children bonding with the tigers parentally, and consequently slowly shedding their humanness to identify more and more as wild animals, brings up interesting yet seriously uncomfortable issues to confront and be truly honest about. Some of the deep issues posed by the author range from how repellent is it that these young girls are reduced to wild animals versus the behavior of adult humans as hunters and the horrible lengths they go to in their own type of unraveling to bring down their animals as their prey. And lastly what does humanity truly mean?
There are also other insightful and deep issues to ponder, and I have found my mind continually returning to this book like a magnet over and over again. In that Forest is not by any means an easy read, but for it's unique voice, it's utter beauty, and it's thought-provoking insight, it held me rapt from the first page to the last and left me feeling I'd had a unique experience and for those reasons I gave this book 5 stars and would give it more were it possible.
I won this book in a giveaway from First Reads for Amazon Publishing and in exchange have given an honest review.
Shelved as 'dnf'
September 3, 2013Pages read: 25
Nope. I cannot. This book is not my thing on so many levels. The premise made me think of Life of Pi which I loved, but, sadly, I hadn't seen a sample of the writing.
Insurmountable obstacles between me and Into That Forest:
1. Dialect - alone, this might not have been a dealbreaker. It seems decently well done here, but it's not my favorite style ever, and slows my reading significantly, since I mentally edit.
2. There are no chapters. I like having regular breaks to process and put the book down if I need or want to. There are some page breaks, but, so far as I could tell, from page 1 until page 72, there were no stopping points.
3. The paragraphs are long and unwieldy. Dialog is inserted into the long paragraphs in italics, which is weird, because that's generally how thoughts are done. This means every page is completely full of text. The human eye likes a bit of white space, which gives the brain a break.
There's nothing wrong with writing a book this way, but, individually, these styles grate on me as a reader and combined it's like my personal hell.
I wanted to stick it out until the girls started living with the tigers, hoping it might improve. On the first morning after the parents died or were separated from the girls, a tiger brings them a dead bird and the MC just chomps right in, feathers and all. I'm sorry, but you would not be starvation hungry in that amount of time, so you could cook and defeather the damn bird. That is disgusting and unnecessary. If that's what the girl is like after half a day on her own in the wild, I do not want to know what she gets up to in YEARS raised by tigers.
Nope, book and I are done.
Nope. I cannot. This book is not my thing on so many levels. The premise made me think of Life of Pi which I loved, but, sadly, I hadn't seen a sample of the writing.
Insurmountable obstacles between me and Into That Forest:
1. Dialect - alone, this might not have been a dealbreaker. It seems decently well done here, but it's not my favorite style ever, and slows my reading significantly, since I mentally edit.
2. There are no chapters. I like having regular breaks to process and put the book down if I need or want to. There are some page breaks, but, so far as I could tell, from page 1 until page 72, there were no stopping points.
3. The paragraphs are long and unwieldy. Dialog is inserted into the long paragraphs in italics, which is weird, because that's generally how thoughts are done. This means every page is completely full of text. The human eye likes a bit of white space, which gives the brain a break.
There's nothing wrong with writing a book this way, but, individually, these styles grate on me as a reader and combined it's like my personal hell.
I wanted to stick it out until the girls started living with the tigers, hoping it might improve. On the first morning after the parents died or were separated from the girls, a tiger brings them a dead bird and the MC just chomps right in, feathers and all. I'm sorry, but you would not be starvation hungry in that amount of time, so you could cook and defeather the damn bird. That is disgusting and unnecessary. If that's what the girl is like after half a day on her own in the wild, I do not want to know what she gets up to in YEARS raised by tigers.
Nope, book and I are done.
September 16, 2013
This was an unusual book. Easily read in a single sitting, it spins the tale of two little girls taken in and raised by a pair of Tasmanian tigers. It illustrates the remarkable resilience of the spirit as well as the ability to revert to pure animal behavior in order to survive.
The story was sad, as it almost had to be. The dialect may put off some readers, but it fit the storyline and was not difficult to follow. As a rule, I am not into cover art, but this one is particularly striking.
This was a first-reads giveaway, thank you.
The story was sad, as it almost had to be. The dialect may put off some readers, but it fit the storyline and was not difficult to follow. As a rule, I am not into cover art, but this one is particularly striking.
This was a first-reads giveaway, thank you.
March 26, 2023
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK.
May 7, 2017
I read Into That Forest by Louis Nowra at the end of April because I wanted a short book that I could read in one day. I never imagined what a powerhouse it would be when I picked it up. I also didn't know anything about Tasmania, the setting of this novel. I learned for the first time that it's an island off the coast of Australia. I hadn't heard of the award winning Australian author Louis Nowra either. This shows that I'm woefully ignorant about Australia and Australian writers. I hope to remedy this ignorance.
This is not a sweet story. It's a rather grim tale dealing with violence and savagery. It raises the issue of whether tigers or humans are more savage. My experience of reading this book was emotionally intense, and I feel that the themes involved in this novel are mature ones. The publisher markets it for children above twelve, but children mature at different rates. I would advise parents to read this book with their children and discuss it with them.
For my complete review see
This is not a sweet story. It's a rather grim tale dealing with violence and savagery. It raises the issue of whether tigers or humans are more savage. My experience of reading this book was emotionally intense, and I feel that the themes involved in this novel are mature ones. The publisher markets it for children above twelve, but children mature at different rates. I would advise parents to read this book with their children and discuss it with them.
For my complete review see
Read
February 4, 2017I wasn't crazy about this book--though I really did think Nowra wrote well about the tigers, who were vivid characters--but I'm writing this mainly because it is marketed as a children's book and it has a lot of disturbing stuff that I, as a 38-year-old, had some trouble with, so I worry about kids reading it. I'm not a parent, so maybe it's fine, but vulnerable children watch parents or parental figures die horribly a total of 5 times by my count, in addition to lots of other gory bits. So take that for what it's worth.
January 29, 2022
'Into That Forest' was one of the first books that I ever read, after my debut active read, Harry Potter. I got it from my school library because honestly, I loved the girl on the cover. I don't think I even read the summary before signing it up. I haven't seen this book since almost 8 years ago, until today. I'm 19 now. It brought back a lot of memories.
I associate my first real feelings of genuine heart ache to this book. So enriching, so filled with the adventure and escape from the monotony of real world, I believe that this book was what REALLY got me into reading. I searched, and still do, to find the same emotions that were invoked in me while reading this book. It quite simply touched my being.
Right from the tacky yet relatable narration, to the way every detail is described, I loved it. The book is about 2 tweenage girls who got lost in the wild after a boat wreck. They were then found and quite literally raised by 2 tigers. With all the roller-coaster of emotions ranging from feeling lost, to belonging, to pain and betrayal, this book is a must read. I long for an amazing read such as this one.
I associate my first real feelings of genuine heart ache to this book. So enriching, so filled with the adventure and escape from the monotony of real world, I believe that this book was what REALLY got me into reading. I searched, and still do, to find the same emotions that were invoked in me while reading this book. It quite simply touched my being.
Right from the tacky yet relatable narration, to the way every detail is described, I loved it. The book is about 2 tweenage girls who got lost in the wild after a boat wreck. They were then found and quite literally raised by 2 tigers. With all the roller-coaster of emotions ranging from feeling lost, to belonging, to pain and betrayal, this book is a must read. I long for an amazing read such as this one.
February 6, 2017
After a boating accident in Tasmania, 2 young girls--Hannah and Becky--are stranded in the bush. But they're soon rescued....by tigers. For the next four years they live with two tigers, learning how to hunt and speak the tiger language. Meanwhile, they forget much of what it means to be human. Hannah narrates this experience of being raised by tigers from the future, in dialect.
Overall, it's a good read, though it just didn't move me overmuch. Not for any particular reason, though.
Overall, it's a good read, though it just didn't move me overmuch. Not for any particular reason, though.
January 13, 2013
If you have read any of my previous posts, then you will have seen that I've been very fortunate to read some cracking books at this start of this new year, already. Yet again (if this book is anything to go by) then we are in for another feast of delight. It would be fair to say that I was not expecting this book - it was a very delightful surprise. In fact I knew nothing about it, or the author, until it arrived on my doorstep. Therefore, I would like to send a big thank you to Egmont for sending this to me and making my day.
The first thing that I'd like to comment on is related to the production of the book. It has been produced as a hardback with a really attractive dust jacket and a beautifully finished binding (and end pages) which are particularly well produced and eye-catching. The book is illustrated with small black and white sketches, which also work very well alongside the story. It's nice to see that so much effort has been put into the making of this book. Especially when so many people, and the market in general sadly, are turning to e-books and other similar formats due to ease and price.
This is one particular story which you will not easily forget. It is a book that reads like a true story - it will leave you questioning whether the events really did or did not happen. It's a story about two girls who find themselves lost in the Tasmanian bush after a tragic accident. The girls find a saviour in the form of two fierce Tasmanian tigers. Everything is viewed from the perspective of Hannah O'Brien - told through a brilliant and extraordinary voice.
It's a particularly captivating read following the survival of the two girls. It has a lot of uncomfortable twists and turns - it is one that will definitely have your heart strings tugged in many directions. I loved the sea adventures that were depicted within the book. However, I don't want to say too much more as I really don't want to spoil any part of the enjoyment for when you grab your own copy, which I hope you do!
This is a beautifully poignant story about survival and relationships. It will certainly leave many lasting memories. Breathtaking in detail and setting, realistic to the core and a rare book that will both shock and move the reader at the same time. This is another early recommendation from myself, but with this book expect some tears so have the tissues ready.
The first thing that I'd like to comment on is related to the production of the book. It has been produced as a hardback with a really attractive dust jacket and a beautifully finished binding (and end pages) which are particularly well produced and eye-catching. The book is illustrated with small black and white sketches, which also work very well alongside the story. It's nice to see that so much effort has been put into the making of this book. Especially when so many people, and the market in general sadly, are turning to e-books and other similar formats due to ease and price.
This is one particular story which you will not easily forget. It is a book that reads like a true story - it will leave you questioning whether the events really did or did not happen. It's a story about two girls who find themselves lost in the Tasmanian bush after a tragic accident. The girls find a saviour in the form of two fierce Tasmanian tigers. Everything is viewed from the perspective of Hannah O'Brien - told through a brilliant and extraordinary voice.
It's a particularly captivating read following the survival of the two girls. It has a lot of uncomfortable twists and turns - it is one that will definitely have your heart strings tugged in many directions. I loved the sea adventures that were depicted within the book. However, I don't want to say too much more as I really don't want to spoil any part of the enjoyment for when you grab your own copy, which I hope you do!
This is a beautifully poignant story about survival and relationships. It will certainly leave many lasting memories. Breathtaking in detail and setting, realistic to the core and a rare book that will both shock and move the reader at the same time. This is another early recommendation from myself, but with this book expect some tears so have the tissues ready.
January 6, 2013
'Into That Forest' was a wonderful book, unlike anything else I've ever read before. The story takes the reader on an incredible journey through the Tasmanian outback with friends Hannah and Becky. Thoughts of this book lingered with me long after turning the final page and I'm looking forward to passing it onto others who haven't yet discovered such an amazing title.
The story is narrated by seventy-six year old Hannah, who is looking back on her early life. Nothing could prepare me for the tale she would have to tell of surviving in the wilderness with her friend Becky and two Tasmanian tigers, who she names Dave and Corinna. Not only do the girls survive but in their own way they adapt and flourish in their new environment. They become like tigers themselves, moving on all fours and shedding their human clothes, as well as taking part in the hunt for fresh meat. Isolated from contact with any other human being, they begin to forget their previous existence and become happy with their new lives.
Everything changes however when they realise that the hunters have now become the hunted. Two men are seemingly intent on capturing them and rescuing them from the tigers, but the girls do not want to return to civilisation and a new struggle ensues.
Louis Nowra depicts both the horror and the beauty of life in the outback. I enjoyed seeing how the girls adapted to life with the tigers and even began to see them as their new mother and father. The tigers in return adopt them as their own, surrogate daughters instead of the cubs which they are brutally robbed of. There's a sense of freedom throughout the first half of the book as the girls run wild, their senses sharpening as they become accustomed to the sights, sounds and smells around them. There are some wonderfully descriptive passages of them both curled up next to the tigers for warmth, as well as enjoying the taste of fresh meat and hot blood.
The ending is devastating but beautifully told and the perfect conclusion to an outstanding read. I hope that readers who wouldn't normally pick up a book like this are encouraged to give it a try because 'Into That Forest' is a story which deserves to be read.
The story is narrated by seventy-six year old Hannah, who is looking back on her early life. Nothing could prepare me for the tale she would have to tell of surviving in the wilderness with her friend Becky and two Tasmanian tigers, who she names Dave and Corinna. Not only do the girls survive but in their own way they adapt and flourish in their new environment. They become like tigers themselves, moving on all fours and shedding their human clothes, as well as taking part in the hunt for fresh meat. Isolated from contact with any other human being, they begin to forget their previous existence and become happy with their new lives.
Everything changes however when they realise that the hunters have now become the hunted. Two men are seemingly intent on capturing them and rescuing them from the tigers, but the girls do not want to return to civilisation and a new struggle ensues.
Louis Nowra depicts both the horror and the beauty of life in the outback. I enjoyed seeing how the girls adapted to life with the tigers and even began to see them as their new mother and father. The tigers in return adopt them as their own, surrogate daughters instead of the cubs which they are brutally robbed of. There's a sense of freedom throughout the first half of the book as the girls run wild, their senses sharpening as they become accustomed to the sights, sounds and smells around them. There are some wonderfully descriptive passages of them both curled up next to the tigers for warmth, as well as enjoying the taste of fresh meat and hot blood.
The ending is devastating but beautifully told and the perfect conclusion to an outstanding read. I hope that readers who wouldn't normally pick up a book like this are encouraged to give it a try because 'Into That Forest' is a story which deserves to be read.
June 29, 2019
This book was heart breaking and beautiful story about love, freedom, survival.....two girls(hannah and B E K C Y), one forest, one bond(tasmani tigers), forever, after tragic accident, they are left , to eat, to hunt, to survive....after 70 years, hannah the youngest ready to tell story, the sad ending totally believable story....
December 19, 2013
Not the greatest book I've ever read. I could've done with less crudeness, and the story was quite depressing. I did, however, feel compelled to read it, and it was okay. Very different!
March 8, 2018
Into That Forest is about two girls who get lost in the wilderness and 'adopted' by a pair of Tasmanian tigers � an animal that is now extinct but really more like a wolf than a tiger.Told in Hannah's broken English, the voice is easy to understand and vividly written.
Hannah is only 6 years old when she's lost, so over the next 4 years, she and her friend Becky go feral living with the tigers, shedding their clothes, moving on all fours, and learning to grunt and growl like the animals. As a vegetarian, I wasn't a big fan of how many descriptions there were of eating raw meat, but the rest of the story is so utterly compelling. The Tasmanian tigers often steal sheep (with the help of the two girls), so they are highly sought after by hunters � which is so heartbreaking when you think of other animals today that are being hunted to extinction.
The girls are found by Becky's father and brought back to civilization, but remain wild and struggle to adapt. The ending is absolutely heart-wrenching
I really enjoyed this quick read.
Hannah is only 6 years old when she's lost, so over the next 4 years, she and her friend Becky go feral living with the tigers, shedding their clothes, moving on all fours, and learning to grunt and growl like the animals. As a vegetarian, I wasn't a big fan of how many descriptions there were of eating raw meat, but the rest of the story is so utterly compelling. The Tasmanian tigers often steal sheep (with the help of the two girls), so they are highly sought after by hunters � which is so heartbreaking when you think of other animals today that are being hunted to extinction.
The girls are found by Becky's father and brought back to civilization, but remain wild and struggle to adapt. The ending is absolutely heart-wrenching
I really enjoyed this quick read.
August 25, 2022
This was a really good, short book. I was pleasantly surprised. The story is about two young girls who are out on the river with one of the girl's parents when a storm rolls in and capsizes their boat. The girls are washed up onto the shore, but the parents were drowned. The girls were adopted by a couple of tigers, and they almost forget how to be human.
Several years later, they are found and forced back into society, which proves to be a difficult transition for everyone.
Several years later, they are found and forced back into society, which proves to be a difficult transition for everyone.
October 7, 2021
THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD BOOK I read it from the school library and wasn't expecting that much but omg it was brilliant, especially when they came home and had to learn to be human again!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2023
2 1/2 stars
FURRY PROPAGANDA????? 🐕🐕👭
FURRY PROPAGANDA????? 🐕🐕👭
November 21, 2020
Imaginative, evocative, lyrical, compulsive reading.
I didn't know what it was about, so that made it more surprising.
Brilliant work.
I didn't know what it was about, so that made it more surprising.
Brilliant work.
March 16, 2024
Found this in a local charity shop. It still has a bookplate in the front from Bradford Academy, last date due back 14th February 2018.
It was an interesting read, albeit rather far-fetched. A tall story. I quite liked it, anyway.
It was an interesting read, albeit rather far-fetched. A tall story. I quite liked it, anyway.
October 25, 2012
Wow, what a book. This was by far one of the most unusual books I have ever read. Louis Nowra certainly deserves his standing in the Australian literary landscape. I was completely drawn in to the world of Hannah and Rebecca - after a slow start. This book kind of creeps up on you like a stalking thylacine, and that is as it should be.
Hannah and Becky, awkward friends, lost and alone after a shipping accident, are washed up on a strange shore and are cared for by a family of Tasmanian Tigers, Dave and Corinna. The story of how they gradually become more tiger than human is a compelling one. They learn to talk without speaking, to hunt, to small fear, to experience life at its most visceral. Far removed from their former lives as human girls, they are happy animals for years, until the fat man Hannah remembers seeing near her home when she lived with her father is spotted in the forest. Hannah knows he kills tigers. A cat and mouse game ensues, with Ernie, the tiger hunter, and the girls circling around each other until, eventually, the girls are caught.
Becky's father, Mr Carson, has been searching for them all this time and now he wants to take them "home". Hannah discovers that whatever she knew as home is gone - her parents are dead. She knows she only has herself to rely on. What follows is a series of events that takes all of them to the very edge of sanity and back again. I will not issue spoilers here (not my policy), but the end is devastating. Despite that, I felt the ending was exactly should have happened and as a reader that is a prize beyond measure.
This is writing at its finest. Nowra paints a picture for all the senses - the smell of blood, the sense of it, the tingling in the bones that the girls experience is very effectively described. There is a real atmosphere to this book - first free and then terribly oppressed. It is unnerving, unsettling and makes you question exactly what is human? What is HUMANE?
I will remember this book for a long time.
Hannah and Becky, awkward friends, lost and alone after a shipping accident, are washed up on a strange shore and are cared for by a family of Tasmanian Tigers, Dave and Corinna. The story of how they gradually become more tiger than human is a compelling one. They learn to talk without speaking, to hunt, to small fear, to experience life at its most visceral. Far removed from their former lives as human girls, they are happy animals for years, until the fat man Hannah remembers seeing near her home when she lived with her father is spotted in the forest. Hannah knows he kills tigers. A cat and mouse game ensues, with Ernie, the tiger hunter, and the girls circling around each other until, eventually, the girls are caught.
Becky's father, Mr Carson, has been searching for them all this time and now he wants to take them "home". Hannah discovers that whatever she knew as home is gone - her parents are dead. She knows she only has herself to rely on. What follows is a series of events that takes all of them to the very edge of sanity and back again. I will not issue spoilers here (not my policy), but the end is devastating. Despite that, I felt the ending was exactly should have happened and as a reader that is a prize beyond measure.
This is writing at its finest. Nowra paints a picture for all the senses - the smell of blood, the sense of it, the tingling in the bones that the girls experience is very effectively described. There is a real atmosphere to this book - first free and then terribly oppressed. It is unnerving, unsettling and makes you question exactly what is human? What is HUMANE?
I will remember this book for a long time.
July 26, 2013
I have held onto my fascination with feral children for quite a number of years now. And any time I hear of a new non-fiction or fiction title that discusses the topic, I eagerly scoop it up. This new YA book from Amazon’s Children’s Publishing house is no exception. It takes place in Tasmania, Australia during an undisclosed year and centers around the story of two young girls taken in by a pair of the now extinct Tasmanian tigers.
From its very first pages, the story is immediately one that fully captures the reader. The narrative style at first takes some getting used to (though it would make for a wonderful audio version, or just to be read aloud), but quickly just adds to the overall authenticity of the novel. The story itself is simple, but powerful - and quite sad. Its protagonists - Hannah and Becky, Dave and Corinna - are easy to care for, and though the villains certainly feel vile, their perspective too shines through Hannah’s narrative. The natural world also feels beautifully and genuinely rendered. It’s a tightly written novel, and for a such a slim volume (not even two hundred pages) is the kind of book that lingers long after the last page has been read. I definitely will be keeping an eye out for Nowra’s future books. This one is absolutely fascinating and one of the better fictional feral children depictions.
From its very first pages, the story is immediately one that fully captures the reader. The narrative style at first takes some getting used to (though it would make for a wonderful audio version, or just to be read aloud), but quickly just adds to the overall authenticity of the novel. The story itself is simple, but powerful - and quite sad. Its protagonists - Hannah and Becky, Dave and Corinna - are easy to care for, and though the villains certainly feel vile, their perspective too shines through Hannah’s narrative. The natural world also feels beautifully and genuinely rendered. It’s a tightly written novel, and for a such a slim volume (not even two hundred pages) is the kind of book that lingers long after the last page has been read. I definitely will be keeping an eye out for Nowra’s future books. This one is absolutely fascinating and one of the better fictional feral children depictions.
May 18, 2015
This is a story told by Hannah, a 70-something-year-old lady, about how when she was 6 years old, she and her friend, Becky, survived a terrible storm while on a boat with her parents. The two girls wander the forest and come upon a Tasmanian tiger. It appears that the tiger wants the girls to follow her and after some initial hesitation, they do. The tiger leads them to her lair where her male counterpart is waiting. The two girls are "adopted" by the tigers and as the years go on (four in total) the girls lose their ability to speak English and their other human traits in exchange for animal-like behaviors, and ultimately live as a family of Tasmanian tigers. Once they are "rescued" the story is still intriguing because they struggle with going back to a human way of life.
The story held my interest throughout, but I was a bit put off by the dialect used by Hannah. Her grammar was horrendous throughout the telling of the story. We are told it is because she had to re-learn English. However, she has had 60 some-odd years to relearn the language, so I don't think that is a good enough excuse for the author to write the story in that manner. I think the author thought it would lend charm to the character, but it was really just distracting.
The story held my interest throughout, but I was a bit put off by the dialect used by Hannah. Her grammar was horrendous throughout the telling of the story. We are told it is because she had to re-learn English. However, she has had 60 some-odd years to relearn the language, so I don't think that is a good enough excuse for the author to write the story in that manner. I think the author thought it would lend charm to the character, but it was really just distracting.
February 20, 2016
I straight up admit I am a sucker for these kinds of stories even if they're badly written. But this one is NOT badly written - it's very well-told. There's no navel-gazing here - it's a straightforward tale of death, survival, and events most people would consider insanely wild and unlikely. Hannah is a pragmatic protagonist with a clear-eyed, unsentimental view of her world and the events she survives.
I had to Google Tasmanian tigers. They are not what Westerners think of when they think tigers, and they are extinct. So, you know, always fun to learn things, too.
I had to Google Tasmanian tigers. They are not what Westerners think of when they think tigers, and they are extinct. So, you know, always fun to learn things, too.
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