Miley Petrowski is a biathalon Olympics hopeful. Her teammate and best friend is Brent McGowan. On the off season Miley goes to work at a resort called Hidden Springs. She’s trying to keep up with her training by continuing running when she isn’t working. New coworker Wes warns her not to run in the woods because of bears. We find out at some point a former Hidden Springs employee named Rayna was supposedly killed in a bear attack. Her body was never recovered.

She doesn’t listen to Wes since she’s dedicated and already nursing a bad shoulder. We find out her shoulder injury is from a horrific car accident in which Miley’s mom was killed. Naturally Miley carries a lot of guilt.

While running in the vast wilderness, Miley ends up being taken by a father/son doomsday prepper duo. She’s held and kept in a remote cabin off the grid. She’s forced to cook, clean, and do manual labor for the home, along with a one eyed woman who goes by the name Mary. The father/son duo are named Fred and Hamish. They decide to call her Ruthie Sue. Ruthie Sue and Mary maintain the home and get treated like garbage. They are chained up, beaten, raped, etc.

When Miley doesn’t show up to work, her emergency contact Brent is called. He comes right away. Brent and Wes go out into the woods to look for Miley when the search is called off. The search is called off because they find Miley’s clothes ripped to shreds, presumably by a bear. Miley has to figure out if it’s worth it to run for her literal life or give up and officially “become” Mary.

I loved this book about survival. I’m shocked Wes joins Brent in the search after just knowing Miley only a few days. Especially knowing about the bears and knowing how gigantic this patch of wilderness is. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t bode well for poor Wes. I didn’t find out until the end of the book but it was based on a real story of Olympian Kari Swenson. This made me like the book that much more.

4/5

See listing:

More from Noelle W. Ihli:

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for your support!