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The Bear
Anna is five. Her little brother, Stick, is almost three. They are camping with their parents in Algonquin Park, in three thousand square miles of wilderness. It's the perfect family trip. But then Anna awakes in the night to the sound of something moving in the shadows. Her father is terrified. Their mother is screaming. Then, silence.
Alone in the woods, it is Anna who has to look after Stick, battling hunger and the elements to stay alive. Narrated by Anna, this is white-knuckle storytelling that captures the fear, wonder and bewilderment of our worst nightmares - and the power of one girl's enduring love for her family.
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
202 people are currently reading
8475 people want to read
About the author
Claire Cameron
4 books303 followersA new book, March 25, 2025 — HOW TO SURVIVE A BEAR ATTACK: A Memoir
Also, author of The Last Neanderthal, The Bear and The Line Painter.
Also, author of The Last Neanderthal, The Bear and The Line Painter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,548 reviews
August 18, 2018
this was the perfect book to read directly after Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, which had a huge chapter about death by bears in yellowstone and how to (hopefully) avoid being killed by them. in the author's note of the bear, cameron says that her inspiration for this novel was the true story of raymond jakubauskas and carola frehe, who were killed by a bear on Bates Island on Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park, nearly three thousand miles of wilderness situated two hundred fifty miles northeast of Toronto. there was no explanation for the attack; they did all the things that Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park book recommended you do to avoid bear-interest, and yet, they were still attacked and devoured.
cameron takes their story and adds two children into the mix: anna, aged 5 and "stick," aged 2. forced to listen to her parents get attacked by a giant black bear without really understanding what is happening, anna emerges from the cooler where she and her brother were stashed at the beginning of the attack and stumbles upon her dying mother who begs anna to take her brother, get into the canoe, and get off the island, to "wait for them" on the mainland.
after some confused resistance, she does just that, and they make it across the water and wait on the opposite shore, through hunger and heat and mosquitoes as anna tries to keep stick from wandering off, entertaining him and waiting for an adult to come and tell them what to do next.
the story is entirely narrated by 5-year-old anna, so it is not a cohesive, linear narrative. it is more stream-of-consciousness writing, with all anna's confusion about her situation, and a focus on the inconsequential details making up the the small, selfish but good-intentioned perspective of a little girl. she both loves and resents her younger brother, and tries to keep her eye on him and keep him out of trouble, but she is easily frustrated by the grown-up burdens she is not old enough to assume.
i personally loved the voice. it seems to me to be a very realistic depiction of what a child would be thinking in the midst of a tragedy she doesn't quite comprehend. she keeps waiting for her parents to come to her rescue, stumbling into and narrowly avoiding other dangers unknowingly, and the story is a combination of memories of her parents and their relationship (another thing she only half-understands) and her frustration with her more immediate surroundings.
it is occasionally funny, sometimes sad, and pretty tense, because the reader knows more than anna, and so knows that there is more to fear than she herself realizes. i liked the narrow focus, anna's fixation on the barbie dolls her mother will not let her have, her quick-change love-hate of her brother, the unusual connections she makes and the way she expresses these thoughts.
kids in peril always makes good reading for me, and this is one of the better ones i have read. someday, you can read it, too!!
come to my blog!
cameron takes their story and adds two children into the mix: anna, aged 5 and "stick," aged 2. forced to listen to her parents get attacked by a giant black bear without really understanding what is happening, anna emerges from the cooler where she and her brother were stashed at the beginning of the attack and stumbles upon her dying mother who begs anna to take her brother, get into the canoe, and get off the island, to "wait for them" on the mainland.
after some confused resistance, she does just that, and they make it across the water and wait on the opposite shore, through hunger and heat and mosquitoes as anna tries to keep stick from wandering off, entertaining him and waiting for an adult to come and tell them what to do next.
the story is entirely narrated by 5-year-old anna, so it is not a cohesive, linear narrative. it is more stream-of-consciousness writing, with all anna's confusion about her situation, and a focus on the inconsequential details making up the the small, selfish but good-intentioned perspective of a little girl. she both loves and resents her younger brother, and tries to keep her eye on him and keep him out of trouble, but she is easily frustrated by the grown-up burdens she is not old enough to assume.
i personally loved the voice. it seems to me to be a very realistic depiction of what a child would be thinking in the midst of a tragedy she doesn't quite comprehend. she keeps waiting for her parents to come to her rescue, stumbling into and narrowly avoiding other dangers unknowingly, and the story is a combination of memories of her parents and their relationship (another thing she only half-understands) and her frustration with her more immediate surroundings.
it is occasionally funny, sometimes sad, and pretty tense, because the reader knows more than anna, and so knows that there is more to fear than she herself realizes. i liked the narrow focus, anna's fixation on the barbie dolls her mother will not let her have, her quick-change love-hate of her brother, the unusual connections she makes and the way she expresses these thoughts.
kids in peril always makes good reading for me, and this is one of the better ones i have read. someday, you can read it, too!!
come to my blog!
January 31, 2014
I wanted to love this book. I was SO excited to read it, so glad that I was approved for an ARC from NetGalley (and thank you, Net Galley, for supplying me with it!), but I just couldn't love it.
The story itself is terrifying and emotional and original. And the writing, in terms of form, is fine. My issue is with the narration and that I couldn't believe it.
As a children's librarian, I'm around a lot of kids, all ages, 0-18. The kids I'm around the most are between the ages of 2 and 6, the ages of Stick and Anna. While I liked the idea of telling the story from Anna's perspective in first person present tense, I didn't find her thought processes convincing. Some of the words used didn't strike me as words a 5-year-old would think, and it happened so often that it would jerk me out of my "reading zone" to think to myself "well that doesn't seem right". I also struggled with believing that Anna remembered so many things. For the most part, when you talk to kids, they can hardly tell you what they did that day. Anna remembered too many things, was able to think about too much at once.
I don't know, I seem to be the only one with this opinion, so I absolutely think people should read it and form their own. The story itself is (cliche, I know) haunting and terrifying. I absolutely believe that Anna would be able to take care of her little brother, and I find the story entirely credible. I just have a hard time believing in Anna's narrative.
The story itself is terrifying and emotional and original. And the writing, in terms of form, is fine. My issue is with the narration and that I couldn't believe it.
As a children's librarian, I'm around a lot of kids, all ages, 0-18. The kids I'm around the most are between the ages of 2 and 6, the ages of Stick and Anna. While I liked the idea of telling the story from Anna's perspective in first person present tense, I didn't find her thought processes convincing. Some of the words used didn't strike me as words a 5-year-old would think, and it happened so often that it would jerk me out of my "reading zone" to think to myself "well that doesn't seem right". I also struggled with believing that Anna remembered so many things. For the most part, when you talk to kids, they can hardly tell you what they did that day. Anna remembered too many things, was able to think about too much at once.
I don't know, I seem to be the only one with this opinion, so I absolutely think people should read it and form their own. The story itself is (cliche, I know) haunting and terrifying. I absolutely believe that Anna would be able to take care of her little brother, and I find the story entirely credible. I just have a hard time believing in Anna's narrative.
March 22, 2018
Based on the true story of when a couple was attacked by a bear and killed on Bates Island on Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park- two hundred miles northeast of Toronto- in 1991. There was a lot of mystery around the reason for the attack — which I felt was worthy of a story itself. Given all the facts of what investigators gathered- there was never ever any ‘clear’ reason to explain why the couple ‘was’ attacked —
BUT....
what the author did with this story is ‘add’ small children to tell a story of what it ‘might’ have been like if children were camping with their parents when the Bear attacked.
What a FRIGHTENING THOUGHT!!!!
As it turns out... it ‘WAS’ terrifying to imagine five year old Anna and her two year old brother, Stinky, surviving on their own after their parents were attack...
beginning with them waiting their time out in a Coleman ice chest....’listening’??? to noises of the Bear fighting their parents?/!
WHAT A HORRENDOUS THOUGHT!
We know from the start how the story ends...
but we still feel for these children.
They have limited understanding of what’s happening around them...
We follow along with Anna - as our 5 year old narrator taking us on a very haunting journey from her Colman. She speaks to us...
through a dream? Or... is it real? that she paddled away on a canoe with her brother?
Her voice and imagination ‘did’ have me wondering how realistic this might be...
Soooo creepy SCARY... why would I want to imagine this story?/! Yet... it’s a book that calls for a one sitting read. PULLS AT YA!
A part of me wonders ‘why’ this story was created —as the REAL story was not only DEVASTATING - if you read about the factual events — there was as many reasons for the couple to have NOT gotten attacked at all. They didn’t do anything wrong while camping ...
so - I’m still more interested in the puzzle around the REAL story. Worth learning of things others might ‘correct’ while camping.
On the other hand -this fast slim book - does have tension - creating visual imagery- and an experience of these small children.
YEP.... you guessed it... NOT an UPBEAT happy dance book ... but ‘kinda’ fascinating....
ALWAYS TERRIFYING!
BUT....
what the author did with this story is ‘add’ small children to tell a story of what it ‘might’ have been like if children were camping with their parents when the Bear attacked.
What a FRIGHTENING THOUGHT!!!!
As it turns out... it ‘WAS’ terrifying to imagine five year old Anna and her two year old brother, Stinky, surviving on their own after their parents were attack...
beginning with them waiting their time out in a Coleman ice chest....’listening’??? to noises of the Bear fighting their parents?/!
WHAT A HORRENDOUS THOUGHT!
We know from the start how the story ends...
but we still feel for these children.
They have limited understanding of what’s happening around them...
We follow along with Anna - as our 5 year old narrator taking us on a very haunting journey from her Colman. She speaks to us...
through a dream? Or... is it real? that she paddled away on a canoe with her brother?
Her voice and imagination ‘did’ have me wondering how realistic this might be...
Soooo creepy SCARY... why would I want to imagine this story?/! Yet... it’s a book that calls for a one sitting read. PULLS AT YA!
A part of me wonders ‘why’ this story was created —as the REAL story was not only DEVASTATING - if you read about the factual events — there was as many reasons for the couple to have NOT gotten attacked at all. They didn’t do anything wrong while camping ...
so - I’m still more interested in the puzzle around the REAL story. Worth learning of things others might ‘correct’ while camping.
On the other hand -this fast slim book - does have tension - creating visual imagery- and an experience of these small children.
YEP.... you guessed it... NOT an UPBEAT happy dance book ... but ‘kinda’ fascinating....
ALWAYS TERRIFYING!
November 25, 2022
Wrong place, wrong bear, wrong time!
In 1991, Bates Island in Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park, Ontario, was the site of a couple’s untimely death as the result of an attack by a black bear. As a long-time outdoors lover and wilderness camper who had been to Algonquin so many times that I could paddle many routes without even looking at maps, I had a respect for bears but I did not fear them provided I followed a few simple rules and took what were usual precautions with respect to food handling and camp site set-up. I felt that the best explanation available for the attack and the couple’s death was quite simple. This particular bear was the ursine equivalent of a deranged human psychotic that had behaved in a way contrary to any norms of typical black bear behavior. In short, a rogue bear! The couple met their death because they encountered the wrong bear in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Claire Cameron’s novel, THE BEAR, uses that event as a simple springboard and posits the existence of two children, Anna and Stick, a five year old and a ten year old, directed by the dying mother to go on a canoe ride to get them safely off the island and away from the bear who is still on the island and likely to return to the site of his only partially consumed “kill”. This is the story of Anna and Stick’s survival and return to the safety of civilization told through the eyes of five year old Anna. I was excited at the idea!
Sadly, that excitement began and ended virtually with the first page.
Other readers may have different opinions, of course, but for this reader, the device of telling the story in a five year old’s voice with all of the perceptions and ideas of that hypothetical five year old child was unintelligible, tedious and, ultimately, an unreadable “did-not-finish”.
Paul Weiss
In 1991, Bates Island in Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park, Ontario, was the site of a couple’s untimely death as the result of an attack by a black bear. As a long-time outdoors lover and wilderness camper who had been to Algonquin so many times that I could paddle many routes without even looking at maps, I had a respect for bears but I did not fear them provided I followed a few simple rules and took what were usual precautions with respect to food handling and camp site set-up. I felt that the best explanation available for the attack and the couple’s death was quite simple. This particular bear was the ursine equivalent of a deranged human psychotic that had behaved in a way contrary to any norms of typical black bear behavior. In short, a rogue bear! The couple met their death because they encountered the wrong bear in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Claire Cameron’s novel, THE BEAR, uses that event as a simple springboard and posits the existence of two children, Anna and Stick, a five year old and a ten year old, directed by the dying mother to go on a canoe ride to get them safely off the island and away from the bear who is still on the island and likely to return to the site of his only partially consumed “kill”. This is the story of Anna and Stick’s survival and return to the safety of civilization told through the eyes of five year old Anna. I was excited at the idea!
Sadly, that excitement began and ended virtually with the first page.
Other readers may have different opinions, of course, but for this reader, the device of telling the story in a five year old’s voice with all of the perceptions and ideas of that hypothetical five year old child was unintelligible, tedious and, ultimately, an unreadable “did-not-finish”.
Paul Weiss
July 24, 2016
Child narrators under the age of 10 are tricky to say the least. It can be so easily flubbed and come off as gimmicky or inauthentic. Mostly, I'm not a fan. Louis CK's rant about children and their secrets beautifully sums up the why for me.
So this book, with its five-year old narrator Anna, is going to fail or succeed depending on your acceptance of the childish, stream-of-consciousness storytelling style. Anna is in the grips of some nasty peril after just losing both her parents to a bear mauling. What's more, she is saddled with the responsibility of her baby brother Stick, aged 2. Anna's point of view is limited by what she knows and what she is able to articulate (for the record, not a whole lot). There's repetition and tangent after tangent. As with any child, you must have patience. You'll get all the information you need eventually, it just might take a while to get there.
Anna's voice grew on me, it really did. She's bratty and self-absorbed like any young kid, but also sweet and funny and brave. Her thorny relationship with her baby brother is heart-wrenching at times, the way she hates him and loves him in equal contradicting measure. There is tension here and a palpable suspense as we watch two hapless babes in the woods stumble from one threat to another -- sunburn, dehydration, poison ivy, and of course, the black bear who may or may not still be stalking them (and who continues to feed on their parents).
This is one of those books you're just going to have to try and see for yourself whether Anna's voice makes you want to keep reading, or throw the book across the room as if it had cooties. Either reaction is possible.
Some spoilers ahead under the spoiler tag:
March 24, 2015
5-year-old Anna and her 3-year-old brother Alex (Stick) survive a bear attack during a family camping trip. Anna tries to keep them alive and safe after their parents are killed.
This book was narrated by Anna. While I applaud the author for taking on this ambitious point-of-view, the voice of this character did not work for me. Anna narrated more like a 3-year-old than a child who is almost six. Not only didn't it ring true, but it was annoying and confusing. The story itself was kind of a let down as well. Just the kids wandering around making stereotypical mistakes like wiping themselves with poison ivy leaves and getting sunburned. And little details bothered me like how a tin of cookies that had multiple punctures from the bear's claws could be dropped repeatedly into the water without any of the cookies getting wet. This book just did not live up to its potential for me.
This book was narrated by Anna. While I applaud the author for taking on this ambitious point-of-view, the voice of this character did not work for me. Anna narrated more like a 3-year-old than a child who is almost six. Not only didn't it ring true, but it was annoying and confusing. The story itself was kind of a let down as well. Just the kids wandering around making stereotypical mistakes like wiping themselves with poison ivy leaves and getting sunburned. And little details bothered me like how a tin of cookies that had multiple punctures from the bear's claws could be dropped repeatedly into the water without any of the cookies getting wet. This book just did not live up to its potential for me.
February 4, 2014
Hmmm, I think I have to wait a bit to review this one. Have to think about it first. From www.thebookdorks.com:
Ah, shit. This one’s gonna be all nature-y and survivalish. Totally not my kind of book at all, except FREE****, so there’s that.
I KNOW everyone on the internet (weird, since this is a pre-release and yet so many have already read it) seems to love this book after they’ve finished. And maybe it’s just me being contrary (which is sort of likely to happen, actually), but I don’t think I liked it at all. I’d tell my students that if they have a strong reaction either way, a book has done its job because it made them think, but even I know that is a load of crap, so… forgive me for the all-caps screaminess to come. This one makes me feel a little RANTY.
First off, the attack scene is pretty disturbing since we know that the main characters going through this are kids. I decided not to read this at bedtime since I have some kids, like some kids, and don’t generally want to hear stories about horrors happening to kids. It’s definitely a daytime book.
Here are my big issues with The Bear (SPOILERS AHEAD):
The cooler – In the middle of the attack, Dad has thewherewithal foresight gumption time idiotic idea to put his two kids in a cooler. I cannot get past that. (Even though this is irrelevant, I am also annoyed that the girl has NAMED her cooler and sees it as a friend. Too quirky = feels forced.) Really, though. I am disturbed that Mr. Whyte’s solution is to stuff his two kids in a place where children often suffocate by accident. I mean, this doesn’t seem a like a good plan AT ALL. This seems like his brain was already going in not-nice places if this is his first instinct. Because seriously, how is suffocating your children the answer to a rampaging bear? Has he thought of this before? Did he lure them out there to kill them all? This guy, for all his nature smarts (I assume? I mean, because they camp a lot and have custom-made canoe paddles and such…) seems like a real Froot Loop once he’s in a real Man vs. Wild situation. And say he’d survived the bear, this could too easily be an “oh darn, too late” scenario! Not cool.
Dad’s logic – WHY DIDN’T THEY ALL GET BACK IN THE DAMN CANOE? Or just him with the kids since Mom seems seriously messed up by then? Barring that, why didn’t he float the kids off in the canoe while he attacks 300 pounds of bear with a clearly flimsy canoe paddle? How is the cooler the best option and WTF is the bear doing while he does this????? I mean, really, how did Dad have a chance to go get Anna, get ALEX (because dammit, STICK is not a name, and yes, I’m sorry to steal your line, Kelley), get the damn rock to create an air hole and not get eaten? Was he just ignoring his wife being torn to bits during all this???? Was the bear that preoccupied? And did he just go back after locking the kids in the cooler and volunteer himself up as dinner, saying “ok, bear, I’m done being a crap-ass dad, so you can disembowel me now”? I mean, best case scenario, how did he think those kids were going to get out of a locked metal cooler while he attacked the local wildlife with a meager NOT-WEAPON? Did he plan on them suffocating? What kind of outcome were we hoping for here? I just don’t buy that this as a heat-of-the-moment survival solution, no matter how terrible the circumstances.
Poor parenting – And, speaking of terrible, irrational decisions by the dad (and why I REALLY thought there was more going on here with the dad, for a few chapters anyway)… why the hell is Dad always so mad that he looks like a raging bear who goes off and leaves his family when the baby has a shitty diaper or whatever? Why is this five-year-old child so terrified to be bad? Because her dad will leave? Oh hell no, not gonna like this one. And the mom, for all her trying to keep bad food and BAAAAD Barbies from her kids, sure seems to be useless when it comes to a crisis. What sort of adult needs a five-year-old for comfort when she has a breakup? AND WHY THE HELL WAS THAT USELESS PLOT POINT EVEN IN THERE? Except, maybe because it makes Dad look like more of a douche…
The oh-shit-this-could-be-really-awesome moment – Then it occurred to me that maybe the bear was meant as a symbol. I mean, Dad’s constantly a scary bastard, maybe she just THINKS there is a bear and in a weird, Life of Pi, surreal and head-trippy way, Dad is hurting his family. Maybe she blocks it out because the truth is too hard. EXCEPT not. Because I don’t think that book is this fucking clever. The bear is just a bear; the dad is just a dunce (and one who later cuddles and comforts his daughter in a flashback scene, so I guess I was reading him wrong all along), and the story just sucks. I quit.
Cooler problems again – Oh, did I mention? When the kids finally get out the cooler it is because it breaks like eggshells after Anna kicks it. Um, no. Even bear-mauled metal shouldn’t do that. (Ok, maybe it should.) I honestly have no idea what bear-mauled metal would do under that sort of stress, but it feels too damn convenient. After all, the lid of the cooler has just fallen closed; thus, no more air. OF COURSE, it’s AFTER the poopy diaper, but not before they asphyxiate or at a moment when the bear is still around to be a danger).
Mom’s deadness – Why is Mom’s leg pointing up? Is she broken? Eaten? Bleeding out? Giving up? How long has she been there dying and not, I don’t know, searching for her damn kids??? (Because seriously, I don’t care what a bear just ATE off of me, if I had breath left, that’s what I’D be doing!) The book keeps referring to her leg pointed up so it makes me wonder if it is detached. Ew. And yet when Dad’s leg is ACTUALLY detached, no real mention until later. Maybe that is just what Anna chose to focus on because the rest was gory, but…blargh.
That beginning – In the author’s note, Cameron writes that a bear attack just like this happened in this very park where she once worked (which sounds like the beginning of a horror story at Girl Scout camp). She apparently spent tons of time researching this particular event. I feel like that is awesome because I can get onboard with some realistic fiction. But then she ends the note with “I added the kids.” WTH? Adding children in this already tragic, gruesome scenario seems horrific. Had she wanted to retell the real event, I’d be in. If she’d had three folks camping and this happened, and one survives to tell the story, I’d buy it. Had she wanted to retell that real bear attack event reimagined as fiction (even with kids), fine, but then, don’t tell me. JUST LET IT BE FICTION. As it is, adding children feels like needlessly toying with the reader’s emotions for dramatic effect and I resent that.
Yadda yadda – After the kids get in the canoe, they float off somewhere safe, drink muddy water, go to the bathroom in copious amounts, and I totally check out. They’re later rescued, grow up, and finally come back to mourn their dead parents. YAWN. After all the forced tension and implausibility at the beginning, I no longer care, but feel SOMETHING more groundbreaking should have happened.
So I hate to be bitchy and all, since this is a pre-release which I got it for free, and this is only the author’s second book, and she looks all pretty and nice when I looked her up on the internet, but sorry, Claire Cameron, this one is a NO for me.
****This book was provided to our book club by publisher Little, Brown and Company as an advance readers copy in exchange for honest reviews. The Bear is scheduled for release on Feb. 11, 2014.
Ah, shit. This one’s gonna be all nature-y and survivalish. Totally not my kind of book at all, except FREE****, so there’s that.
I KNOW everyone on the internet (weird, since this is a pre-release and yet so many have already read it) seems to love this book after they’ve finished. And maybe it’s just me being contrary (which is sort of likely to happen, actually), but I don’t think I liked it at all. I’d tell my students that if they have a strong reaction either way, a book has done its job because it made them think, but even I know that is a load of crap, so… forgive me for the all-caps screaminess to come. This one makes me feel a little RANTY.
First off, the attack scene is pretty disturbing since we know that the main characters going through this are kids. I decided not to read this at bedtime since I have some kids, like some kids, and don’t generally want to hear stories about horrors happening to kids. It’s definitely a daytime book.
Here are my big issues with The Bear (SPOILERS AHEAD):
The cooler – In the middle of the attack, Dad has the
Dad’s logic – WHY DIDN’T THEY ALL GET BACK IN THE DAMN CANOE? Or just him with the kids since Mom seems seriously messed up by then? Barring that, why didn’t he float the kids off in the canoe while he attacks 300 pounds of bear with a clearly flimsy canoe paddle? How is the cooler the best option and WTF is the bear doing while he does this????? I mean, really, how did Dad have a chance to go get Anna, get ALEX (because dammit, STICK is not a name, and yes, I’m sorry to steal your line, Kelley), get the damn rock to create an air hole and not get eaten? Was he just ignoring his wife being torn to bits during all this???? Was the bear that preoccupied? And did he just go back after locking the kids in the cooler and volunteer himself up as dinner, saying “ok, bear, I’m done being a crap-ass dad, so you can disembowel me now”? I mean, best case scenario, how did he think those kids were going to get out of a locked metal cooler while he attacked the local wildlife with a meager NOT-WEAPON? Did he plan on them suffocating? What kind of outcome were we hoping for here? I just don’t buy that this as a heat-of-the-moment survival solution, no matter how terrible the circumstances.
Poor parenting – And, speaking of terrible, irrational decisions by the dad (and why I REALLY thought there was more going on here with the dad, for a few chapters anyway)… why the hell is Dad always so mad that he looks like a raging bear who goes off and leaves his family when the baby has a shitty diaper or whatever? Why is this five-year-old child so terrified to be bad? Because her dad will leave? Oh hell no, not gonna like this one. And the mom, for all her trying to keep bad food and BAAAAD Barbies from her kids, sure seems to be useless when it comes to a crisis. What sort of adult needs a five-year-old for comfort when she has a breakup? AND WHY THE HELL WAS THAT USELESS PLOT POINT EVEN IN THERE? Except, maybe because it makes Dad look like more of a douche…
The oh-shit-this-could-be-really-awesome moment – Then it occurred to me that maybe the bear was meant as a symbol. I mean, Dad’s constantly a scary bastard, maybe she just THINKS there is a bear and in a weird, Life of Pi, surreal and head-trippy way, Dad is hurting his family. Maybe she blocks it out because the truth is too hard. EXCEPT not. Because I don’t think that book is this fucking clever. The bear is just a bear; the dad is just a dunce (and one who later cuddles and comforts his daughter in a flashback scene, so I guess I was reading him wrong all along), and the story just sucks. I quit.
Cooler problems again – Oh, did I mention? When the kids finally get out the cooler it is because it breaks like eggshells after Anna kicks it. Um, no. Even bear-mauled metal shouldn’t do that. (Ok, maybe it should.) I honestly have no idea what bear-mauled metal would do under that sort of stress, but it feels too damn convenient. After all, the lid of the cooler has just fallen closed; thus, no more air. OF COURSE, it’s AFTER the poopy diaper, but not before they asphyxiate or at a moment when the bear is still around to be a danger).
Mom’s deadness – Why is Mom’s leg pointing up? Is she broken? Eaten? Bleeding out? Giving up? How long has she been there dying and not, I don’t know, searching for her damn kids??? (Because seriously, I don’t care what a bear just ATE off of me, if I had breath left, that’s what I’D be doing!) The book keeps referring to her leg pointed up so it makes me wonder if it is detached. Ew. And yet when Dad’s leg is ACTUALLY detached, no real mention until later. Maybe that is just what Anna chose to focus on because the rest was gory, but…blargh.
That beginning – In the author’s note, Cameron writes that a bear attack just like this happened in this very park where she once worked (which sounds like the beginning of a horror story at Girl Scout camp). She apparently spent tons of time researching this particular event. I feel like that is awesome because I can get onboard with some realistic fiction. But then she ends the note with “I added the kids.” WTH? Adding children in this already tragic, gruesome scenario seems horrific. Had she wanted to retell the real event, I’d be in. If she’d had three folks camping and this happened, and one survives to tell the story, I’d buy it. Had she wanted to retell that real bear attack event reimagined as fiction (even with kids), fine, but then, don’t tell me. JUST LET IT BE FICTION. As it is, adding children feels like needlessly toying with the reader’s emotions for dramatic effect and I resent that.
Yadda yadda – After the kids get in the canoe, they float off somewhere safe, drink muddy water, go to the bathroom in copious amounts, and I totally check out. They’re later rescued, grow up, and finally come back to mourn their dead parents. YAWN. After all the forced tension and implausibility at the beginning, I no longer care, but feel SOMETHING more groundbreaking should have happened.
So I hate to be bitchy and all, since this is a pre-release which I got it for free, and this is only the author’s second book, and she looks all pretty and nice when I looked her up on the internet, but sorry, Claire Cameron, this one is a NO for me.
****This book was provided to our book club by publisher Little, Brown and Company as an advance readers copy in exchange for honest reviews. The Bear is scheduled for release on Feb. 11, 2014.
January 7, 2019
After witnessing the aftermath of a bear attack on their parents after camping in Algonquin Park, Anna (5) and Stick (2) are told to get onto the canoe and escape. This is a haunting and yet beautiful story about Anna's love and instinctive protection for her brother. Cameron also explores the mental anguish which would surely follow such an incident in such a young child, using the broken, childish narrative of Anna to try and understand what is happening.
January 17, 2025
This book answers that age old question, "What's it like to hear your parents being eaten alive?"
"I can hear the snap snap snap of his jaws on the bone. [...] His teeth go scrape on the bone and I hear it pop."
The Bear's opening pages are riveting. Five-year-old Anna and her little brother, Alex, are asleep in a camping tent while their mom and dad enjoy some alone time under the stars. Then mom starts screaming and dad rips open the tent to grab the children and hide them in a massive bear proof cooler. From inside the cooler, Anna hears snuffling and sniffing and the pop of bones cracking and the scrape of teeth. She thinks it's the neighbor's dog chewing on a bone, but it's actually a bear eating her parents. 🫢
Thus kicks off a harrowing story in which Anna and her brother must survive in the wilderness, where the violent bear still roams.
It's a story told from Anna's perspective and in her young voice, so we see and interpret everything through a child's eyes. This means we're often privy to Anna's rambling thoughts about unrelated things, like how her friend Jessica has eight Barbie dolls and one Ken doll.
Anna's wandering thoughts slow the story and rob it of some tension, but it's nonetheless a heartrending tale of resilience and love, as well as trauma and recovery.
"I can hear the snap snap snap of his jaws on the bone. [...] His teeth go scrape on the bone and I hear it pop."
The Bear's opening pages are riveting. Five-year-old Anna and her little brother, Alex, are asleep in a camping tent while their mom and dad enjoy some alone time under the stars. Then mom starts screaming and dad rips open the tent to grab the children and hide them in a massive bear proof cooler. From inside the cooler, Anna hears snuffling and sniffing and the pop of bones cracking and the scrape of teeth. She thinks it's the neighbor's dog chewing on a bone, but it's actually a bear eating her parents. 🫢
Thus kicks off a harrowing story in which Anna and her brother must survive in the wilderness, where the violent bear still roams.
It's a story told from Anna's perspective and in her young voice, so we see and interpret everything through a child's eyes. This means we're often privy to Anna's rambling thoughts about unrelated things, like how her friend Jessica has eight Barbie dolls and one Ken doll.
Anna's wandering thoughts slow the story and rob it of some tension, but it's nonetheless a heartrending tale of resilience and love, as well as trauma and recovery.
December 4, 2013
I've held off reviewing this for a few days to get a little distance. The book, at certain points, had me shaking with anxiety. And now I'm not quite sure when I'll be emotionally prepared take my son camping for fear of bears or dingoes or anything else.
The story involves 5-year-old Anna and her 2-year-old brother Alex ('Stick'). Thanks to their father's quick thinking, they survive a bear attack, but the parents don't fare so well. The rest of the story is their journey back.
Anna narrates the entire story. I'd say that choice of narrator paid off, but only because it was executed so well. Anna's thoughts were perfectly scattered for a kid who hasn't developed her filters yet, but still focused on what you would expect would important for a kid (Mommy, Daddy, her teddy bear, being hungry). It took some getting used to, but once I figured how to let the thoughts wash over me rather than trying to figure out what each statement meant, I found it easier to absorb.
I think there were some missed opportunities to make the kind of funny and creative connections that kids can make, but I didn't notice that too much because I was so freakin' scared for these kids.
I'm glad it was so short, I have to say. I'm not sure I could have taken much more of it. But, I say that in a complimentary way. I'm happy to have read it, but I was glad when it was over.
The story involves 5-year-old Anna and her 2-year-old brother Alex ('Stick'). Thanks to their father's quick thinking, they survive a bear attack, but the parents don't fare so well. The rest of the story is their journey back.
Anna narrates the entire story. I'd say that choice of narrator paid off, but only because it was executed so well. Anna's thoughts were perfectly scattered for a kid who hasn't developed her filters yet, but still focused on what you would expect would important for a kid (Mommy, Daddy, her teddy bear, being hungry). It took some getting used to, but once I figured how to let the thoughts wash over me rather than trying to figure out what each statement meant, I found it easier to absorb.
I think there were some missed opportunities to make the kind of funny and creative connections that kids can make, but I didn't notice that too much because I was so freakin' scared for these kids.
I'm glad it was so short, I have to say. I'm not sure I could have taken much more of it. But, I say that in a complimentary way. I'm happy to have read it, but I was glad when it was over.
July 1, 2013
The comparison to ROOM will be made to Cameron's THE BEAR - and it is well deserved. The storyteller is 5 year old Anna, telling the tale of escape from a huge black bear. Her parents saved her and her 2 year old brother; Momma telling Anna to canoe away from the island. Her voice is so believable, a 5 year old little girl IS speaking to you. Powerful, unsettling at times; I needed to break from reading. She mixes the terror with bits or wonder and humor, a perfect blend. The opening section is powerful, at times hard to read due to the intensity. But Cameron takes you by the hand, as Anna does with her little brother, and you begin this phenomenal journey together. This book will be talked about come 2014. Claire Cameron has written a masterful work and Anna Whyte will remain with you. I love this book.
May 22, 2014
Execution doesn't quite live up to conceptualization in this novel. The premise is interesting enough – A bear attack leaves two young children, ages 3 and 5, fending for themselves in the thick of Algonquin. What doesn't work is the 5 year old narrator. Although it is very ambitious to tell a full story through the eyes of a 5 year old, it is also very risky. Cameron fails to hit the mark. She has trouble with her 'adult-speak' vs. 'kids-speak'. Anna, our narrator, is inconsistent with the things she knows versus the things she doesn't know and how this is expressed in the writing. For example, Anna knows that her Dad's boxer shorts have a hole for his penis, but she refers to her brother's penis throughout the narrative as a "dingle". Also, the story stalls for close to the first third – Poop. Pee. Wail. Repeat. It's understandable to have this occur once. Twice. But continued repetition coupled with the limited geography and lack of plot advancing events left me irritated and bored. Cameron's attempts at realism do so at the expense of storytelling. The last half of the novel is hastily and rather sloppily concluded which is a shame given how interesting a more thoughtful retrospective could have been. Overall, this was a deeply disappointing and dissatisfying read.
February 19, 2014
I love to read. And I read a lot. I only choose books I know I'm going to enjoy. But every so often, there's that book that goes beyond that enjoyment feeling - one that absolutely grabs you, has you tingling with anticipation knowing there's an amazing story just waiting within the pages, one that you can't wait to tell others about.
Well, I'm telling you - The Bear by Claire Cameron is one of those books. I literally could not put it down. Twenty pages in, I just knew I wasn't going to bed early that night.
In October of 1991, a pair of campers was attacked by a bear in Algonquin Park, Canada. "There is no clear reason for what happened other than a hungry bear decided to take a chance on a new source of food." Author Cameron was a counsellor at a summer camp at Algonquin that year as well. "The Bear is based on my memories of and research into this bear attack. I added the kids."
Yes, kids. The Bear is told through the eyes and voice of five year old Anna. She and her two year old brother Stick, are the survivors of an attack that kills their parents - and leaves them alone in the vast wilderness that is Algonquin.
As adults, we know what is happening and what they should do, but Anna is only five and has limited skills, knowledge and experience to draw on. It is frightening and heartbreaking to imagine this truly happening - the confusion, the questions, the fear and the loss. Cameron does a truly fantastic job of bringing this to the page with Anna's voice. Through her memories, thoughts and senses (smell and touch are very important to Anna) we come to know the children, the family's life, the parents and their love for Anna and Stick. Anna draws on her memories time and time again as she struggles with what to do.
The Bear is told in a 'stream-of-consciousness', non-linear format that was highly effective and heightened the tension.
Emotional, unsettling, gripping and gut-wrenchingly good. Highly, highly recommended.
Well, I'm telling you - The Bear by Claire Cameron is one of those books. I literally could not put it down. Twenty pages in, I just knew I wasn't going to bed early that night.
In October of 1991, a pair of campers was attacked by a bear in Algonquin Park, Canada. "There is no clear reason for what happened other than a hungry bear decided to take a chance on a new source of food." Author Cameron was a counsellor at a summer camp at Algonquin that year as well. "The Bear is based on my memories of and research into this bear attack. I added the kids."
Yes, kids. The Bear is told through the eyes and voice of five year old Anna. She and her two year old brother Stick, are the survivors of an attack that kills their parents - and leaves them alone in the vast wilderness that is Algonquin.
As adults, we know what is happening and what they should do, but Anna is only five and has limited skills, knowledge and experience to draw on. It is frightening and heartbreaking to imagine this truly happening - the confusion, the questions, the fear and the loss. Cameron does a truly fantastic job of bringing this to the page with Anna's voice. Through her memories, thoughts and senses (smell and touch are very important to Anna) we come to know the children, the family's life, the parents and their love for Anna and Stick. Anna draws on her memories time and time again as she struggles with what to do.
The Bear is told in a 'stream-of-consciousness', non-linear format that was highly effective and heightened the tension.
Emotional, unsettling, gripping and gut-wrenchingly good. Highly, highly recommended.
January 25, 2014
(This is from an electronic advanced reader copy from Netgalley, via the publisher. This book will be on sale February 11, 2014.)
I guess I need to start by addressing my strange and urgent need to to read this novel. I saw a blurb and a link to Ms. Cameron's website for this book somewhere on my daily literary travels on the internet, and just felt a desire to obtain and read a copy of this book immediately. Something about a wild animal/predatory attack on a human has always fascinated me and catches my ear and my imagination. I've had an interest in sharks my entire life. Growing up on Long Island, learning to swim in the Sound, and seeing jaws at an early age struck some primal chord within my eight year old self.
A few years back, a very sad documentary came out by a German filmmaker, Werner Herzog, about the bear enthusiast and nature lover, Timothy Treadwell, who spent thirteen years in Katmai National park in Alaska living among the wildlife and closely interacting with them. Treadwell filmed and focused on the bears in the park. Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending; Treadwell and his girlfriend were eaten by the very bears they loved and wanted to protect. These bears are blameless, as are the sharks. We humans invade their territory and of they're hungry,thus they bite. Seeing the title of this novel and hearing the synopsis of it made me anxious to read it, as it brought to mind the aforementioned case, as well as a few other bear attacks over the last few years, even closer to home.
Another angle of this book that caught my attention was the fact that is told from the point of view of a five year old girl. Most of my reader friends know about the phenomenal success of the Emma Donoghue novel, Room, in which the narrator is also a five year old, a boy, in terrible circumstances. A five year old narrator is not really looking back that far into their life; they are innocent and honest, unencumbered by too many cynical observations. Donoghue's story teller, Jack was eloquent and heartbreaking, and Ms. Donoghue did an excellent job with that. A five year old narrator can easily sound annoying, or worse, inauthentic.
Claire Cameron takes us on a camping trip the Whyte family: five year old Anna, baby brother Alex (he is three, so toddling and growing up, as she so often observes), and her parents. What happens to them is horrific, and the unfolding of the story is very much based around the actual bear attack in the darkest hours of the night. Anna describes the bear attack, mainly through what she hears and what she already knows in this world. Five year olds are sheltered. They are babies still, but on the cusp of having a different awareness of life. Anna also intuits there is a problem with her parents' marriage. Her observations are frighteningly immediate, even if they are not anything like the observations of an adult. In fact, based on her previous experiences, she describes a very nuanced scene regarding the bear attack, her brother, their situation and her feelings.
This novel is very much about family, love, and the comfort of familiarity. These two children are so tuned in to themselves and their surrounding with all their senses: taste, smell, and touch, as well as the obvious sight and sound, which all play a huge part in every thing they do. They survive off their primal child wit. And Anna's mental ability to handle fear and threats to their well being is absolutely believable and amazing at once. Theirs is the kind of story you read in the paper or hear on the news, and your jaw drops.
This was a book that evoked many emotions in me. There were tears of both sadness and happiness, and there were times when I just had to put the novel down. This book reminds you what sponges children are, and how they latch on to every word spoken and every move made. So teach them well, and they can survive.
5 stars
I guess I need to start by addressing my strange and urgent need to to read this novel. I saw a blurb and a link to Ms. Cameron's website for this book somewhere on my daily literary travels on the internet, and just felt a desire to obtain and read a copy of this book immediately. Something about a wild animal/predatory attack on a human has always fascinated me and catches my ear and my imagination. I've had an interest in sharks my entire life. Growing up on Long Island, learning to swim in the Sound, and seeing jaws at an early age struck some primal chord within my eight year old self.
A few years back, a very sad documentary came out by a German filmmaker, Werner Herzog, about the bear enthusiast and nature lover, Timothy Treadwell, who spent thirteen years in Katmai National park in Alaska living among the wildlife and closely interacting with them. Treadwell filmed and focused on the bears in the park. Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending; Treadwell and his girlfriend were eaten by the very bears they loved and wanted to protect. These bears are blameless, as are the sharks. We humans invade their territory and of they're hungry,thus they bite. Seeing the title of this novel and hearing the synopsis of it made me anxious to read it, as it brought to mind the aforementioned case, as well as a few other bear attacks over the last few years, even closer to home.
Another angle of this book that caught my attention was the fact that is told from the point of view of a five year old girl. Most of my reader friends know about the phenomenal success of the Emma Donoghue novel, Room, in which the narrator is also a five year old, a boy, in terrible circumstances. A five year old narrator is not really looking back that far into their life; they are innocent and honest, unencumbered by too many cynical observations. Donoghue's story teller, Jack was eloquent and heartbreaking, and Ms. Donoghue did an excellent job with that. A five year old narrator can easily sound annoying, or worse, inauthentic.
Claire Cameron takes us on a camping trip the Whyte family: five year old Anna, baby brother Alex (he is three, so toddling and growing up, as she so often observes), and her parents. What happens to them is horrific, and the unfolding of the story is very much based around the actual bear attack in the darkest hours of the night. Anna describes the bear attack, mainly through what she hears and what she already knows in this world. Five year olds are sheltered. They are babies still, but on the cusp of having a different awareness of life. Anna also intuits there is a problem with her parents' marriage. Her observations are frighteningly immediate, even if they are not anything like the observations of an adult. In fact, based on her previous experiences, she describes a very nuanced scene regarding the bear attack, her brother, their situation and her feelings.
This novel is very much about family, love, and the comfort of familiarity. These two children are so tuned in to themselves and their surrounding with all their senses: taste, smell, and touch, as well as the obvious sight and sound, which all play a huge part in every thing they do. They survive off their primal child wit. And Anna's mental ability to handle fear and threats to their well being is absolutely believable and amazing at once. Theirs is the kind of story you read in the paper or hear on the news, and your jaw drops.
This was a book that evoked many emotions in me. There were tears of both sadness and happiness, and there were times when I just had to put the novel down. This book reminds you what sponges children are, and how they latch on to every word spoken and every move made. So teach them well, and they can survive.
5 stars
March 25, 2014
When I read an outline of the plot it was a book I was anxious to read.. Reviews were mainly positive, and it contained elements of suspense, horror and survival against great odds. It has been compared with The Room, a book I didn't like as much as many readers and critics. Both books are narrated by 5 year olds, but I found the boy's voice in The Room much more believable, and which kept me interested and the story moving along at a good pace. I did not find Anna's narration believable. The amount of detail in her memories was unreal to me. Her manner of speaking, describing her dreams, fantasies, the horrors in her flight with her young brother failed to convince me. I have never known 5 year old children who speak like she does and found her repetitions and tangential speaking took me right out of the story, destroying any suspense for me.
I think many others may like this book. It just wasn't for me.
I think many others may like this book. It just wasn't for me.
August 27, 2018
4 ☆ Holy cow.. this book is based off a true story that happened at Algonquin Park, in Ontario, Canada.
Bear was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the rollercoaster ride of emotion I felt.. so good but oh so painful to read. I don’t know how many times while reading I thought of my own little ones, the what if’s.. all as told by a believable Anna age 5.. so heartbreaking but genius to use a child’s voice!
Bear was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the rollercoaster ride of emotion I felt.. so good but oh so painful to read. I don’t know how many times while reading I thought of my own little ones, the what if’s.. all as told by a believable Anna age 5.. so heartbreaking but genius to use a child’s voice!
May 10, 2014
Did not buy into the 5 yr old narrator, her voice worked my nerves over. Plot seemed like it could be haunting but I all I could think about was finishing the book. Which was difficult bc I wanted to abandon the book pretty much from the start.
March 23, 2022
Sao thấy quyển này cứ ảo ma. Tác giả dựa theo một "Vụ gấu tấn công người" có thật, nhưng trong cuốn sách này còn có diễn biến hai đứa trẻ sinh tồn trong rừng. Hai đứa hình như còn chưa đến 7 tuổi. :))
December 4, 2013
More like 3.5 stars
At the beginning of this book the author tells you that this book has happened. It just didn't involve the children. That puts in the back of your mind what can happen with bears.
The story is from the point of view of 5 year old Anna. Her parents are attacked by a bear on the family camping trip. Her father puts her and her 2 year old brother "Stick" into Coleman (the family's cooler) when the bear attacks and it saves their lives.
The author does a wonderful job of putting you into the head and thoughts of a five year old. She perfectly "gets" the fact that sometimes your little brother just gets on your nerves and you don't like him. Anna just won my heart in just about every way possible. The only reason this book didn't score higher for me was the last part of the book just didn't stay as attention getting and riveting as the first part. I wish I knew more about the aftermath with both children.
At the beginning of this book the author tells you that this book has happened. It just didn't involve the children. That puts in the back of your mind what can happen with bears.
The story is from the point of view of 5 year old Anna. Her parents are attacked by a bear on the family camping trip. Her father puts her and her 2 year old brother "Stick" into Coleman (the family's cooler) when the bear attacks and it saves their lives.
The author does a wonderful job of putting you into the head and thoughts of a five year old. She perfectly "gets" the fact that sometimes your little brother just gets on your nerves and you don't like him. Anna just won my heart in just about every way possible. The only reason this book didn't score higher for me was the last part of the book just didn't stay as attention getting and riveting as the first part. I wish I knew more about the aftermath with both children.
February 12, 2014
It’s hard to read “The Bear” without thinking of Donohue’s “Room”. Like Donoghue’s 2010 Booker nominated book Cameron’s tale is told by a young child, about 5 or 6 years old, and it’s told in first person present tense. Though I appreciate the novelty of this approach and recognize the skill it takes to accomplish such a feat in “The Bear” it came across as self conscious. Because of the age of the narrator there’s also an inherent danger of over simplicity. Because of the narrator’s, Anna, lack of understanding and vocabulary at times the action was painfully drawn out and sometimes vague even in this short novel. What Cameron does well is to juxtapose the horror of the horror that Anna and her toddler brother live through and the need for practical action as they cope with a bear’s attack on her parents and her need to save herself and her brother from further nightmares. There’s is a camping trip from hell. In Donohue’s book the horror was understated and consequently even more believable and evocative. I don’t want to detract from Cameron’s abilities because clearly she’s a wonderful writer and her ability to get into Anna’s head seems accurate but it was difficult to ignore the seams in the cloth. Cameron sets herself a difficult task and is mostly successful.
This review is based on an e-copy provided by the publisher.
(Disclaimer given as required by the FTC.)
This review is based on an e-copy provided by the publisher.
(Disclaimer given as required by the FTC.)
June 26, 2017
In the preface to The Bear, Claire Cameron tells of a rare fatal bear attack that took place in 1991 in Algonquin Park, north of Toronto. Despite taking all the necessary precautions, and also later discovering that the bear wasn't sick or starving and that the couple had vigorously fought back, two people were killed and eaten by a rogue black bear. Cameron was a camp counsellor at Algonquin at the time and based this story on both her memories of the event and later research, adding a couple of kids to the plot.
The bear attack opens the book, with the five-year-old narrator, Anna, and her nearly three-year-old brother Alex (nicknamed Stick or Sticky) tucked away in a tent for the night. Anna's childish, stream-of-consciousness voice describes the action throughout the book and the tension is heightened by the huge chasm between what the reader understands is happening and what the little girl thinks is happening (is that the neighbour's dog? Has he come to play?). I see a lot of criticism about whether or not Anna's voice reads as an authentic five-year-old and here is a typical scene, after her father has closed Anna into a metal Coleman cooler during the attack:
This is a typical scene because Anna, like a lot of five-year-olds, worries about getting into trouble, interprets everything through her own feelings, and uses all of her senses to explore her environment (she later sniffs her teddybear for comfort, describes tastes by "what kind of spicy" they are, and here can't tell if her eyes are even open until she feels her eyelids). Anna also has a vivid fantasy life -- conjuring castles and dolphins and magic dust -- so is it beyond her to imagine that her Momma "lets the sad drip up from her heart"? I also chose this scene because I see people don't buy that the Dad would have had the idea or time to grab each of his kids, separately out of their tent, and shove them into the cooler, latch it, and prop the lid open with a rock for air, all while, presumably, his wife is being savaged. (And while I would agree that it would have made more sense for him to have gotten everyone to safety in the canoe, this is a book, and this is the author's premise.) This scene is from page 13, so a reader can decide fairly early on whether to opt in or out from the journey, and I was certainly rewarded for opting in.
I loved everything about Anna and Sticky and believed that their adventure could have unfolded just as described. The fierce love/hate, protect/resent relationship that Anna had with her little brother was believable and well-written: you know these kids; they're every kid. The way that Anna's mind pinged between memories and present action was organic, and the fact that we are learning about her family dynamics through her own childish interpretations evokes empathy because, again, the reader understands what's going on better than the narrator herself (and especially regarding the parents' marriage). The plot was tense, and not just because of a bear: everything in the woods is a potential threat to a couple of preschoolers. I could almost complain that at 200 pages The Bear is too short to be weighty, but I wouldn't have found it as believable if the pair had been left to wander in the woods for days and days -- the story needed to conclude one way or another, and in the end, I was entirely satisfied. Actually, I was entirely gutted, and three scenes, including the final one, left me crying:
From start to finish, this book worked for me, and I am willing to accept that that is not a universal experience.
The bear attack opens the book, with the five-year-old narrator, Anna, and her nearly three-year-old brother Alex (nicknamed Stick or Sticky) tucked away in a tent for the night. Anna's childish, stream-of-consciousness voice describes the action throughout the book and the tension is heightened by the huge chasm between what the reader understands is happening and what the little girl thinks is happening (is that the neighbour's dog? Has he come to play?). I see a lot of criticism about whether or not Anna's voice reads as an authentic five-year-old and here is a typical scene, after her father has closed Anna into a metal Coleman cooler during the attack:
I am in the black. And I am mad at Daddy. He is shouting and pushing and both these things are naughty and I wonder if he is getting in trouble from Momma. When Momma gets mad she doesn't yell. She looks at me and lets the sad drip up from her heart through her veins and into her eyes. Her eyes send the sad into my eyes and then it drips back down into my heart and makes it feel like a ball. But not a ball that bounces up high -- one that is squishy because it needs Daddy to put in air. I won't ask Daddy to pump my heart because I'm so mad. I can't see him anymore. It is so so dark. I don't know if my eyes are open or shut and I put my finger to see. I can feel my eyelid. After I know then I open my eyes and it looks exactly the same. My eye feels sad.
This is a typical scene because Anna, like a lot of five-year-olds, worries about getting into trouble, interprets everything through her own feelings, and uses all of her senses to explore her environment (she later sniffs her teddybear for comfort, describes tastes by "what kind of spicy" they are, and here can't tell if her eyes are even open until she feels her eyelids). Anna also has a vivid fantasy life -- conjuring castles and dolphins and magic dust -- so is it beyond her to imagine that her Momma "lets the sad drip up from her heart"? I also chose this scene because I see people don't buy that the Dad would have had the idea or time to grab each of his kids, separately out of their tent, and shove them into the cooler, latch it, and prop the lid open with a rock for air, all while, presumably, his wife is being savaged. (And while I would agree that it would have made more sense for him to have gotten everyone to safety in the canoe, this is a book, and this is the author's premise.) This scene is from page 13, so a reader can decide fairly early on whether to opt in or out from the journey, and I was certainly rewarded for opting in.
I loved everything about Anna and Sticky and believed that their adventure could have unfolded just as described. The fierce love/hate, protect/resent relationship that Anna had with her little brother was believable and well-written: you know these kids; they're every kid. The way that Anna's mind pinged between memories and present action was organic, and the fact that we are learning about her family dynamics through her own childish interpretations evokes empathy because, again, the reader understands what's going on better than the narrator herself (and especially regarding the parents' marriage). The plot was tense, and not just because of a bear: everything in the woods is a potential threat to a couple of preschoolers. I could almost complain that at 200 pages The Bear is too short to be weighty, but I wouldn't have found it as believable if the pair had been left to wander in the woods for days and days -- the story needed to conclude one way or another, and in the end, I was entirely satisfied. Actually, I was entirely gutted, and three scenes, including the final one, left me crying:
From start to finish, this book worked for me, and I am willing to accept that that is not a universal experience.
February 4, 2014
So...I finished The Bear a few days ago, and I'm STILL not sure whether I liked it or not. Well, I did enjoy it, but I guess I'm wondering if I can classify it as A Great Book. I'm leaning toward yes, because I can't really find many faults with it.
First of all, the first 40 pages or so show the bear attack. Everyone in our book club, including me, had a hard time with this section. Emails were flying around to the effect of "I can't do this anymore, it's too scary, I quit this book." It was rough. It really wasn't graphic at all, but just the thought of two young children being in that situation gives me the shivers, and it's really difficult to hear it from the POV of a kid who really doesn't understand what's happening. I know that I personally kept imagining my littlest nephew and what he would do in that situation. But, if you can get past that section (my mother couldn't, she stopped about 7 pages in), it does get really good and interesting and stops scaring the shit out of you. Mostly.
The interesting thing about The Bear is that not too much actually happened in the story, after the initial bear attack. BUT, I think that the story being pretty uneventful worked because of the child's POV. If the book had been about an adult who'd fled the island after the attack, he'd be using his cell to call for help and then lying on the rocks getting a tan and listening to his Ipod, and that would be the end of the story. With a kid being the POV character, you get the heart-in-your-throat feeling every time she does anything at all: "Don't eat the berries, you don't EVER eat berries!!" "Where's the little boy, what if he fell in the water and drowned???" Etc.
I do think that the child's POV was well done. Of course, the downside to having a kid POV is that sometimes it's very difficult to understand the setting and what's happening because its described by a little girl who often goes off into tangents about Barbies. It made it difficult in some places to understand what was happening in some places. I think that's also why this extremely short book took me 2 days to finish. I really had to analyze and reread some sections to figure out what the hell was going on.
Whatever it's faults, though, this book definitely makes me want to discuss it really really badly (geez, book club is still almost a month away!!), so maybe that answers my original questions about whether it's A Great Book. I'm going to wrap up this super long review with just a couple of thoughts I have that I can't wait till book club to get out:
****SPOILERS BELOW****
First of all, the first 40 pages or so show the bear attack. Everyone in our book club, including me, had a hard time with this section. Emails were flying around to the effect of "I can't do this anymore, it's too scary, I quit this book." It was rough. It really wasn't graphic at all, but just the thought of two young children being in that situation gives me the shivers, and it's really difficult to hear it from the POV of a kid who really doesn't understand what's happening. I know that I personally kept imagining my littlest nephew and what he would do in that situation. But, if you can get past that section (my mother couldn't, she stopped about 7 pages in), it does get really good and interesting and stops scaring the shit out of you. Mostly.
The interesting thing about The Bear is that not too much actually happened in the story, after the initial bear attack. BUT, I think that the story being pretty uneventful worked because of the child's POV. If the book had been about an adult who'd fled the island after the attack, he'd be using his cell to call for help and then lying on the rocks getting a tan and listening to his Ipod, and that would be the end of the story. With a kid being the POV character, you get the heart-in-your-throat feeling every time she does anything at all: "Don't eat the berries, you don't EVER eat berries!!" "Where's the little boy, what if he fell in the water and drowned???" Etc.
I do think that the child's POV was well done. Of course, the downside to having a kid POV is that sometimes it's very difficult to understand the setting and what's happening because its described by a little girl who often goes off into tangents about Barbies. It made it difficult in some places to understand what was happening in some places. I think that's also why this extremely short book took me 2 days to finish. I really had to analyze and reread some sections to figure out what the hell was going on.
Whatever it's faults, though, this book definitely makes me want to discuss it really really badly (geez, book club is still almost a month away!!), so maybe that answers my original questions about whether it's A Great Book. I'm going to wrap up this super long review with just a couple of thoughts I have that I can't wait till book club to get out:
****SPOILERS BELOW****
May 12, 2014
I hated this book, although to be fair I hate all books narrated by children (and I am including "The Room" in that category as well, although at least in that book, there were other voices to temper it a bit). My problem, oddly enough, is not with the author, who seems quite talented. I want to read her first book (hopefully not written from the point of view of a child). I don't know why authors keep trying this device. I wouldn't want to read 200+ pages actually written by a 5-year-old and I find adults trying to sound like children all the more annoying. I also didn't believe a minute of it. Finally, I hate to say it but I think the author copped out, using the child to avoid having to write the actual confrontation with the bear. I think that many of the positive reviews for this book are for the general idea, which is great. Had it been written in an adult voice, this book would have been amazing.
January 21, 2015
If you like stream of consciousness from a five-year-old, you'll love it.
March 3, 2014
At the time of writing, there are 4 reviews of this book on Amazon. Two award it 5 stars, the other two give it just 1 star. So why is it polarising readers?
If you've read 'Room', you'll know about child narrators. Like 'Room', 'The Bear' sticks with a five year old's perspective of horrific circumstances for its entirety, barring an epilogue. Anna and her nearly-three-year-old brother Alex (known as Stick) are camping with their parents on an island when a bear attacks them one night. It isn't immediately obvious what is happening. Seeing through a five-year-old's eyes is confusing, scary, and utterly heart-breaking. As adult readers (or at least a decade older than Anna), we quickly see what is going on. We understand the danger Anna and her brother are in, we see her parents' fate even though Anna can't.
I applaud Claire Cameron for a truly authentic voice. I have always felt that I could remember quite clearly what being that age was like. It's only in reading this that I know my memory of language and my view of the world has disappeared into a clear adult picture. Anna talks and thinks as a real child would. She has a limited vocabulary, she makes things up to make sense of the world, she loves and in turn hates her little brother. She hates her parents for leaving her alone. She needs a cuddle to feel safe. It's emotionally a very sad read.
So the reason for only 1- and 5-star reviews? If you're not willing to forsake narratorial convention and read stream-of-consciousness, immature grammar and back-and-forth time streams inside a child's head, then this isn't for you. If you want to experience superior writing that makes you feel you are seeing out of a five-year-old's eyes, try The Bear.
I wanted to reach in and grab Anna and Stick and pull them to safety, their innocence is so precious and fragile.
Only once, about two-thirds through did I find the writing drifted and I lost concentration on Anna for a few pages, but Part Three and then the ending had me in absolute sobs of sorrow. Readers can see so much more than Anna can, and having that knowledge is really difficult. Little Stick is my own son's age at the time of reading, which certainly made me connect strongly to their family's tragic tale. I actually wanted to see more from his perspective at times, though the language barrier would have been impossible to overcome I think. He seems so silent throughout, I sometimes forgot he was there in some scenes.
I hope Richard and Judy's production team take note of this one, it's one for the Summer Reads most definitely.
If you've read 'Room', you'll know about child narrators. Like 'Room', 'The Bear' sticks with a five year old's perspective of horrific circumstances for its entirety, barring an epilogue. Anna and her nearly-three-year-old brother Alex (known as Stick) are camping with their parents on an island when a bear attacks them one night. It isn't immediately obvious what is happening. Seeing through a five-year-old's eyes is confusing, scary, and utterly heart-breaking. As adult readers (or at least a decade older than Anna), we quickly see what is going on. We understand the danger Anna and her brother are in, we see her parents' fate even though Anna can't.
I applaud Claire Cameron for a truly authentic voice. I have always felt that I could remember quite clearly what being that age was like. It's only in reading this that I know my memory of language and my view of the world has disappeared into a clear adult picture. Anna talks and thinks as a real child would. She has a limited vocabulary, she makes things up to make sense of the world, she loves and in turn hates her little brother. She hates her parents for leaving her alone. She needs a cuddle to feel safe. It's emotionally a very sad read.
So the reason for only 1- and 5-star reviews? If you're not willing to forsake narratorial convention and read stream-of-consciousness, immature grammar and back-and-forth time streams inside a child's head, then this isn't for you. If you want to experience superior writing that makes you feel you are seeing out of a five-year-old's eyes, try The Bear.
I wanted to reach in and grab Anna and Stick and pull them to safety, their innocence is so precious and fragile.
Only once, about two-thirds through did I find the writing drifted and I lost concentration on Anna for a few pages, but Part Three and then the ending had me in absolute sobs of sorrow. Readers can see so much more than Anna can, and having that knowledge is really difficult. Little Stick is my own son's age at the time of reading, which certainly made me connect strongly to their family's tragic tale. I actually wanted to see more from his perspective at times, though the language barrier would have been impossible to overcome I think. He seems so silent throughout, I sometimes forgot he was there in some scenes.
I hope Richard and Judy's production team take note of this one, it's one for the Summer Reads most definitely.
January 24, 2014
Based on the true story of a couple killed by a bear in Canada’s Algonquin Park, the author has pondered on what may have happened if the unfortunate couple had small children with them. Anna and her brother Alex (known as Stick because of his ever present sticky hands) are used to canoeing, camping and hiking with their parents, so when Anna hears strange noises and her parents frightened yelling, she knows something is wrong. Her father has the presence of mind to place the children inside their camp fridge, which they call “Coleman”, ensuring their survival. Anna is enclosed in the small space with her teddy bear, her stinky brother and her fears until the morning when she manages to escape, only to find the remains of her father and her mother, barely alive. Anna’s mother has enough breath to tell her daughter to take Stick and escape the island in their canoe. Despite her fear and numerous mishaps, she manages to reach the mainland. But now what does she do? Stick is hungry; he has a dirty nappy and she doesn’t know when her parents will come to take them home.
Anna is the sole narrator of this story. Her voice rings true as a five year old and the almost stream of consciousness style works well. This is a gripping tale during which you will feel quite anxious for young Anna and Stick. But small moments of humour are interspersed throughout this tense story to make it less gruelling. I recommend it!
Anna is the sole narrator of this story. Her voice rings true as a five year old and the almost stream of consciousness style works well. This is a gripping tale during which you will feel quite anxious for young Anna and Stick. But small moments of humour are interspersed throughout this tense story to make it less gruelling. I recommend it!
February 22, 2017
There is Henry James style gets in the way of the narrative, and then there is this book. Ostensibly written from the perspective of a five year old tending to her younger brother in the aftermath of both parents being killed by a bear, it too often felt like a gimmick.
March 26, 2016
4.5*
Well, this was heart-wrenching.
Well, this was heart-wrenching.
July 21, 2023
This was just okay for me.
I had trouble getting into the "baby" talk used throughout the book.
I did really enjoy the bits after the island.
How the adults interpreted the actions of Anna is fascinating.
Looking forward to discussing this one at book club.
I had trouble getting into the "baby" talk used throughout the book.
I did really enjoy the bits after the island.
How the adults interpreted the actions of Anna is fascinating.
Looking forward to discussing this one at book club.
July 5, 2014
I did not think I would be able to finish this book, but last night I stayed up and finished it up simply from the curiosity to see how this would end. I had a hard time reading this due to the narrator's voice. The story is told through Anna, a 6yr. old girl who's parents have just been savagely killed by a bear as Anna and her 2yr. old brother are sleeping in their tent. Somehow, their father manages to hide them inside a cooler, thus ensuring their safety, at least for the time being.
Anna never seems to realize what has actually happened. She is angry that she now has to be responsible for her brother Stick, who seems to be a nuisance that she can't stand 99% of the time. I hate to say that this does not make her an endearing protagonist. I know she is only 6yrs. old, but I was not very fond of her. The story goes in an out of character; sometimes we get Anna's story as a 6yr. old would think (and that is not always believable) and other times it is told in a straightforward way. That made it fail for me. I also did not like how it was narrated in the present tense style.
I was really hoping to like this story. It had all the elements of a great story. Ultimately, that's what made me plow on. I wanted to see how the story was going to be resolved. Would Anna and Stick run into the bear again? Would they be able to survive the outdoors? Would a 6yr. old be able to bring her 2yr. old brother to safety? Would they survive? I really wish I could have liked this.
Plus: It did have a good cover and inside cover.
Anna never seems to realize what has actually happened. She is angry that she now has to be responsible for her brother Stick, who seems to be a nuisance that she can't stand 99% of the time. I hate to say that this does not make her an endearing protagonist. I know she is only 6yrs. old, but I was not very fond of her. The story goes in an out of character; sometimes we get Anna's story as a 6yr. old would think (and that is not always believable) and other times it is told in a straightforward way. That made it fail for me. I also did not like how it was narrated in the present tense style.
I was really hoping to like this story. It had all the elements of a great story. Ultimately, that's what made me plow on. I wanted to see how the story was going to be resolved. Would Anna and Stick run into the bear again? Would they be able to survive the outdoors? Would a 6yr. old be able to bring her 2yr. old brother to safety? Would they survive? I really wish I could have liked this.
Plus: It did have a good cover and inside cover.
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