Official Review: The Alaskan by Bill Burrows

[ALynnPowers]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Alaskan" by Bill Burrows.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Alaskan is a young adult novel by Bill Burrows. Having been homeschooled his entire life, Jake leaves his secluded cabin to stay with family and begin his senior year of high school in Fairbanks, Alaska. Jake knows all about hunting, boating, and living off the grid in rural Alaska, but navigating an overcrowded high school in an actual town brings on a new set of challenges. Fortunately, Jake is able to quickly make friends with Julie and Kenny. Unfortunately, young Kenny is the local bullies’ current victim, and Jake and Julie become their next target when the two older teens stand up for him. As the day that should have been fun turns into a nightmare, Jake risks exposing a secret that could further change his life.

The Alaskan is a quick read that most young adults can enjoy, regardless of how much prior knowledge you have of the subject matter. The book contains a surprisingly large amount of information about hunting, operating a boat, fishing, and so on. I’m not so knowledgeable about any of these things, so these parts dragged on a bit for me. However, I found that they were relevant to the story in order to show Jake’s knowledge in these areas. I could be impressed with his skills while also learning a little something new in the process.

Life in Alaska is quite different from life elsewhere in the USA, and I feel like this part of the country is highly under-represented in modern American literature. It was nice to read a book with such a unique setting, which also introduced me to a slightly different culture as a result. You certainly wouldn’t hear anyone talking about moose hunting and gill netting in the cafeteria of my own suburban high school in Tennessee, much less an urban high school in California or New York.

The biggest downside to this book was the poor writing quality. I don’t believe that it was even run through a spell-checker, much less professionally edited. Most errors consist of missing or misplaced punctuation marks, but these errors were frequent enough to disrupt my reading fluency. What really threw me off was coming across characters’ names which were spelled differently. For example, the bully of the story is named Sonny. I am still not quite sure what his last name is, because it was inconsistently spelled Johannson, Johansson, and Johannsen throughout the book.

Overall, I give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed the cute development of friendship between Jake and Julie, as well as their dramatic adventure together as they stood up against Kenny’s bullies. I just couldn’t give it a perfect rating due to the large number of errors throughout the book. With some editing and proofreading, this could be an excellent book with a unique cast and setting. I would definitely recommend the book to young adult readers who enjoy action and outdoor adventure with a little bit of innocent teen romance.

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The Alaskan
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[Wuoketch]

This sounds a good book and with the authors other round of editing and proof reading it would be the best. Nice review.

[Kirsi Cultrera]

Sounds like a cute story. Alaska is beautiful and you are right about it being under-represented in literature. Everything else in this book seems to be in order so let's hope that they'll do a second round of editing... thanks for a nice review!

[sirbobthewise]

I definitely agree with you that Alaska is misrepresented in American literature, so I’m glad to see this book bridging that gap a bit. It’s really unfortunate that the author didn’t really choose to edit their manuscript, though; that can really affect your impression of the book. I have to say, though, the book cover threw me for a loop. Just based on the cover, I was thinking that this was going to be an adult romance book. Hahah. It has that wind-swept look to it. I was surprised to hear that it was a young adult book. Very interesting choice. Good job on your review!

[Khalifa jaymore]

"The Alaskan is a quick read that most young adults can enjoy, regardless of how much prior knowledge you have of the subject matter." Everything else in this book seems to be in order so let's hope that they'll do a second round of editing.!

[_Lindsey_]

It's a shame that the author didn't edit this book well. The topic sounds really fun. It's nice that there is so much information about topics the reader might not know about as well. Thanks for such an informative review.

[Xenolyph]

Personally, I prefer YA books that contain elements of fantasy and mythology. I'm not much of an outdoor-type, so I don't think this would be the book for me. Your review is well-written though! Thank you

[GiselleBengochea]

Thanks for a great review! Your honesty is appreciated!

[Harty Muli]

I like places which remain uninfluenced by modern trappings so this one about Alaska promises to be a great read. Thanks for the nice review.

[Samgum50]

Great review! Not going to lie the cover was giving me more adult novel kind of vibes. I hope the author rectifies the editing issues, this seems like a really great book.

[Nutan Kumar Jangid]

The Alaskan is cute story . But this book is not correctly edited by the author . it would be more enjoyable for adults.he should use right mythology to understand easily for people.

[blancaelizondo214]

Love it I love it

[Priyanka2304]

Thanks for the review. It's been a while I haven't read such a novel. Would definitely read it someday.