Into the Forest

by Jean Hegland

Book Overview

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE - Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.

Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society's fall...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553379615
• ISBN13: 9780553379617
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Dial Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Not well written, and could have done without the incest

Reading other reviews, not sure how people are glossing over the incest. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but in this case it comes out of nowhere, adds nothing to the story, and, coupled with the ending, feels very weird. There's definitely ways to get across the "society's rules don't matter in the end" without incest being your primary support. I also don't think this book is well written. It's clunky, with almost every major plot point completely dependent on coincidence, rather than any actual progression. And every success save one that the main characters have is similarly entirely dependent on luck. I am surprised to see this book so highly regarded. Didn't read any reviews before I read it, and when I finished I searched expecting to find out it was a debut novel by an author who never published a second. Figured the reviews would have a lot more negativity. Just proof art is subjective I suppose.

Survival

After I had read -- and been mesmerized by -- this novel, I urged a friend to take it home to read. She returned it the next day saying she just couldn't continue past the first few pages because it spoke so strongly to her darkest fears. And there is darkness and despair in this story of two young sisters, Eve and Nell, living alone in a remote, forested area of California. Nell, 17 and the narrator, and Eva, 18, have lost their mother to cancer, their father to an accident. Due to a series of worldwide natural catastrophes, wars, and civil unrest, they are without electricity, telephone and a ready food supply. Through rumors, they hear that people have begun to die of drug-resistant diseases, and the world's inhabitants are descending day by day into a more primal existence.Beyond the darkness, there is fascination in the constitution of a survivor. Is it strength of character, resourcefulness, luck, the simple desire to endure? Nell and Eva possess between them all these qualities and their struggle is heroic. Hegland's stark and eloquent prose make this a truly compelling book.