All my reviews can be found at: http://jessicasreadingroom.com
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This review will appear on my site on May 27, 2021.
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As a part of May’s prompt for #Diverseathon2021 I am continuing the Brian’s Saga series by Gary Paulsen. In Brian’s Return, Brian realizes he cannot live the way he used to. Provoked by another student over a girl, Brian severely beats another boy, but in Brian’s mind he was being attacked and he was defending himself. After talking with a counselor, Brian decides to return to the Canadian wilderness, though more prepared (a tent and some more items) than when he crash landed. Brian is more at home in the wilderness and yes he faces the perils of outdoor living again. But at the end he is at home and peace in the wilderness.

I don’t know what it was about Brian’s Return, but it just wasn’t really for me once he got back into the wild, Maybe it was a ‘been there, done that’ scenario since I listened to the other three novels back to back. Brian’s Return was meant to be the final book in the series and you can tell by the ending of the book as there is a conclusion. But there was so much reader feedback that Paulsen wrote one more book: Brian’s Hunt.

At times while listening to the audiobook I was confused because Paulsen kept referencing Brian surviving in the winter, but that book was a ‘what if’ scenario and not what actually happened to Brian as he was rescued before winter came in Hatchet.

Peter Coyote was back as the narrator for the audiobook version; I was happy about that as he definitely has that story telling voice.