Into the Wild by Hayley Lawrence

Title: Into the Wild

Author: Hayley Lawrence

Genre: Adventure, thriller

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st February 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 336

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: There are places in the world so remote, that if you get lost, you may never be found. Olive, Ted, Knox, Birdie and Silas enter a challenge to survive in the wild, without technology. Their stage? The majestic Blue Mountains. Working as a team, they must read maps, build fires, camp and trek through the most dangerous of terrain, in subzero temperatures. But when the teenagers are split over a decision to climb a dangerous rock, disaster strikes. And in their quest for survival, one of them makes an unforgivable choice. With catastrophic consequences. Nobody is blameless. And they may not all make it home. But those who do, may never forgive each other.

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Olive, Ted, Knox, Silas and Birdie are sixteen, and have been chosen for the Earth and Environmental Committee’s survival expedition in the Blue Mountains. Three days of trekking and finding their way through the bush without modern conveniences and aids, to see how they would survive. To see if they can achieve something like famous explorers like Wentworth, Blaxland, and Lawson or Burke and Wills. The five teens have been thrown together, and each is assigned a different job for the expedition. But they also have to work as a team to finish their journey, until they’re forced to make a decision that fractures the group, leading to a choice that has tragic consequences – who will make it home, and who will forgive each other?

The cold seeps from the page as the teens explore the Blue Mountains near Katoomba, filled with tension from the start, as Silas sets himself up as the leader, determined to win at any cost. Determined to make sure everyone follows his lead, even when the others try to reason with him. This kind of trek pushes the characters to their limits, thrust into a hostile environment filled with dangers. Learning to work as a team is a key theme in this novel, and everyone seems to be on the same page – they want to get through it, and they want to make it work. Even though they’ve never really done much together before, this is a chance for them to get to know each other, and what everyone is truly capable of. Even Ted and Birdie, who aren’t as keen hikers as Knox, Olive, and Silas – it’s a chance for them to push themselves out of their comfort zones, and prove what they can do.

There’s always the sense that something is going to go wrong – in fact, the prologue is the first hint that something has gone wrong, as it’s suggesting what has come before. It then goes back, and everything builds to the crescendo of what eventually happens, the tragedy and catastrophe that makes the ending scurry along. It’s one where the building up works well, where everything is carefully placed to plant the clues and hints needed to solve the final mystery element. The richly rendered setting is, I felt, another character. It doesn’t speak, but its stillness and threats are always there – the rain, the rapids, the mountains and every risk that could ever come with these is ever-present. From the moment Silas makes a decision that puts himself at risk, to the fracturing of the group, the setting is a constant threat. Nobody ever knows what is going to happen or when.

It fits neatly into the thriller and mystery genre, with a great balance of humour, friendship and tension. It’s not over the top with its shock factor, which I quite enjoyed as a reader. Because it didn’t have to be over the top, it was the little things that happened that made it shocking. The things you know can happen out there in the wild make it even more frightening because it is so unpredictable – both in fiction and the real world. In this book, I knew something was going to happen, but it was a matter of when it would happen. Which, as a crime reader, I think it what made it work for me. Everything led to it and didn’t leave anything dangling nor did it drag and dither. This allows it to work well and move forward to a conclusion that makes sense and feels like it works well for the genre and audience. Another great and insightful Hayley Lawrence novel.