This story was really short! 100 pages vs 140-200 for all the other books! This felt more like a bonus story than a book and I am a little bit disappointed because I believe it could have benefited from another 40 pages. It felt a bit rushed.

However, it was nice to read about Brian again. When I was a child I read the first books and was absolutely intrigued by it for years! Part of that because I couldn’t remember the name of the book and I wanted to reread, and when I finally did I liked it as much as I remembered. Good memories!

The last of the Hatchet series was a good one once again. They are short and sweet with enough to keep you interested and surprised at parts. I’m glad I finally read all of these books. Now I’m ready to recommend them to certain readers in my class.

Terrible ending, just the part before "The Hunt" section.

I enjoyed this book! I definitely found myself wondering alongside Brian about whether or not the bear is good. I liked the author coming to a conclusion that it’s just…a bear lol It seems like such a simple conclusion, but we assign these “bad” behaviors to animals attacking/eating others, but are we as humans really all that different??? We hunt and eat other animals as a way to survive and that bear was doing the same thing!

This book definitely inspires me to read the other books in the series! :)

Concluding the events that began with a plane crash and fight for survival, Gary Paulsen went out with a crazy blow.

Brian was a young kid when he was forced to survive alone in the wildness of Canada four books back, but now in this last installment of his life, he is a much older youth. He even has his eye on a girl. We met her and her family at the ending of the third book, when we see what would have happened if Brian had been left to survive in the winter. He meets an Inuit family and they take him in until he is rescued, then when Brian feels that he just has to go out and be in the wilderness again, he ventures out to see them.

That is where the shocking devastation comes in. Brian encounters the dog, injured and clearly been attacked by something big. When Brian finally makes it to the family home, he finds to his horror the slaughtered remains of the father. The cabin is in ruins, the dogs are dead, the place trashed and ripped apart. Further in the woods Brian finds the remains of the mother.

The children re no where to be seen and Brian fears the worst.

He takes it on himself to find and destroy the beast that did this, which turns out to be a very large bear.

The battle is brutal, bloody and scary, but in the end, Brian defeats the bear and slays it. He then finds the children and goes off with the girl he likes to tell the authorities.

Life will be hard for the children now that they are orphans, but Brain will be there now and things will eventually be okay.

I salute Brian and hope the rest of his life is well lived.

The reason why i chose this book is because i have read the other two books befor it. It book is realleistif ficshon. The teting of the book is out in the north woods of Canada. The mane character lived in the city for most of his life but he was in two different plane crashes and now he calles the north woods his home. The plot of the book is that Brian wants to go see his friends that he spent his three months of his winter with and they are natovamaricans. The conflict of the book is that a dog is wonded and he is trying to find out whos dog it and he thinks he friends will know the answer to his queston. The way the problum is solved is he gets to the island that his friends stay on dering the summer and they are dead so that is another problum and he knows that a baer has killed them. The way he solves that problum is by killing the baer. If someone ha read the two books befor this then i would say yes this would be a good book for them.

Yeeees

I'm done reading Gary Paulsen. Done.

It was a mercy that my grandkids were exhausted after Fair week. A mercy the two oldest fell asleep around the fifth chapter. A mercy that I broke covenant and kept reading silently. I read far enough to realize this book was not an appropriate read aloud.

There was a bear attack; there are gruesome details, unspeakable particulars, gut-wrenching awfulness. If you like nightmares, this is your book.

A series that began with Hatchet, an incredible survival story, ends with a whimpering dog. a traumatized orphan, and a boy who glories in isolation.

If you liked the earlier books, read this. It’s pleasant but I wanted it longer with more stuff.

STORY BRIEF:
This is book 5 in the series. Brian was 13 in the first book “Hatchet” when he survived a plane crash and the Canadian wilderness - alone for 54 days. In book 4, Brian is 15 and returns to the wilderness - with supplies to live there for a while. This book is later in that same trip or the next year. He is now 16. He catches fish and shoots game with a bow and arrow. He discovers an injured dog. He tends the dog’s wounds. The dog becomes his companion. Brian travels to discover where the dog came from and what happened. He learns it was a bear which Brian then hunts.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
This wasn’t as good as the earlier books. I listened to all of the earlier books as audiobooks. When I felt this not to be as good, I wondered if the others would have been less good by reading as opposed to listening. I would hope my reaction would be consistent, but there is the possibility that all of these are better “heard” than “read.” I’m not sure. Anyway, this book was very short. It finished too soon. I wanted more. This book didn’t have as many events, things happening, and things I learned as in the earlier books. It was pleasant because I liked being in Brian’s wilderness world, but there was no “wow” the way earlier books were.

OTHER BOOKS:
The author wrote many books, but the Hatchet series consists of:
5 stars. Hatchet (read first)
5 stars. Brian’s Winter (read second or third but I prefer second)
3 stars. The River (read second or third)
4 stars. Brian’s Return
3 stars. Brian’s Hunt

DATA:
Story length: 103 pages. Swearing language: none. Sexual content: none. Setting: current day Canadian wilderness. Copyright: 2003. Genre: young adult adventure fiction.

First off, note the title of this book. I didn’t realize until I was about 60 pages in or so why the book is called Brian’s Hunt.

For myself, I’m an adult now. I read The Hatchet probably about 20 years ago, most likely when it was still a relatively new book. I was a real bookworm, but due to not having such things like internet and google, my only way of finding out if an author had new books was to go to my local bookstore or library and check.

Therefore it wasn’t until a few years ago I realized Mr. Paulsen was continuing The Hatchet series. I found out about The River, but then learned of the alternative ending to The Hatchet in Brian’s Winter.

The latter book is somewhat connected to this book. And to its predecessor, Brian’s Return.

In this book Brian is continuing his journey to visit the trapper family that helped him in Brian’s Winter.

I have to say I liked this one a little bit better than Brian’s Return. Okay, I admit it. It’s because Brian finds an injured sled dog, and I’m very partial to dogs.

Anyway, with that being said, the finding of this injured animal is connected to everything else in the story, ultimately leading to…Brian’s hunt.

I would caution any parents wanting to get this book for their children to read it first for themselves. Like The Hatchet, there’s nothing more gruesome than nature itself, however, the…situation that Brian finds himself might scare young children. I can’t say more or else it gives away the big climax at the end of the story.

As for the story itself, I want to say, although I can’t be sure, that the writing is slightly different in this one than it was in previous books. I can’t really put my finger on it, except to say I think Mr. Paulsen perhaps interjected into his writing style a more contemporary feel. I shall give an example.

At one point in the book, Brian contemplates shooting a deer. However, he opts not to do so. The dog, alongside him, looks over at him, as if to say, are you going to shoot or what?

Something to this affect. I didn’t’ quote that verbatim, but one gets the idea. To my best recollection, this is first time Mr. Paulsen has done something like this in his books, and in my opinion, I like it very much. Before it seemed Brian was very serious and everything was no-nonsense. Which is as it should be, I suppose, considering his age and the fact that he’s alone in wilderness with just a bow and quiver of arrows. But the tinge of…personality to this unnamed dog was a good touch.

I could say more, but being that it was such a short book I won’t. I will be curious to see if Mr. Paulsen continues Brian’s journey. At first he indicated he wouldn’t, but in this book he says he will stop saying that. So we shall see.

Well, that was a fast read; I read it all in just about one sitting! This is the fifth book in Brian's Saga by Gary Paulsen ( 1939-2021), published in 2003. Yes, it's a Young Adult book and, ideally, it's for middle school readers (young teens). But I like the character of Brian and the first book of the series, "Hatchet" (1986), is just a fantastic book. So I've read other books by Paulsen, including other Brian books, and have finally gotten to this one.
Brian has returned to the Canadian wilderness and is now very skilled at survival, no--more than survival, he makes himself at home there. However, he discovers that his connection to nature has been incomplete--he finds a dog there in the wilderness and learns how much a dog adds to his ability to survive. The dog has been hurt and Brian sets out to find out what happened to the dog..
3/5 stars, as the book was much too short. I wanted more ( and I believe this is the last story of Brian's Saga...?).

If you liked the books before, you will like this book. Although I sometimes got tired of the mentioning of food all the time in the book. Also the end is different and dramafull, more then the other books in de serie. Good ending to a serie!