Alex Morel
Reviewed by Linda S. on December 12, 2012
Imagine waking up in the cold after surviving a plane crash. Bodies are strewn about. You and the snarky guy who was sitting next to you but now, still in his seat, is stuck in a tree hanging over a huge drop, are the only survivors. This is what happened to Jane. Only, she shouldn’t be alive. The reason Jane survived was that she was in the bathroom trying to kill herself when the plane went down.
Survive leads the reader through Jane’s struggle to help Paul, the only other survivor, by helping herself. The book starts the day of the crash, with Jane getting ready to ostensibly fly home for Christmas. But she has other plans. She has failed twice already in her attempts to kill herself, but now she has a fool proof plan.
The author, Alex Morel, does an excellent job taking us into Jane’s head. Morel weaves Jane’s background information into the text without slowing the plot. The story is filled with emotional ups and downs. Morel also brings Paul, the snarky seat mate, to life through the eyes of Jane. The author did a good job working through Jane’s issues with understanding and depth, without sacrificing the adventure. Reading Survive, I came to empathize with Jane and Paul, hoping they would make it through alive. This book kept me turning pages, some times in anticipation and sometimes in apprehension. This is a great first novel, it will be fun to see what Alex Morel writes next.