BRIAN’S HUNT is better than you remember

Total Chad novel. Brian’s out in the wilderness, homeschooling himself while he eats off the land, dreaming about a girl he hasn’t met yet, but whose father approves of him because he’s shown he can live in the wild.

Injured dog finds Brian in the middle of the night. Through knowledge gained by experience and reading, he disregards things that society generally accepts as true and ends up treating the dog in a way that works. The dog is happy and loyal.

Then Brian uses his powers of deduction to figure that the dog was attacked by–most likely–a bear. It’s also a breed of dog popular among the Creek Indians, for companionship and limited work. He heads over to where they live to return their dog.

But…tragedy! The local Creek family, the Smallhorns, have also been killed by the bear, the same bear that attacked the dog. Husband, wife, two small children…just terrible. The only survivor is Attractive Teenaged Daughter Susan, who has only heard of Brian, but never met him.

Brian finds her. Rescues her. Gives her fancy gifts…what, roses and chocolates? No no no, even better, the two things women desire above all else: a competent man and a few hours of sleep. They find her short-wave radio and call for help. Rangers and Mounties show up to get Susan to safety. Before she parts ways with him, he says “Next time we meet up, let’s talk feelings.”

And she’s like “Definitely.”

Now that Female Love Interest is secured, it’s time to hunt some bear. Because it’s personal, baby. Mud up that face, grab your bow and arrows.

Dog jumps in on the action. Brian finds the bear’s tracks and follows them for a while. Then…slowly…he starts to cover the same ground again…and he realizes…the bear is hunting him.

I’ll save the ending for you. Really you shouldn’t have even read this far. Just go read the book. Read the whole series. Read everything Paulsen wrote about the outdoors. Everything else sucks, this does not.

You should be Chad-maxxing on books.