The Book:
Ski Weekend by Rektok Ross
Published October 26, 2021 by SparkPress
Date read: April 27, 2023
The Characters:
Sam
Gavin, Lily, Stuart, Hunter, Brittany
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Six teens, one dog, a ski trip gone wrong . . .
Sam is dreading senior ski weekend and having to watch after her brother and his best friend, Gavin, to make sure they don’t do anything stupid. Again. Gavin may be gorgeous, but he and Sam have never gotten along. Now they’re crammed into an SUV with three other classmates and Gavin’s dog, heading on a road trip that can’t go by fast enough.
Then their SUV crashes into a snowbank, and Sam and her friends find themselves stranded in the mountains with cell phone coverage long gone and temperatures dropping. When the group gets sick of waiting for rescue, they venture outside to find help—only to have a wilderness accident leave Sam’s brother with a smashed leg and, soon, a raging fever. While the hours turn to days, Sam’s brother gets sicker and sicker, and their food and supplies dwindle until there isn’t enough for everyone. As the winter elements begin to claim members of the group one by one, Sam vows to keep her brother alive.
No matter what.
How did Ski Weekend end?
The Ending:
The first morning after the car crash, Lily didn’t wake up because she had a concussion. She stayed in the coma for 36 hours but then woke up on her own. While she was asleep, Sam, Stuart, and Gavin tried to go get help. They found an abandoned gas station, but a shelf fell on Stuart and crushed his ankle.
Stuart developed an infection from his cut ankle, so Gavin and Hunter went for help again a few days later. Hunter fell off a cliff and died. Gavin came back. Stuart was getting worse, so Gavin and Lily left again for help. Brittany got frostbite and died from hyperthermia. Sam and Stuart decided to go for help themselves, assuming Gavin and Lily weren’t coming back. They were caught in an avalanche. Gavin and the dog rescued Sam, but Stuart’s body wasn’t found. Gavin said the dog had led them to other dogs in a campground nearby.
The Review:
This narrator was perfect for the story–her voice helped me perfectly picture these high school kids.
Ski Weekend is a YA thriller similar to Five Total Strangers: some high school kids get stuck in their car in a blizzard on their way to a ski trip. When people start getting hurt, things get tense. Also, there’s a dog (why did they take the dog with them when they went to get help?? I’d be worried about my pup’s paws in the snow and making sure he got enough water…it seems easier to leave him with the people that stayed in the car).
I like a little more action in my locked-room thrillers. There eventually was some threat and death, but too much of the book was spent with these kids waiting to be saved…in a storm, when no one knows they took a detour. There was some great action close to the end, and the ending was somewhat satisfying.
I also think the book could have done without the religious speculation, but that could be personal preference.
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