Rating: 
Summary: New Age whizbanger
Review: I gave this book a 2 because the author is a good writer and I hate to beat her up too badly on sheer emotion but WOW! What a new age classic: men-BAD, women-GOOD. Everything natural-good. I don't understand how a book about two sisters who intentionally choose almost certain oblivion can possibly be uplifting or inspiring. First off, all the men in this book are in one of two categories, well-meaning oafs or violent brutes. I don't have to give away the plot, here, pick any male. The father? He barely makes it to human level because he stayed with the family, held down a job and changed their diapers. Check out what happens to him. well-meaning oaf. Check out the boyfriend, a great conversationalist with a ridiculous plan to travel 3,000 miles across post-apocalyptic America. Oaf. The store clerk? Geek. And of course, the violent male characters are self-evident. Finally, it begins to dawn on you where this infernal story is going! I could not believe the quotes from Sally Bell, the lone survivor of an atrocious act of genocide perpetrated on her tribe by white male settlers. There is no doubt that genocide against native peoples is an historic reality. But to use the Sally Bell story to justify the eventual outcome of this book is absurd at best, as anyone who has ever done any real camping will testify! But of course, nature is all good, warm, and fuzzy! Sally Bell and all the rest of the genocide survivors ( like Ishi) did not choose to live in bushes in the rain as a sort of religious exercise! Their people were slaughtered and their HOMES WERE BURNED BY THE INVADERS!!! People on vision quests and hunting trips generally figured on coming home to SHELTER! Hey, if you want to talk about saving the environment and our wildlife, this is one omnivore who is with you. But sheesh! The hunting segment was not bad, but I would have like slightly more detail on the rifle. Nothing Tom Clancyish,but I don't know. We quickly returned our copy, so I can't refer to the text. This is a story of two twit sisters who intentionally choose death, certainly for the baby, rather than take a chance on meeting other people who MIGHT be violent males but more likely will be looking for mutual aid! Do you get the picture? "Let's choose certain death for the innocent baby and probably slow death for us rather than TAKE A CHANCE ON LIFE!" This is the kind of new-age mentality that insists on gassing a stray cat if it can't be returned to a strictly indoor environment. Better to have the cat DEAD on principle than perhaps a happy life,spayed, on a farm somewhere where it MIGHT get killed!!! Can somebody explain this to me?
Rating: 
Summary: Very touching and moving
Review: Inot the Forest is an extreamly haunting book set in the near future. Although one person commented that characters have no backstory, I would argue with that. I wonder if she even read the book, as it explains the childhood of the two sisters very well. As for reading it to teenagers, I would say that you could. I may just be naive, but untillsomeone said that, I didn't realize that was a lesbian scene. *sigh* I'll have to go re-read it now. Not like that will be a bad thing, but I so hate gaps in my knowladge
Rating:
Summary: A richly unfolding story
Review: I am in love - with Jean Hegland's writing, with the depth and beauty of this richly unfolding story, and with Nell, the narrator of this tale. Do not let the initial losses deter you from delving into this book of relationships - with family, with self, with sisters, with nature, adversity, love. I am richer for having read it and bereft for having it end! Most highly and respectfully recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Survival
Review: After I had read -- and been mesmerized by -- this novel, I urged a friend to take it home to read. She returned it the next day saying she just couldn't continue past the first few pages because it spoke so strongly to her darkest fears. And there is darkness and despair in this story of two young sisters, Eve and Nell, living alone in a remote, forested area of California. Nell, 17 and the narrator, and Eva, 18, have lost their mother to cancer, their father to an accident. Due to a series of worldwide natural catastrophes, wars, and civil unrest, they are without electricity, telephone and a ready food supply. Through rumors, they hear that people have begun to die of drug-resistant diseases, and the world's inhabitants are descending day by day into a more primal existence. Beyond the darkness, there is fascination in the constitution of a survivor. Is it strength of character, resourcefulness, luck, the simple desire to endure? Nell and Eva possess between them all these qualities and their struggle is heroic. Hegland's stark and eloquent prose make this a truly compelling book.
Rating: 
Summary: Post-apocalytic tale
Review: This story is told through the journal of one of two sisters living somewhere in a northern California forest. Initially, the plot, apparently set in the post-apocalyptic present, seemed intriquing because of its possibilities. The teenage girls are orphaned and, through the journal, readers learn what has happened to their parents, but no other history is related. The narrator laments the problems the sisters face being alone with no contact and few resources, and as the journal progresses, of the possibilities for their lives. Ms. Hegland's premise would a fine one but requires so much more work. Readers never learn the cause of the seeming apocalypse and this leaves the reader little possibility to fully engage in the tale. Was there a war? A plaque? Finally the sisters devise survival skills, which are the core of the book's plot, and several interesting encounters create some tension, but the basic problem is that the situation as fragmentally presented seems ridiculous and unreasonable. Is it possible they have no family, friends, contacts from before the apocalpyse? It's almost as if they have no history whatsoever, and that's the book's biggest flaw. It was probably an easy book to write because of this. This is a psuedo-political book and its message is solid--that the earth and her inhabitants are precious and fragile. But the plot is simplistic and therefore seems unresearched. Nevertheless, topically the theme is valid, so it would be a good book for high school-aged students because it would probably generate some excellent research topics and some good classroom discussions. Ultimately, as literature, Into the Forest is a simplistic, generalizing, and hopeless condemnation of humankind.
Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly beautiful
Review: This is one of very few books that (1) have kept me up all night to read it start to finish, and (2) lures me back to re-read it periodically. I'm a voracious and omnivorous reader, but a highly critical one; Hegland's book is superb. The intricate family relationships resonated particularly strongly with me, but more than anything the story forced me to examine my beliefs in my own resourcefulness. How would I cope with the losses Nell confronts, in unforgiving conditions? Would I make the same choices? A haunting story of a human life, it is even more insidious for the terrible beauty of its setting. The reader smells and tastes and hears, as well as sees and feels. Into the Forest is a complete experience -- rare and wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Love This Book!
Review: What is scarey about this book is that it is all possible. In fact, if we really listen and observe, some of what Hegland is revealing is beginning. Beautiful story and writing. I hope Ms. Hegland will bless us with more of her talent and imagination. Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Shades of the future?
Review: I could almost call this a horror novel, though there are only two brief instances of violence throughout the story. Into the Forest is horror at a different level, the terror of being left isolated with no way of knowing if the rest of the country is rebuilding or if your friends and family are still alive. Granted, we survived the so-called Y2K hysteria, and thankfully this is a work of fiction. Jean Hegland paints a near-apocalyptic picture of depravity, and how two sisters manage to stay together in spite of not being able to flip on a lightswitch or microwave a burrito as they could in the past, when they could still be children with dreams instead of being thrust into a nightmare where Nell (the narrator) must decide how long to keep a used tea bag before throwing it away. A gripping story.
Rating:
Summary: Get a clue, this is a work of fantasy!
Review: This is fantasy fiction, so comments like "this book is too far-fetched" are out of place. The novel made me reflect on how dependent we are of modern-day conveniences, and how a huge catastrophe would wipe out all of those things in given time. I enjoyed the sisters' resorcefulness, and felt truly bad at every disaster they encountered, but was very put off when they became intimate. One of the editorial reviews mentions that this book would appeal to teenagers...Hmmm...That's a bad call. I wouldn't want a 14yr old reading through the lesbian scenes... Anyhow, i think this book is very valuable in that it makes you think about what would happen if we had to do like our ancestors, live off the earth and make do with what mother nature provided. Until i read the book, i had never stopped to reflect on that. Had you?
Rating:
Summary: wonderful book!
Review: I was totally engrossed in the story of Eva and Nell. I couldn't put the book down until it was finished. A little farfetched, but beautifully written.It makes you wonder what life would be like without the many things we take for granted.
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