The Revenant by Michael Punke

In this story of survival, Hugh Glass is an expert trapper and frontiersman. After being viciously mauled by a massive grizzly bear and abandoned and left for dead by his fellow trappers, Hugh is pushed to survive by one thing--revenge.

Fantastic read - finished in two sittings.
Excels at both a great plot and also seeming to capture the world of frontier trappers and mountain men - the nearly constant walk along the edge of death for the promise of money.

“The goal each day is tomorrow morning.”

I didn't realize going into this book that a) it's actually a movie as well with Leonardo diCaprio, I guess? and b) that the main character, Hugh Glass, was an actual guy. This guy was horrifically mauled by a bear, left to die by a guy who stole his rifle to boot, somehow survives based on grit and determination, and swears vengeance – to get his rifle back. I'm no gun person, but that must have been a hell of a rifle.

The book hops POVs a bit during the book to keep tabs on the main players in Hugh Glass' story, which I liked so that I could appreciate the few times when Hugh Glass was this close to his mark without even realizing it. Glass meets several companions along the way, and I particularly liked the group of French guys he befriends. Their story is particularly touching in a way I was simultaneously expecting and not expecting at the same time. I also really liked the ending, because it didn't take the predictable Western ending route. I appreciated that.

This was quite an adventure book, and even sparse on atmospheric details sometimes, it was still an enjoyable read.

This is very much like The Count of Monte Cristo in terms of being a revenge story, although it is based loosely on real people and happenings that occurred in exploring the mid-west in the early 1800s. I found it very gripping and the pages flew by.