#25 - Tracker by Gary Paulsen
John Borne's life is turned upside down when his grandfather is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He becomes kind of obsessed with the ideas of life and death, and when it comes time to hunt for deer to provide meat for the coming winter, he tracks a doe in the woods instead of taking the shot.
A short read, I found it bland. I loved the images of the woods covered in new snow, the feeling of tacking the deer. But the book tried too hard to be deep - John feels like he can cheat death from getting his grandfather if he can touch the doe and not kill her. In the end, he goes home meatless and nothing has really changed at all. It just didn't come together for me - perhaps if the story had been longer and delved more into if John was going to give up hunting for good or something.
