Undiscovered Country ~ Reviewed by Elizabeth Barnes

"I just want to do some good for my country"





After losing her mother to cancer, a teenage girl seeks escape from her grief by joining a volunteer organization in a war-torn South American country. This story is told in alternating chapters labeled "Before" and "After". The "Before" chapters tell the story of Cat, a teenage girl struggling through her senior year, juggling schoolwork, and becoming the parent to her parents as her mother is diagnosed with cancer that will eventually take her life and her father sinks into a crippling depression. The "After" chapters take place mostly in Calantes, the Amazonian "undiscovered country," where Cat finds that her fellow teen volunteers are, like her, motivated but have a need to escape their own demons. In Calantes she also falls in love and awakens to her sexuality. When tragedy eventually strikes, Cat realizes she cannot run away from grief.

I really wanted to like this book, but there were several issues that I just could not get past.

I believe that the author had the chance to develop a bit deeper into the South American culture as well as the civil war occurring around the narrator. Instead, the conversations began to feel a little bit like a broken record especially when Rafael (the love interest) was involved. Rafael speaks a lot about this "change," but the most we learn is that he is somehow involved with local drug cartels in his efforts to fight back against the government. The time spent on the civil war felt very shallow and disconnected from the story line.

For someone who is smart and capable enough to be accepted to Stanford despite having to watch her mother slowly die, Cat seems like quite the vapid personality. I was hoping the book would spend more time on Cat's year away and what she learns about herself during that time.

Although I did not connect with the story, there are things that I did feel held promise: The interchanging chapters that go from present-day to when her mother was first diagnosed with breast cancer was a great format. It allowed the reader to slowly learn the whole story behind what Cat and her parents went through after her mothers cancer diagnosis while also staying in the present in South America.

I give this book a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy!