The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra

This has very little information concerning the actual bear attack. Leaves one wondering if something is amiss. At the first of the book or “Day1” I was thinking it’s a long time to “Day 29” so there should be lots of action and adventure. Not so. It drug on and on with the writer using eloquent and descriptive words concerning the moss, the sky, the water, etc. After the attack took place there only seemed to be a single bite puncture that was the focal point. If the bear bit his thigh and one puncture/tear is “as deep as the bear’s canine is long” shouldn’t there be other corresponding teeth punctures? I know the writer had his picture taken shortly after the attack because he said so but I didn’t see it in the book. Maybe it’s just me but something just doesn’t seem right. I’m adventurous, but I like to think I have common sense. My biggest fear while hiking is coming face to face with a bear. If I know I’ll be in their territory I would have mace. But that’s just me. He did, but didn’t bother when he went on his hike, alone, after another group thought they had spotted bears on their island and paddled a long way off their route to warn them. Ok, I’ve probably said enough.

I ordered this for one of my sons in middle school. My daughter decided she wanted to read it instead. She was reported to me that it contains many instances of cursing, and that's all the details I can explain without Amazon removing the review (they blocked the first one). I told her to throw it out. It's a waste of money, and there are much better things to put in front of her eyes.

Besides being offensive to a discerning reader, cursing is just a replacement for creative dialogue.

It's a shame that so many books do this nowadays. It's worse when they don't disclose this detail in the description. It's even worse still when I buy it as a gift for a kid with my hard-earned money.

Terrible. Just terrible.

I bought this book for my teenage son, Aidan, but it sat collecting dust on his nightstand. He’d rather be outdoors doing rather than inside reading. I guess I shouldn’t complain. I found it one day while cleaning his room (which I will complain about) and read the first few pages to see if it captured my attention. They did, and it easily found its way on my list of favorites.
The Twenty-Ninth Day is a powerful coming-of-age story. Alex Messenger was 17 years old when he set out to canoe 700 miles in the remote Canadian wilderness with friends and an adult mentor. On the twenty-ninth day of the trip, he was attacked by a grizzly bear. Clearly, he survived to tell the tale, and what a gift he has for telling it.
The only thing I know about canoeing is from a crazy escapade of rescuing an abandoned one in the Smokies. So I suspected the story might bore me until the attack. I also wondered if the book would make me more fearful for my kids on adventures they take apart from me, especially Aidan who is now eighteen and spreading his wings to fly further away by the day.

On both counts, I was proven wrong. It made me want more adventures like this for my kids, despite the inherent risks. The story is a bold testament to the benefits of exposing youth to experiences outside of their comfort zone, especially if it puts them in the natural world sans a computer screen.

Alex’s writing style is a bit Heminway-esque to me. Not in a one-syllable kind of way, but in the uncluttered yet descriptive prose he uses to describe the setting, story and his emotions. Not to mention he’s just a cool, old soul kind of kid (now adult) who was wise beyond his years at the formative age when these events occurred.

Finally, as a search and rescue team member, this book held special interest for me in how the group handled Alex’s attack. I won’t give anything away, but I will say I wish everyone was as level-headed and prepared in the event of a true backcountry emergency. This would be a fantastic book to discuss and debate with my teammates and outdoor enthusiast friends.

The first 30 percent of the book is literally about floating down the river and the food they ate. While talking about controlling the canoe they use all of these terms that no one that doesn't do it would understand. "I floated down into the eddy." This guy did everything wrong during the attack. And I honestly don't believe most of his recall. He says he dodged and outsmarted the bear at least 4 times. Talks about being slashed down his back, and clawed across the face. Then his friend only finds wounds on his thigh. I was skeptical, gave it a chance, and regret all of the time I wasted reading it. It was literally the only book I've had that was annoying and frustrating to read at times.

CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS

Have you ever seen a horror movie where the characters are so unbelievably stupid and unlikeable that you find yourself rooting for the bad guy? Well this story is just like that and by the time the bear eventually shows up you will firmly be on Team Bear.

The amount of stupid decisions made by the group is ridiculous. Their group leader “Dan” is a moron who routinely and unnecessarily places the group in danger as they undertake a 600 mile canoe trip across the Canadian wilderness. From constantly trying to paddle through storms, losing a canoe, losing the groups food, shouting at animals and laughable attempts at field surgery, Dan shows himself to be an inept cretin who endangered the lives of the group and the lives of the rescuers.

The author appears oblivious to this idiocy and instead waffles on inanely about food and constantly uses canoeing terminology in a feeble effort to convince the reader that he is really really smart and knows what he is doing.

The main focus of the book is not the bear attack, but instead the canoe journey undertaken by the group. What should be a tale of life-changing wonder and excitement is instead portrayed as monotonous repetition as the group, devoid of personality and humor, amble their way along poorly-described rivers and lakes.

For a group of alleged intrepid young adventurers these are literally the most boring people on the planet.

The reader learns very little about the other members of the group and the author’s attempts to write dialogue are atrocious. Other than “Dan” you wont even remember the names of the other group members nor any significant contribution any of them made to the journey.

The book is marketed as an epic fight for survival after the author is horrifically attacked by a bear, clinging on to life whilst fighting the brutal elements to survive. But this is not the case and in fact after the “attack” they immediately choose not to be evacuated and instead they plod along aimlessly and casually stop to visit inuit sites on the way to their destination. The author, albeit slightly wounded, is perfectly capable of paddling a canoe and continuing the journey after the “attack”.

It is only through their extreme stupidity in losing a canoe and all their food, and the laughably incompetent attempts at field medical care, are they reluctantly forced to seek evacuation.

A very poorly written book and a huge disappointment. I read that the author now provides wilderness survival training. I pray for his students.

I don't know, as bear attacks go this is pretty lame. First we read half the book while he and his friends paddle and cook food and endure weather. Endlessly. Some pretty nice descriptions of scenery though. Then the bear attack finally comes and he gets bitten on the leg and knocked out with a bear paw. Subsequent photos show no bruise on his face, in fact he is shown standing with his friends and smiling, looking like he's fine. No pictures of the wound, most likely because it's not very impressive. Also, they had a satellite phone they could have used to call for help at any time, but he makes the poor decision to continue the trip after getting bitten by a bear's filthy mouth. He considers himself pretty heroic but there's not a whole lot of drama here. I've read about dog bites that were more terrifying than this.

This book really should have been advertised as a canoe trip with an incidental bear bite thrown in. Very disappointing as a grizzly bear attack story.

The book is a good story but the author is quite verbose in many of his descriptive paragraphs. I found myself skipping 2-3 paragraphs at a time while the author was describing something menial such as the color of the lichens on the Tundra.

It’s not at all what I expected. 90% of the book is more about conoeing than I’d ever want to read. I’m very disappointed in this book. Wish I could return it!

I liked it. I didn't find all the detail boring, but interesting, like I was along for the adventure. And this was Alex's story, so I wasn't surprised by the focus on him and not much on the other guys. I wondered, though, why Alex was alone when he encountered the bear and why he didn't have the bear spray with him after the guys were warned about bears by the "Femmes." Don't you always have a buddy - and bear spray - in an area where there may be bears? And like another reviewer noted, I was disturbed that the guys dismissed the "Femmes" report of seeing bears. Like they would confuse a bear with a musk ox. Or have paddled all that way back to warn the guys if they hadn't been sure. Taking them seriously may have avoided the attack, or at least have made the guys take better safety precautions. Why no self-reflection on mistakes made, how the attack may have been avoided? That surprised me too. But overall I found the book an interesting read and liked the photos at the end.

As someone who has no desire to embark on such a trip as these young men did, I enjoyed reading about their adventure. The detail in the description of the trip helped me to feel like I was there in the experience with them. I felt captivated by the experience and felt the emotion near the end of the book. Great read!