Looking for an unforgettable collection of books you’ll devour if you liked Hatchet by Gary Paulsen? I’ve spent over a decade reading, analyzing, and recommending the most impactful books that focus on themes of survival, resilience, adventure, and self-reliance.
You’ll find detailed reviews of more than a dozen of my favorites in the roundup below. I’ve personally curated this collection from my own bookshelves. What all of them share is the theme of survival, whether it’s the great outdoors, a shipwreck, or a dystopian future. I’m confident that you’ll find a few new titles to spark your imagination.
Against the Pack by Khristina Chess
“All I knew with absolute confidence was that I could move and she couldn’t. If I stayed, we might both die waiting. If I left, we might both die alone. If I left, she might die alone, but I might find help and live. Or I might find help in time, lead them to the shelter, and we might both live.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Against the Pack
What if survival meant leaving the one person you love the most behind?
Ignore the cover. Trust the story. Against the Pack is a pulse-pounding story that tests a teenage girl’s self-reliance and resilience, similar to The Hatchet.
It starts with a bang. While walking on a rural road, Melender and her mom are attacked by a pack of dogs and forced over a near-vertical hillside into a ravine. They’re trapped. Wounded. Stranded on a narrow ledge with no food, no water, no shelter. No phone. No way out.
No one knows where they are.
No one even knows they’re missing.
The only thing Melender has is her will to survive. She doesn’t want to abandon her critically injured mom, but if she doesn’t find help soon, neither of them will make it.
I found Melender to be a gritty, determined, and unforgettable teen protagonist. What made Against the Pack so special for me is that her fight isn’t just physical—it’s psychological and deeply personal. As the hours stretch into days, the experience doesn’t just test her endurance but also unravels complicated truths about her relationship with her mother.
If you liked Brian Robeson’s fight for survival in The Hatchet, Against the Pack will keep you on edge until the very last page.
The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling
This middle-grade wilderness survival story is told in verse, and that format made it a super-fast read.
Personally, I wish I liked this one more because so many readers loved it, but I would love to see this told as a YA novel (rather than middle-grade) so the survival content and backstory could be explored with more depth. But that would be a completely different work.
As-is, this is a nice, easy-to-read story that young fans of Hatchet are sure to enjoy.
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
“You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better.” ― Yann Martel, quote from The Life of Pi
This story has so many layers. At its heart, a man is telling the story of how he survived a shipwreck as a young boy. But The Life of Pi is about so much more than that! Young Pi demonstrates courage, resilience, faith, hope, and strength of character, and at the end of his heartbreaking journey, I was left wondering what really happened. I know what I wanted to believe, but there is a difference between what is probable and what is possible.
The movie adaptation of this novel is stunning and breathtaking in its beauty. I highly recommend that you read the book and then watch the film. If you’re looking for amazing survival stories like Hatchet, The Life of Pi will wreck you.
I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall
“To survive you need to learn to hold contradictory things in your head at the same time. I am going to die; I am going to live. There is nothing to fear; be wary of everything.” ― Kate Alice Marshall, quote from I Am Still Alive
What an amazing page-turner! From the beginning this book grabbed me and didn't let go. It's the kind of story that had me staying up late to read, sitting outside in the shade to read, read, read, reading to finish because I couldn't put this novel down. It starts with a BANG--literally, when strangers kill Jess's father, leaving her stranded in the wilderness of Canada with his dog, Bo. She's still recovering from a car accident that killed her mother, so she doesn't walk well, and she's a city girl so she's not great at hunting and fishing. How will she handle a Canadian winter alone without shelter or food?
She is alive. And she is tenacious.
I loved this girl's grit, and I wanted to see her survive. I wanted to know the answer to the mystery about who the men killed her father.
And after reading this one, I binged on everything that Kate Alice Marshall has written and added her to my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s amazing!
If you loved Hatchet and you’re looking for another gripping YA book about wilderness survival that you won’t be able to put down, check out I Am Still Alive.
Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis
“Living things will fight to stay that way.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from Be Not Far From Me
Be Not Far from Me is a fast and engaging read about a girl who is lost and wounded in the woods. There are some plot points that seem a bit problematic, but the story is so compelling that I couldn't put this book down. There was a moment near the end when I became as lost as Ashley and wasn't sure how things would end for her anymore.
I was impressed by a novel that progressed almost entirely with just one character. Ashley carried the weight of the narrative and the conflict on her shoulders by herself. Alone and barefoot.
If you enjoyed Hatchet, be sure to check out this YA book about survival that pits a lone quick-witted, tough-talking teen against nature’s elements.
Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Young-Ullman
In this absorbing novel, a broken mother-daughter relationship drives everything that’s happening, both in the present and in the past. The present is awful. Ingrid has been sent away to a 3-week wilderness program for at-risk teens, although she didn’t realize what she was signing up for at the time, and now she’s wet, miserable, mosquito-bitten, and trapped with a misfit group in the middle of nowhere. But she’s determined to see things through to prove something to her mother and earn the carrot, which is permission to attend a music school abroad.
The past is a complicated story about her mother’s beautiful opera voice and depression and its impact on Ingrid. There is a strong codependency relationship between the mother and daughter, since the mother is a depressed diva. From an early age, Ingrid took care of her mother since no father was in the picture.
I loved the mystery about how Ingrid ended up in the wilderness, and I was rooting for her to make it out.
Fans of Hatchet will enjoy this YA book about survival that offers real character depth and heartbreak.
The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by Scott Semegran
I picked up this novel because it was the 2021 First Place winner for Middle-Grade/Young Adult Writers Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Wow! It hooked me immediately and didn’t let go.
Four middle-school boys find a backpack full of cash and pot left behind by their nemesis bullies, the Thousand Oaks Gang, and after evading them fails (they get beat up), they decide to retreat to an abandoned lake house for a few days. Being kids, they haven’t thought this through. The bullies find them. They end up stranded on an island with no food, water, or shelter and must survive until someone rescues them.
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this novel. I felt I was in great storytelling hands with Semegran. The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island has something special. As others have noted, it reminds me of The Body by Stephen King, which inspired Stand by Me (the movie). Perhaps it is the narrator’s voice, which seems older and wiser than his young years.
Treat yourself to this suspenseful YA book about survival with strong and diverse male characters in a wonderful time and place. If you enjoyed Hatchet, I know you’ll like this.
The Distance Between Lost and Found by Kathryn Holmes
Three teenagers are separated from their church youth group and survive for 7 days in the wilderness. Along their journey, they find forgiveness with each other and also love. And faith. Although the story has a strong plot element of fighting nature to survive (storms, poison ivy, etc.), I felt that the real story is one of character transformation.
I took issue the ending because characters suffered debilitating injuries that made the actions seem implausible. Otherwise, a fine novel for readers looking for survival stories like The Hatchet.
Switchback by Danika Stone
I enjoyed the fast pacing of this YA survivor story, but a number of things made it just an "okay" book overall for me. Still, I wanted to see Vale and Ash survive and get out alive, so the pages kept turning.
Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis
“There's different ways of doing things wrong, Lynn, and not all of it is choosing to hurt others. Sometimes it's the things you don't do that make you feel the worst.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from Not a Drop to Drink
Set in a future where drinking water is scarce and people fight for survival in a wild frontier, Lynn is a young woman in rural Ohio defending a pond and her homestead. Her mother raised her to distrust, to fight, and to live, and that's what she intends to do.
I enjoyed watching Lynn's fierce character evolve into a person who was willing to allow others into her life, to trust and even love. Despite her hardness, she had a kind heart. There were some interesting scenes in interactions with other people, like the stranger on the road, that tested her humanity.
Not a Drop to Drink is a fast, thrilling story about survival, and its sequel, In a Handful of Dust, follows Lynn and her adopted daughter Lucy into the unknown after a mysterious plague drives them away from their home and community.
Coywood Creek by Khristina Chess
“Kent packed a flashlight and extra batteries. I packed an iPad and a troll doll.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Coywood Creek
Don’t miss the sassiest apocalypse survivor since Tris Prior. If you’re looking for survival stories like Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, this hilariously smart YA novel will wreck you—in the best way possible!
At first, Zoey brushes off the blackout, the dead cell service, and the eerie northern lights in the southern sky. But as reality sets in, she knows one thing: she can’t stay in her parents’ condo alone with no power. So she packs her snacks and sets out for Coywood Creek with Kent, a teenage boy living in her building, hoping to find safety with her uncle and grandmother.
Zoey and Kent quickly realize this isn’t an ordinary power outage. After a harrowing journey, they arrive at Coywood Creek, a sanctuary with plenty of food, fresh water, and the natural protection of cliffs.
But it’s not safe here.
For readers drawn to the slow unraveling of society in dystopian fiction, Coywood Creek delivers a comical story about the end of the world. What made this novel so engrossing for me was Zoey’s sharp, relatable, and often humorous response to navigating the collapse of civilization with her signature sarcasm (and a bag of OREO cookies). Her delicious banter with Kent made me laugh out loud, even as the novel’s deeper themes—resilience, uncertainty, and survival—kept me hooked.
But more than anything, Coywood Creek forces readers to ask: How fragile are we without our technology?
Other Books You’ll Devour If You Liked Hatchet
For a few other lists of great books for fans of Hatchet check out the Readers Who Enjoyed Hatchet list on Goodreads.
You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of YA contemporary books about tough topics for teens, including my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited.
About the Author: Khristina Chess
Khristina Chess is an award-winning author of more than a dozen young adult novels, including The Cutting Edge of Friendship, The Delinquent Hero, and Junior Missing. Her novel about eating disorders, Hollow Beauty, was named a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She tackles tough teen topics and writes binge-worthy books across multiple genres, including contemporary, thriller, mystery, dystopian, and adventure.
