Crabbe's Journey

by William Bell

Feeling misunderstood at home and at school, Crabbe, a wealthy Canadian teenager, runs off to live in the woods where he meets a mysterious woman who teaches him about outdoor survival and taking responsibility for one's life.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Read For School, Canada, School, Survival, Adventure

169 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

William Bell is an award-winning author of more than a dozen books for young adults.

Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1945, he has been a high school English teacher and department head, and an instructor at the Harbin University of Science and Technology, the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing, and the University of British Columbia.

Reviews

[Avonlea · Rating 1 out of 5]

The page where it says all the copyrights and when it was published was better and more entertaining then the entire book itself

[Vyke Magdayao · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just can't 😭😭😭

[Jay Szpirs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great ya novel with a relatable protagonist and breathtaking descriptions.

The theme of self-discovery is well explored and the atmosphere and mood is effectively established and modulated; However, the supporting cast is paper-thin which leaves the story feeling a bit one dimensional.

SPOILERS
The lack of a central antagonist is alternatively realistic and frustrating; the conflict is externalized only in nature rather than in another character. This may be explained away a feature of the first-person narrative but it feels like lazy or stunted writing.

Mary, one part Yoda and one part Princess Leia, is problematic. She reeks of convenience; from her introduction, she acts like a magical balm to every problem Crabbe faces. They mesh a bit too easily, Mary is a bit too understanding of Crabbe. Her appearance yanks the story from a Naturalist one to a fairy tale where a mystical wood person instructs the hero in the skills the plot will soon require them to have.

If her entrance was problematic, Mary's exit is disastrous. Her total breakdown seems unrealistic and the circumstances surrounding it are plauged by unmotivated, cardboard cut-out villains. Suddenly, Mary's proficiency and competence evaporate (the sexual nature of her defeat only reinforces these character problems) and her demise is comically ludicrous.

Crabbe is a novel that has the unusual distinction of getting setting, theme, and mood right while fumbling plot and character. Worth a read and, if nothing else, indicates the author's potential.

[Lindsay Bray · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I didn’t know where I was going or when I would get there. And there was always the chance that I wouldn’t get there at all.” - Page 100


My Rating: 5 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Review:
This brought back so many happy memories. I read it for the first time about 9 years ago, in my grade 10 English glass. I’ve been meaning to reread this for several years now and I don’t know why I have been putting it off? I actually ended up reading it to my brother for his grade 11 book report. So now there are more special memories connected with it.

What an incredible story about self-discovery, perseverance, survival, and finding freedom from societal expectations. It really opened my eyes while challenging my views on the things that I thought were right or wrong. Sometimes there are no right or wrong answers, there is only truth and the truth is different for everyone. This book got me thinking, it made me laugh, and it also broke my heart. If you are looking for a book that is packed full of adventure, I highly recommend this one.

Trigger Warnings: Dealing with death, alcoholism, addictions, killing/murder, attempted assault, mentions of mental illnesses and suicide.

[Laura F · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book at all, I am an avid reader and I would like to say that I can identify well written literature and badly written writing. Although most of my dislike for it may come from the fact that I read it in class with a teacher I hate I can also say that this plainly wasn’t a very good book. I get that the story was mainly about Crabbe but it felt that the other characters were super flat, they had a single purpose and were then immediately thrown away. There were numerous plot holes, the main character was obnoxious. Also according to my teacher Buddhisme was a big theme in the book? Can anyone back this up or was she just making stuff up as we suspected? Overall I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[Audrey S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my grade nine English class and I did not like it very much. I am unhappy that schools are still reading books in school written by white, straight, cis gander man. This book just proves that if you are privileged you can get away with anything, In one instance in the book Mary almost gets raped by a group of drunk men. There is to shame on this happening nor is it talked about any other time in this book. Mary's death was also sudden and out of no where. Though I think this book is outdated and should not be read in schools I thought the story was nice and there was great character development.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

it was terrible i do not recommend to anyone this book had terrible character development and the story line is all out of order and there are so many holes in the story itself

[Mac · Rating 1 out of 5]

Last year I was forced against my will to read this “novel” in my English class. They started off kind of strong with a possibly decent storyline more focused on the therapists role, but threw that out real quick. Franklin Crabbe was probably one of the least likeable characters in the book which is saying a lot. Next to no growth and we just get some random bit in the end where Mary kill’s herself and it’s revealed she put down her husband?? Very sad pacing and weird twists that don’t change much about the book, we didn’t need allat.

[Emma-Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ewwwwww

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good YA book. Gr9, maybe 3 or 4C level. If you like the Maestro, this book is for you.

[Shar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book for free as it had been recently discarded by a local high school. I am guessing that the school had bought the book because the story is set in our province, Ontario (in Canada). I was very disappointed in this book as I felt that the main character was not relatable and the other characters were not remotely realistic.

The main character seems to have been a very spoilt young man. He tells us that his father is "Rich and Influential". He is quite bitter that his parents expect him to go to university. I do not understand his dilemma. My working class parents expected me to: not get in trouble with the law, not get pregnant before marriage, not be a burden to them, leave home as soon as I graduated high school or pay "room & board" if I continued to live with them after high school. From my point of view, if parents expect you to go to university, that means they pay the tuition as well as living expenses. Whether you foot the bill or not, if you don't want to go to university, no one can force you. Just leave home, be financially independent, and go your own way. What are they going to do, disown you?

Coming from a very poor family, I can not relate to Crabbe, who is bitter for the fact that he was raised by wealthy parents. For example, he complains:

"I admit I'd never done a day's work in my life before I escaped. Our house had electric this and power that. What work the machines didn't do alone, they helped with. And the servants did the rest. Clothes always arrived clean, food always arrived cooked, lawns were always mowed. We never walked where we could drive (and if we couldn't drive we wouldn't go)."

I also was a teenager in Toronto at the time that this book was first published. I did not recognize some of the words the main character, Crabbe, used. I wonder if those were words from the author's generation. Examples: "Jumpin' Jesus" and "penny loafers". Crabbe claims that it was obligatory to study Latin at high school but I distinctly remember that when I studied Latin at a Toronto high school in the early 1980s, it was definitely not obligatory!

Crabbe refers to their servants as "cook" and "the maid", never by their names (probably unknown to him). His snobbishness really rubbed me the wrong way. The father is a corporate lawyer. Mother does nothing apparently. Crabbe admits to us that his "old man was Rich and Influential and they [his father and the school principal/headmaster] belonged to the same golf club." He is quite dependent on his parents and this life of privilege that they provide for him. "In the city, nothing I did mattered. If I left my clothes lying around, somebody picked them up. If I forgot my raincoat I called a cab. I left my calculator on the subway once: I just bought a new one at the nearest store." OK, so he is a spoiled rich kid who finds that his life has no meaning, no purpose. So?

I just can not relate to this young man. If you are so upset because you are so dependent on your parents' money, why don't you just MOVE OUT and become INDEPENDENT. There really was no need to do what Crabbe did. Honestly, what a drama queen this guy is. I wonder if the author is writing about his own parents and his own feelings about being raised by a "Rich and Influential" father whose money can buy anything. Perhaps he got so used to this rich lifestyle (being so well taken care of) that he could not simply walk away like any normal person.

In my teenaged years (which was when this book was first published), it was quite common for kids to drop out of high school and leave home permanently. My older sister left when she was 16 and never looked back. In those days, a high school drop out could get a job with decent pay. It was before technology and robotic automation took over. Much work was still done by hand, like "data entry" and "assembly line" factory jobs.

The supporting character is Mary who is truly a "deus ex machina". She enters the narrative when the story needs her to enter and exits when the story needs to discard her character.

I feel that it was a huge waste of my time to read this book. As the school where I found it as a discarded novel was in a largely working class neighbourhood, I doubt is was worthwhile for any of the students to have read it either.

I think the author came from a well-to-do family and was working through his own bitterness of being so dependent on wealth and privilege when writing this awful story.

Do not waste your time, please.

Hopefully all copies have been thrown into the garbage by now.

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

(5/10)- I found it alright. I read it for school, but I tried not to think of it too much as a chore, and it was short, so that won’t affect this review. I think the real strong point of this story is the messages and the themes it puts forward, and the development of Crabbe’s character. However, the writing style and some of the language used was very unfitting for this story. I found it was an awkward story to read. Also, I would have liked it if Mary’s character was better described and had a better growth to show who she really is, instead of just meeting her, doing a couple of things with her and then her breakdown and death (which was very sudden and didn’t make much sense). Also, I would’ve expected that her “secret” would have an effect on her character or on Crabbe’s view of her, but that was never really touched on. Her character had lots of potential but she unfortunately never lived up to it. Overall, this story did have some very strong strong points, but it’s weaknesses were so disappointing that I can’t rate it higher than 5/10.

Edit- I’m lowering this to 4/10. The middle of the story was a giant mush of what the f*ck why, the ending wasn’t incredible and Mary’s character was a huge belly flop. Add all that to the mediocre (at best) writing and you have a mess of a book with a few good parts but really not enough for me to enjoy it.

[Gaby C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Light spoilers regarding side characters.

It's an interesting book, for sure, but you can tell what the author's political views are as Crabbe has the same sort of views. I like how Crabbe develops throughout the book but considering I'm also reading Forbidden City by the same author, I noticed that this author has a tendency to introduce a female character who will help the main character (male, usually) change and develop as a person. Said female character experiences an untimely end right before main character is about to return to wherever he came from originally. There's also an unwarranted "She's not like other girls from where I come from" sort of statement or monologue by the main character (which genuinely gives me The Ick).

All in all, it's a decent book but it's also not one I'd read willingly again nor one I would recommend.

[Jacob Mckibben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently re-read this book and by god, I really enjoyed it. If you've ever related to the feeling of wanting to just run into the woods and say "fuck you" to everything, this is what the book is about. I remember reading this back in high school and it is funny, sad, and relatable to what I think a lot of people want to do when life isn't turning out how you want it to. Its also an easy read, and not too long.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed myself reading this book. I had to read it for my English class but that didn't ruin it for me. There was some satisfying character development and I really liked the story and plot. I really liked the setting of this novel and I was so shocked and speechless when Mary died. My only wish that either this was a longer book or there were more books to this one.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this one for a class few weeks ago. i like how they got a independent lady in it, and i also like how crabbe changes for the better. i was hoping his parents might've turned around too but i guess that's not how it goes in real life neither.

[Chief Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personally, this book was not what I expected it to be! It had elements of romance, mystery, murder, and it showed how the smallest actions can make the biggest difference in a person’s life!

I would recommend it for anybody, and suggest that everyone reads it, if the opportunity if given.

[purrsiantea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have my gripes with this novel, but it is very moving and deals with themes that are always relevant. Unfortunately, the characterization of the only female character and much of the writing in general are dated at this point, so that was distracting. But overall, it really resonated with me.

[Ollie Ander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crabbe is a great coming of age story! A bit too cynical for "kids" but perfect for those about to start questioning the meaning of life. It was well-written and fun to read re-visiting it as an adult too.

[Devon]

Alright, frequent swearing.

[Kate Milligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter's grade 7 class is reading this. She had some questions so I started to read, and I finished the book. I liked it a lot.

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

UGHHHHH!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminiscent of "Hatchet," but for an older audience (includes alcoholism, drugs, nudity, profanity, etc)

[daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a decent book. Had to read for grade 12 English class. Interesting enough to keep you reading to see what happened. Remember hoping the end would have been a bit different.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great story, deals with coming of age and responsibility, but is lame and flat, the main character is an annoying privileged white male.

[Fuzzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to read with older students. Great themes of personal responsibility, the struggle to find oneself and the adolescent psyche.

[Kris Haynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was forced to read in high school, wasn’t bad, wasn’t the best.

[tia]

my english teacher doesn’t have good taste in books

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not like it

[Terry Grignon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent YA story of coming of age.