Admittedly, yes. It was the title that drew me in and made me want to read Claire Cameron's How To Survive A Bear Attack.

Part memoir, part survival guide and part true crime (if nature is the criminal), this was a book I tore through. Breaking it down further, this is part Canadiana, part history, part heroism, and part acceptance. It is always, without a doubt, full fight.

I appreciated the comparison Cameron made between her own cancer struggles and those from individuals encountering bear attacks. The level of research put in comes across, as does the love Cameron has for Algonquin Park and nature itself.

This audiobook is narrated by Cameron with notes read by Rachel Cairns; Cameron's narration had heart, depth, and emotion as she recounted both her own battles, and those of others, and I appreciated the sources sited within the notes.

I have purposefully not read many memoirs this part year, but this was one I couldn't pass up!

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada Audiobooks and Knopf Canada for the complimentary audio copy to read and review.

Living close to Alquonquin Park had me intrigued with this book. An audiobook that was captivating and one I couldn't stop listening to. Cameron weaves a few narratives together - dealing with cancer and a story about a tragedy of a couple who were visiting the park in the 90's. A memoir about survival and grief. An introspective memoir - worth a listen.

I received this book as an eALC in exchange for my honest review through Netgalley & the publisher Knopf Canada. Audiobooks are my favourite way to read memoirs - I love hearing the author’s story through their own voice.

Claire and her family were avid campers in Algonquin and she’s also been fascinated by bears. Specifically there was one unprovoked attack in the back country in 1991 by a predatory bear that really captured her attention. She overcame the loss of her father who had skin cancer while she was experiencing the park.

Years later she is diagnosed with the same skin cancer her father had around a similar age he passed at and becomes obsessed with researching the bear attack.

It feels like the author really dove into the investigation as a way to keep occupied while she was going through treatment. It seemed like it kept her motivated to find out the truth of what happened that day.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one on audio and would recommend it in that format if this is one you’re considering picking up. It does cover some hard topics so would suggest checking the trigger warnings beforehand.

I enjoyed this hybrid genre book more than I expected to. The author blends memoir, nature nonfiction and creative nonfiction in this book where she tells her story through the lens of research into a tragic bear attack in 1991 that killed two people. The creative nonfiction portion comes in when she tells the hypothetical story of the bear's journey that season that lead him to that island where the attack happened that ultimately lost him his life. The author also shares her passion for bears with sections describing many different aspects of bears. This sort of a mix usually does not work for me but it did here. At first I wondered about the bear portions adn if she had put that together from autopsy reports - which seemed far-fetched-but once the author mentioned her experience writing fiction, specifically a work based on the 1991 attack, that portion clicked into place. Overall, I really enjoyed this work.

My favourite type of nonfiction book is one that blends memoir with nature writing and How to Survive a Bear Attack is a great example.

In terms of the nature writing, Cameron places us in the mind of the bear, describing its surroundings and potential motivations leading up to and at the time of the attack. While at times it may seem conjecture, Cameron backs it up with bear studies and by talking with experts. Can we ever know what the bear was thinking at the time of the attack? No but Cameron's writing has authority and i enjoyed the POV of the bear as it wandered the forest.

As for the memoir, Cameron explores grief, both when her father died from cancer and when she finds herself diagnosed with the same cancer. Her descriptions of her relationship with her father were honest and emotional and I could imagine, to a certain extent, what she was experiencing as she found herself travelling a similar path.

Through the bear attack and grief, Cameron was able to also explore the different types of fear - the fear when facing a bear attack, the fear when facing a cancer diagnosis, the fear of facing the need to tell her children about her cancer diagnosis - and how we respond in each situation. Do we run away and stand strong and face the fear?

I highly recommend this book. 4.25⭐️

A book I would likely never have picked up on my own, but thanks to NetGalley I got it as an audio book, and I'm so glad I did!
I never knew how much I wanted to know about bears and this book kept me wanting more information as it went along.
At first I struggled with the author's jumping around of perspectives and time periods, but eventually that became part of what made this book so amazing. The interwoven stories of the past, present, human, and bear are well done and how it all comes together to create a story was lovely.
Very interesting.
My happy place is Muskoka and Algonquin Park, so this book felt extra special and probably influenced my love of this book a bit.

Weeks later and I'm still thinking about this book a lot!

10+ years ago I read a novel titled The Bear that fictionalized the account of a bear attack in Algonquin Park that killed a couple in the early 90s. The novel speculates what would have happened if the couple had children with them. The novel itself is told from the perspective of the couple’s five year old daughter. I remember this vividly because after reading this book I spent the following months trying to convince all of my coworkers to read it. I even bought a copy for one of them as a birthday present!

Cut to present day and me still consistently thinking about this book. I see this audiobook available on NetGalley and immediately knew this was the same author.

Part memoir and part survival guide, Claire Cameron’s “How to Survive a Bear Attack” is thought-provoking, reflective, uncomfortable and hopeful all at once. Claire narrates the audiobook herself and what an engaging narrator! I have been in an audiobook slump for MONTHS and this was the story I needed to drag me out of that.

When I originally read The Bear in 2014 I had never visited Algonquin Park. Since then I have visited twice and every summer I promise myself that I won’t let another year go by without visiting. For anyone who is familiar with the area you’ll easily be transported to the Highway 60 Corridor, The Lookout and Lake Opeongo (to name a few).

I was captivated by Claire’s personal account of fighting the same type of cancer that her father had passed from when she was just a young girl. Especially from the perspective of having two young boys and knowing that no one else could raise them like you would.

If you can get your hands on this book, in any way, shape or form, it is worth it!

Thank you to @netgalley and @knopfca for providing me with access to the audiobook version in exchange for an honest review.

How to Survive a Bear Attack is out now!

5⭐️

I really enjoyed the reading. The book written from very interesting angle, how the author put the her investigation why the bear attacks and her own fight with her cancer. How to survive both.
A lot of interesting facts and information about bears. And about Algonquin park.
Some part of the book sounds completely like a fiction novel and not memoir. Beautifully written.
Great reading!

I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did - "How to Survive a Bear Attack" turned out to be an unsuspecting 5-star read for me!

I don’t usually gravitate toward non-fiction, but the title and cover immediately caught my attention. What I found inside was far more than I anticipated. Yes, it’s a memoir, but it reads with the tension and pacing of a mystery or psychological thriller. Claire Cameron masterfully weaves personal narrative with broader reflections, and the result is something gripping, intimate, and often haunting.

The dual narration by Claire Cameron and Rachel Cairns added even more depth to the experience. The voices were well-suited to the material, and the delivery kept me fully engaged from start to finish.

If you're a fan of memoirs with a suspenseful edge - or if you, like me, are usually drawn to thrillers and want to dip your toes into non-fiction—this is a fantastic pick. Thought-provoking, raw, and quietly powerful, this is a standout audiobook that I’ll be recommending widely.

Would I Survive a Bear Attack?

Claire Cameron’s How to Survive a Bear Attack had me asking that exact question: Would I survive? Honestly, it’s something I probably should ask myself every time I wander into the woods around my property without bear spray.

Bear sightings aren’t rare in my neck of the woods. They like to roam around our land. One time, while I was down by the river, I looked up at the ridge and there it was—a black bear. I’m not sure if it saw us, but it just went about its business and wandered away. No big drama. But sometimes, it's not that simple.

Three years ago, a member of our community was killed by a bear on the trails just outside my property. It was rare. It was shocking. And it still lingers in the back of my mind.

Why Do Bears Attack?
That question drives Cameron’s memoir. Obsessed with a real-life attack in Ontario’s Algonquin Park—where two campers were killed—she retraces the steps of both the victims and the bear, piecing together what led to the tragedy. She brings in experts, looks at other attacks, and gives us a deep dive into bear behavior.

But this isn’t just a book about wildlife—it’s also about survival of a different kind. While researching the attack, Cameron was battling a rare genetic cancer. She draws a powerful parallel between the predator in the woods and the one in her own body. Her illness becomes her personal bear—unpredictable, untamed, and terrifying in its own way.

The Bear and the Path to the Answers

I struggled a bit with the pacing. Cameron’s forensic deep dive into the bear attack is fascinating, but she jumps around while retracing those steps and the back-and-forth felt uneven and she repeats things when she returns to those steps.

The bear facts are fascinating and Cameron makes a compelling case for what may have happened in Algonquin. As for the bear attack near my place? That mystery remains unsolved. But this book definitely made me think more deeply about bears predatory behaviour and not to underestimate them.

Audiobook Verse Ebook
I received a copy of the audiobook from the publisher and paired it with the ebook. I liked both formats. Cameron narrates the audiobook herself in a steady, factual tone. It works for the investigative angle, but it didn’t always carry the emotional weight I craved. I found myself more connected to the story when I was reading—it hit harder that way.

Will I still continue to leave the cottage without bear spray after reading this? Well....

This is a unique memoir in that it's part Claire Cameron's struggle with a medical diagnosis and part investigation into a bear attack in Algonquin Park. The author clearly loves and respects bears (all nature and wildlife, but this is all about the black bear) and gave me an appreciation for them. I'm not outdoorsy, don't like sleeping on the ground and have never encountered a bear (nor do I want to), but the author's descriptions and fictionalized sections of what the bear could have been doing, thinking and acting like before the attack were fascinating. The author also doesn't forget the title of her book either : she really does give the reader tips on what to do if you are in the unfortunate situation of being attacked by a bear who won't back down.
Listened on audio as an ARC through Netgalley.

✨Review - How To Survive A Bear Attack by @

“Claire Cameron confronts the rare genetic mutation that gave her cancer by investigating an equally rare and terrifying event—a predatory bear attack.”

It’s #MemoirMonday. I picked up this audiobook from @NetGalley on a whim after reading that it was set in Algonquin Park, a gorgeous provincial park just a few hours down the road from where I live. I drive through it often on my way to a camp further into Muskoka, and I am always in awe of its beauty, so I had hoped this book would include a good amount of vivid descriptions and maybe even some tips on which hiking trails I should visit.

With that as my end goal, this book delivered. I loved feeling transported to the park, specifically to Opeongo Lake. I also appreciated the ways Cameron questioned the ethics of nature preserves, noting how ironic it is that the Algonquin people whom the park is named for were kicked off its land when it became provincially protected. (She mentions how important it is to ask for whom and from what an area is being protected.) I also appreciated her candid insight into her wrestling with her cancer diagnosis, and how she found peace in new normals and rhythms for her life.

What I didn’t enjoy as much was the speculative narration on the life of the bear whom she was paralleling with her own journey. I found it distracting from Cameron’s memoir - a bit of fiction amidst her own personal truth that didn’t seem to fit for me, despite Cameron’s obvious writing talent.

This audiobook was narrated by Cameron herself, and I always find this is the best way to experience a memoir.

Thanks to @Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this complimentary copy. All thoughts are my own.

How to Survive a Bear Attack is a pretty gripping mix of memoir, nature writing, and true crime that explores fear in both its literal and metaphorical forms. Claire Cameron writes with a real honesty as she revisits a terrifying real-life bear attack, which is an incident that haunted her since childhood, and weaves it together with her own experience of illness, grief, and healing.

The result is a unique narrative that moves between wilderness survival and emotional survival. As someone who’s genuinely scared of bears, like me, this book tapped into a very real fear for me and at times gave me the chills. Cameron’s writing is very good, and the way she reflects on mortality, motherhood, and wildness is powerful.

That said, there were moments where the pacing lagged a bit or the threads felt loosely connected. But overall, I found this to be an exciting, thought-provoking read that lingered with me.

I devoured this memoir.

I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed this reflective and engaging about the dangers of life and finding yourself. I loved the direct contrast of the storyline following the life of the author, the parallel storyline of the author discovering information about a Infamous bear attack in Algonquin park, and then another traveling along to understand all about bears and bear attacks and the general risks of life in nature. I can't explain to you how much I have thought about this book since I have read it. I have already recommended it to several people.

This was an extremely detailed and well researched memoir filled with so much emotion, grief, and LIFE. It was educational and blended the lived experiences of the author and others while sprinkling in touches of imaginative through giving the bear a voice and intentions. This was a very complex memoir - some parts seemed more story than recounting. But honestly that’s what intrigued me more as I kept reading. A great narration from a great Canadian author.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada Audio, Knopf Canada and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.

This was an interesting concept - a memoir linking the author's fight with a genetic mutation causing her rare form of cancer with a rare case of two campers killed by a bear.

It was a bit strange and I felt like it was really two different stories but contained a lot of interesting facts. Overall I enjoyed this. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author.

I wasn't convinced that this conceit was going to work, but (until the completely jarring reading aloud of the footnotes) this was one of the best memoirs I've read in ages. The interweaving of personal tragedies, both Cameron's and those of others, colonialism, ecological theories, and well-sourced fiction, was enthralling. I'm going to go look for other books by Cameron and I wish her the best of luck (and science) in staying with us to write more.

Audiobook provided by NetGalley.

I don’t normally read memoirs but I found the title, How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron, intriguing. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect except, of course, a recount of an encounter with a bear certainly and, yes, it recounts the story of a couple who encountered a bear in 1991 but did not survive. Cameron visits the spot where it happened and theorizes, using considerable research into the habits of black bears and accounts of other bear attacks which, fortunately, is a rare occurrence in Canada, to try to understand what may have happened leading up to and during the attack.

But it is so much more than that. It recounts the author’s own experience of cancer and how it, too, is an attack on the body. She gives a very honest account of the fear and pain she experienced as she went through the varying treatments involved.

And it is also a love letter to the wilderness beauty of Algonquin Park and the peace and pleasure it has provided her and her family over the years. A fascinating memoir and one that will definitely stay with me for a very long time. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author which added even more to my appreciation of the book.

I received an advance audiobook from Netgalley and Penguin Random House Audiobooks in return for an honest review

This was a super interesting investigative look into bears in the wild. If you read this along with 8 Bears your bear IQ will be happy.

Claire Cameron is a published Canadian author of a couple of best-selling novels. She also has cancer - a rare type of melanoma that she has inherited genetically from her father, who died in his mid-40s when she was 9 years old. She sees what fate has in store for her. She is also a wife and a mother with a loving husband and young sons. And she loves Algonquin Park.

This is a memoir, but it is written so creatively that at times it seems like a thriller or crime novel, and at other times, it is a well-researched work about grizzly and black bears. It is a how-to manual on enjoying nature, coexisting with the park's wild inhabitants, and ultimately, what to do to survive a bear attack.

The main focus of the story is the 1991 incident when a couple was killed in a predatory black bear attack in Algonquin Park. These types of attacks are so rare, and the author deftly weaves parallels to her own very rare cancer. Having had so many great experiences in Algonquin at work as a camp counsellor and as a tree planter, and at play as an avid camper, she starts her investigation and research about the facts of the 1991 attack. She returns to the scene of the attack and interviews those who were involved in the investigation so many years ago - like a return to the crime scene.

But what is truly unique is how she writes creatively about the couple themselves, retracing what their steps may have been, bringing some of their personality to the story. Finally, the life and the point of view of the bear, all culminate in the fateful event that resulted in all of their deaths. But in that she also takes her own story and life going forward in stride with renewed focus on living for the moment.

This was a great read, an audio book read by the author and she did a good job of narration. My rating went up after the story sat with me for a bit before I wrote this review. Highly recommend this unique book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada Audiobooks for an advanced audio copy for review.