This is a case of do not judge a book by its title, because despite the lame title, every sentence of this bleak survival tale is a damn apocalypse. I feel embarrassed for Hatchet, and am hard pressed to think of a more gritty survival story. I finished this compulsively in a day, and save for a couple scenes with the villains towards the end, found it to be surprisingly believable.
What makes this tale so exceptional is that it is pitiless, realistic and unfortunately, traumatizing. The heroine is determined and strong but consistently makes grave mistakes. This is no survival fantasy, nature is not romanticized nor is our bad-ass protagonist anything other than a normal teen thrust into an awful situation. Which makes it more thrilling. It is easy to empathize with her, not because she is a generic stupid harry-potter-one-size-fits-all, but because she is unlucky, lonely and relatable.
I would hesitate to give this to younger teens. It gave me nightmares and I am seasoned. While not as graphic as say, a Charlie Higson Zombie book, it was violent and painfully suspenseful. I would recommend it to adults and older teens heartily, definitely a book in which you can drown yourself in like an icy Canadian lake surrounded by wolf-dogs.