V171 reviewed History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
Review of 'History of Wild Places' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Listen, reviews are subjective and I can rate a book whatever I want for whatever reason. Was this book bad? No not at all, I can't really think of anything that it did poorly. But do I feel like I was lied to about the premise? Yeah, so I'm going to rate it accordingly.
We start our story being introduced to Travis, a kind of washed up personal investigator who takes missing persons cases for cash because of his unique ability: he can touch objects and view the memories of the people who used them. He takes a job from a married couple who hires him to find their missing daughter, Maggie, a well-known children's book author who went missing 5 years ago. After a cryptic exchange, he gets a lead from the woman's mother and he sets off into the woods to locate where he thinks she went.
Wow! …
Listen, reviews are subjective and I can rate a book whatever I want for whatever reason. Was this book bad? No not at all, I can't really think of anything that it did poorly. But do I feel like I was lied to about the premise? Yeah, so I'm going to rate it accordingly.
We start our story being introduced to Travis, a kind of washed up personal investigator who takes missing persons cases for cash because of his unique ability: he can touch objects and view the memories of the people who used them. He takes a job from a married couple who hires him to find their missing daughter, Maggie, a well-known children's book author who went missing 5 years ago. After a cryptic exchange, he gets a lead from the woman's mother and he sets off into the woods to locate where he thinks she went.
Wow! Sounds fascinating, I'm gripped. I can't wait to see how this man uses this interesting ability to help solve this mystery.
Oh! Actually no we are finished with him. And her. And his abilities. Nope, now we are following three members of a doomsday cult in the woods. Theo, his wife Calla, and her sister Bee. These people believe the woods that surround their little haven are infected with a disease called "the rot" (Or the pox. They are annoyingly used interchangeably) that can kill people in a matter of days if they leave. But each of these characters stumble upon clues that start to unravel their understanding of their lives.
Okay so let me be fair for a moment: again, this book didn't really do anything wrong. It was pretty well written. I think the mystery would have been good for anyone who didn't guess the twist by like page 80 like I did. People who are into, I don't know, provincial life would like it.
While the heart of the story is to locate Maggie, and now Travis, a LOT of this book is focused on bringing us up to speed on the world building of this hidden commune in the woods, why they believe what they do, their history, and the relationships between many characters in the town. And what I quickly learned was that I really don't enjoy reading about communes. I was interested in the mystery of Maggie and Travis (and that was the twist that I guessed early on), and I was less interested about the mysteries surrounding the commune, which got a lot more attention.
Also as far as characters go, while we spend roughly equal time with the three characters, I feel like Bee was the most likable, Calla had the most interesting character development, and Theo was.. abandoned? I felt so ambivalent about him the entire time, I don't know why it was decided that he wouldn't get a compelling character arc like the others.
I don't know.. was it a successful mystery? I mean I guess. It was interesting at times if not a bit heavy on the foreshadowing. But it certainly didn't fall flat. But I just didn't really like it that much. I feel like I was sold on a different premise than what it ended up being. I'd recommend you read some spoiler-free reviews before jumping into this to gauge whether it's something you'll like.