I Can't Wait For... A HISTORY OF WILD PLACES!

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released.

I loved Shea Ernshaw's first two books and I'm really excited about her adult debut... even if it doesn't release until December... 

A History of Wild Places

Standalone
by Shea Ernshaw
Thriller/Fantasy
eBook, Hardcover, 320 pages
December 7, 2021 by Atria

Blurb:

The New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep weaves a richly atmospheric adult debut following three residents of a secluded, seemingly peaceful commune as they investigate the disappearances of two outsiders.

Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it…he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease—rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.

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Will you be checking this book out? Have you read Shea's other books?

Book Review: Wall of Crosses by Baj Goodson

Wall of Crosses by Baj Goodson

Blurb:

"Raw, gripping, and emotional." - Adelaide Thorne, Author of THE TRACE

ONE HOUSE. ONE FAMILY. COUNTLESS SECRETS.

JACOB TAMBLYN is not in the business of keeping tabs on his dysfunctional family. But when his widowed grandfather passes away suddenly, the patriarch’s last will and testament makes a substantial demand of Jacob and his estranged relatives: in order to claim their inheritances, everyone named in the will must work together long enough to clear out the home of the old man and his late wife.

ANDY TAMBLYN would love to know more about the family history that her husband, Jacob, refuses to divulge. Seeing the scenario as her big chance to glean better insight into her darling spouse, Andy joins him in the task—despite sentencing herself to the condemnation of her acerbic mother-in-law, Ruth.

But the assignment proves as overwhelming as it is dire when the family gathers in the house to find that their shrewd figurehead has spent the last year as a hoarder. Tensions rise and drama escalates as old grudges breathe new life, burdens exchange shoulders, and carefully buried secrets—the life-altering kind—threaten to come to light.

My Review:

Wow! This book was even better than I anticipated! 

This book hit me especially hard because it's only been a few months since my mom, sister, and I cleaned out the apartment I shared with my grandmother for thirteen years so I definitely could relate to Jacob's interactions with his estranged mother and uncles. 

I loved the secrets uncovered during the course of the story and the build up kept me guessing. Then the twist at the end! Holy cow! I did not see that one coming. 

Overall, I thought this novella was wonderfully written, a story of suspense, secrets, and the things we leave behind. I couldn't get enough and I kind of wanted to see what would happen after the ending.  

 My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

5 of 5 Stars!

Book Review: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Blurb

You can’t stop the future. 

You can’t rewind the past.

The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. 

                

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

My Review:

***Fair warning: This will be more of a "compare and contrast" review where I talk about both the Netflix series and the book, as opposed to a strict "book review"***

Hannah Baker has committed suicide. Hannah Baker is dead. She didn't leave a note... what she left was much worse. 

Hannah Baker left behind 7 audiotapes, 13 stories about the people that made her life so miserable she thought suicide was the only answer. 

Clay Jensen doesn't know why he is on the tapes. He doesn't know what he would have done to Hannah to make her want to kill herself. Clay had admired Hannah Baker since freshman year, and other than one night - he never really had a chance with her. 

As he listens to the tapes, he learns the truth about the awful rumors his classmates spread about Hannah and the dark misdeeds that pushed Hannah over the edge. Could Clay have saved her? Could any of them? 

I did the one thing you're not supposed to do. I watched the Netflix show before I read the book. And to be completely, totally honest? I liked the show better. 

Since I watched the show first, I knew what was going to happen in the story so none of it was a total surprise to me. But strip away what the show created, you find the bones of the story. 

Hannah Baker was a troubled girl. Obviously something had happened at her previous school as well - both the show and the book hinted at it, but you never did find out what. But did any of the reasons she gave really add up to enough of a reason for anyone to kill themselves? No, at least not in my opinion. Maybe the author was trying to show that the culmination of all the events would drive anyone over the edge. 

In any event, this book for me was more about bullying that suicide prevention - which I know some critics of the show have been quick to point out. In my interpretation, it was a lesson that people should learn that gossip and rumors hurt people - that you should think of the repercussions before you open your mouth. That teens - or people in general - shouldn't hurt each other because you never know what that person is going through. And for that, I thought the writing was beautiful. 

What I didn't like was the way it was written, per se. I know it was supposed to flip between the stories Hannah was telling on the tapes and Clay's thoughts and memories as he was listening to them but it felt a little too in someone's head. Does that make sense? 

What I think I'm trying to say is that, overall I loved the bones that the story was, but I needed the Netflix show to give me the meat of the story. It felt like so much more happened in the show that made the story even better. 

My Rating:

3.75 of 5 Stars!