Kim Deister
A History of Wild Places was such an engrossing read, and a twisty one, too!
The book felt much like M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, with the cultish atmosphere. The community started as most cults do… a group of likeminded people who want their own utopia tucked deep into the woods. But as always happens, corruption breeds and what was once idyllic becomes less so. Disease has crept to their borders, infecting. Anyone who crosses the border will be infected, death soon to follow. So the community has become completely insular, with no contact whatsoever with the outside world. It’s been so long that many outside the community have forgotten it ever existed. But then something happens, and the cracks begin to show, questions begin to be asked. What is happening among the trees? What is the infection? Why is there such secrecy between Travis and Calla? How is it that Travis has secretly gone beyond the border, yet remains healthy, as do those around him? So many questions, so many twists, so many answers! The ending was surprising, yet very satisfying.
The characters are incredibly well developed, and the atmosphere was so brilliantly built that I felt as if I were an observer within the community. It is both haunting and eerily beautiful, a book that lingers long after you’ve closed it. A History of Wild Places is a book I will definitely read again!
