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Retellings are my weakness. And apparently I need to go into them with a lot more caution, because I've been burned the past couple times now, and I think my expectations are just intensifying my disappointment.
Wild is a modern-day retelling of Tarzan, where "Tarzan" (Cade) was raised in a secluded area of Daniel Boone National Forest by his parents, until their deaths some years earlier. Cade ends up stumbling upon Dara and her boyfriend, Josh, camping in the woods; and he's fascinated by Dara. A disaster happens, Cade is forced to reveal himself, and is then forced to try and integrate into modern society, a world he thought no longer existed and only knows through his parents' stories.
This is a great setup, and for the first 15% of Wild, I was totally on board. The only thing that sort of made me side-eye the book a bit was that, when Dara was camping, she knew someone was in the woods watching her, and yet she was totally okay with it. But this was a Tarzan retelling, and if Dara was supposed to be Jane, her curiosity-instead-of-wariness was just part of the package. I could live with that.
There was a bunch of other stuff that went wrong later, though, which I just can't overlook...
Dara and Josh...
The book starts off with Dara and Josh spending their spring break camping in Daniel Boone National Forest. They're nearing the end of their senior year, both headed to different colleges, and their relationship is on its last legs, though neither wants to admit it. But the atmosphere between them is strained, and it continues like this through most of Wild.
In a retelling of Tarzan, I wasn't really expecting (or happy with) the focus on Dara and Josh's crumbling relationship. This is a major part of the story, and not one I was invested in at all. The outcome is obvious from the beginning. Except, they go through an annoying cycle of "we're breaking up, but let's stay together and pretend we're not, until we end up fighting about stupid things and finally end it, only to forgive each other and start all over again". You know where things are headed, so all the back-and-forth seemed completely pointless.
I also had issues with Josh himself, to add to the pointlessness of their relationship drama. In their relationship, he defined himself by trying to protect Dara, and when he thinks he's failed in doing so, he gets extremely upset and blames her. It seemed to me that he never really viewed Dara as her own self-sufficient person, which really got on my nerves.
It devoured him from the inside, because he was the one who took care of her. [...] Since freshman year, he was the one who held her hand. Who walked on the outside of the sidewalk, closest to the cars. That's who he was. Josh Brandt, Dara Porter's boyfriend. Her protector.- ARC of Wild, 32%
"It used to be my job to take care of you! That's who I was, that's what I did!"
"I don't need you to take care of me," Dara snapped.
[...] She didn't get it, and never would. "It's not about you, Dara. I needed it!"- ARC of Wild, 72%
Dara and Cade...
I don't have tons to say about Dara and Cade's relationship, really. I didn't feel tons of chemistry between them, but they were sweet together. I totally believed Cade's fascination with Dara, as their friendship in the beginning grows slowly into something more. Dara's own attraction to Cade, though, was less believable. Dara often views Cade as a sort of novelty, especially when he tells her things he's learned about the world which she already knows -- which just didn't sit right with me.
He said it so earnestly. Dara wanted to throw her arms around him, and pet him. She reminded herself to tell Sofia later. It was too good to keep to herself.- ARC of Wild, 78%
Cade was interesting, and I thought the way he viewed the modern world was portrayed really well. His view of the world didn't feel awkward, like the characters' in Searching for Sky often did (which has a very similar premise to Wild). Cade had grown up on stories of the technology present in the modern world, so he was expecting some things, and delighted in the newness of other things, and wasn't totally overwhelmed by everything. But mostly I just felt bad for him, because he was overwhelmed by the people trying to "help" him when he just wanted to go home to what he knew.
Too many points of view...
Wild is written from pretty much everyone's points of view. There's Dara, Josh, and Cade; Dara's dad, the Sheriff; Dara's best friend, Sofia; a couple of other deputies/police officers; a reporter investigating Dara and Josh... It was just too much. Especially Sofia's POV. I still have no idea why her sections were included, because they added nothing. And I felt this way about most of the other POV's as well. Other than Dara and Cade and Josh, those extra people were not interesting or compelling, to me, and I felt like they were pointless to furthering the story.
Honestly, the extra POV's felt like filler, and any facts gained from them could've been incorporated into Dara's or Josh's or Cade's sections. I feel like the author may have been attempting a "mystery" vibe, with the cops and media trying to figure out who Cade was and why he was living in the forest. The problem with this is that there is no mystery. I mean, sure, the specific details about why Cade was living in the forest are vague in the beginning, but we learn the general idea of what happened pretty quickly. The "reveal" at the end did not warrant all the attempted build-up.
The POV's from the couple of deputies/cops also served to intensify how badly the investigation into Cade's past - and the search for his family - was handled. Incompetent cops as a plot point is a HUGE pet-peeve of mine, so this was not ideal.
The writing...
If I hadn't known that Alex Mallory was a pen-name for Saundra Mitchell, I would've assumed this was her first book, just based on some writing issues that kept tripping me up. I read an ARC, so it may have been edited before it went to print, but these seemed like more than a few editorial issues that were overlooked. There was a lot of telling-not-showing (which might not be considered an "editorial issue" but still). But there were also many, many sentences that were really awkward, so much that they pulled me out of the story while I was reading. Again, this may be unique to the ARC, but it was so prevalent that I couldn't not mention it.
Additionally, the book is told mainly from third person limited (from each of those POV's I described above); but it occasionally extends to third person omniscient, saying things like "he didn't realize that such-and-such would happen" or "he didn't notice such-and-such" and a couple of longer passages about things that were happening, but not from anyone's POV. These sections just made me feel separated from the story, and came off as a bit heavy-handed, to me.
In conclusion...
I actually started this review thinking I'd give Wild 3 stars... But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't. It went down to 2.5 as I was writing, and now has settled at 2 as I finish this review.
Wild was long, and in my opinion, there was so much unnecessary filler that took away from the main storyline. The book also couldn't settle on a solid genre-designation. Was it trying to be a mystery? If so, there wasn't enough mystery present to pull that off. A contemporary? If so, it wasn't focused on making the main characters compelling enough to pull that off. All the different points of view took away from the more personal feel that a contemporary (in my opinion) should have. Additionally, the ending did not tie things up in a satisfying manner.
I think the main thing that kept this book from being a total loss was Cade. I liked his character enough to keep reading. And there really wasn't a point where I didn't want to know how things turned out, which kept it from being a DNF. I just... can't really recommend it on his character alone. =/
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There were books involved...