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A History of Wild Places
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.
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.
354 pages, Hardcover
First published December 7, 2021
About the author
Shea Ernshaw
13 books5,104 followersShea Ernshaw is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Indie Bestselling author of THE WICKED DEEP, WINTERWOOD, A WILDERNESS OF STARS, LONG LIVE THE PUMPKIN QUEEN, and A HISTORY OF WILD PLACES. Her novels have repeatedly been chosen as Indie Next Picks and A HISTORY OF WILD PLACES was a Book of the Month selection. She is also the winner of the Oregon Book Award.
She often writes late, late, late into the night, enjoys dark woods, scary stories and moonlight on lakes.
You can connect with her here:
www.sheaernshaw.com.
www.instagram.com/sheaernshaw/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,744 reviews
August 8, 2024
I'm screaming at the top of my lungs: THIS IS THE BEST BOOK THE AUTHOR HAS WRITTEN!
**Plot:** Think M. Night Shyamalan's *The Village* meets the second season of *The Sinner* with *The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon* vibes!
It’s sad, twisty, confusing, tricky, intense, dark, and disturbingly depressing! The book has a powerful beginning by introducing us to Travis Wren, who helps the police find missing people with his unique skills. He solves cold cases that no one else can and helps families find closure or reunite with their loved ones.
Travis reminded me of another Shyamalan character, David Dunn from *Unbreakable* played by Bruce Willis. By touching people's hands, David sees their entire life stories flash before his eyes. Similarly, Travis uses his gift by touching the belongings of the lost or visiting places they spent time to gather clues about where they are hiding or what traumatic experiences they’ve endured. He seems like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s always sad, exhausted, and feels his life crumbling before his eyes.
But his gift turns into a curse, causing him to suffer from guilt because he couldn’t act fast enough to save his sister before she committed suicide.
As he finds missing people, he loses pieces of himself, living in his old truck, feeding on greasy diner food, and cutting off his connections with the outside world.
At his best friend’s request, he takes on one last case to find Maggie St. James, the author of dark, macabre children’s books.
As he follows the traces she left behind, he arrives at the entrance of Pastoral, a reclusive community founded in the 70s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life.
After Travis crosses the border into Pastoral, another chapter begins, introducing us to a family of three: husband Theo, wife Calla, and Calla’s blind younger sister Bee, who share a house and keep secrets from each other.
The community leader, Levi, forbids the residents from crossing the border because a contagious disease—pox—has started to infect the trees and kills anyone who dares to leave.
But Theo has crossed the border several times. Nothing has happened to him, and he has found Travis's abandoned truck and a damaged photo of Maggie St. James.
Bee confesses to him that she sensed a man’s presence in their summer room before. Could Travis have stayed at their place without their knowledge? And what about the books Calla found buried in their garden, written by Maggie? Why do both partners keep secrets from each other? What is happening in the woods that is harming the trees? Why are the three of them still healthy even though they were exposed to pox? Are they immune?
Don’t worry! The author answers all of your questions while pulling the rug out from under you! Some twists were foreseeable, but a few really caught me off guard.
Levi reminded me of Robert Pattinson’s reverend character (Preston Teagardin) from Netflix’s *The Devil All the Time.* He’s sneaky, power-hungry, manipulative, and one of those dangerous characters you love to hate!
**Overall:** The characterization is impeccably well-built, the tense atmosphere is eerily successful, and the conclusion is both hopeful and meaningful.
I’m giving this book five gazillion stars! It’s a smart, dark, delicious journey that I highly recommend you don’t miss!
Millions of thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.
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**Plot:** Think M. Night Shyamalan's *The Village* meets the second season of *The Sinner* with *The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon* vibes!
It’s sad, twisty, confusing, tricky, intense, dark, and disturbingly depressing! The book has a powerful beginning by introducing us to Travis Wren, who helps the police find missing people with his unique skills. He solves cold cases that no one else can and helps families find closure or reunite with their loved ones.
Travis reminded me of another Shyamalan character, David Dunn from *Unbreakable* played by Bruce Willis. By touching people's hands, David sees their entire life stories flash before his eyes. Similarly, Travis uses his gift by touching the belongings of the lost or visiting places they spent time to gather clues about where they are hiding or what traumatic experiences they’ve endured. He seems like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s always sad, exhausted, and feels his life crumbling before his eyes.
But his gift turns into a curse, causing him to suffer from guilt because he couldn’t act fast enough to save his sister before she committed suicide.
As he finds missing people, he loses pieces of himself, living in his old truck, feeding on greasy diner food, and cutting off his connections with the outside world.
At his best friend’s request, he takes on one last case to find Maggie St. James, the author of dark, macabre children’s books.
As he follows the traces she left behind, he arrives at the entrance of Pastoral, a reclusive community founded in the 70s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life.
After Travis crosses the border into Pastoral, another chapter begins, introducing us to a family of three: husband Theo, wife Calla, and Calla’s blind younger sister Bee, who share a house and keep secrets from each other.
The community leader, Levi, forbids the residents from crossing the border because a contagious disease—pox—has started to infect the trees and kills anyone who dares to leave.
But Theo has crossed the border several times. Nothing has happened to him, and he has found Travis's abandoned truck and a damaged photo of Maggie St. James.
Bee confesses to him that she sensed a man’s presence in their summer room before. Could Travis have stayed at their place without their knowledge? And what about the books Calla found buried in their garden, written by Maggie? Why do both partners keep secrets from each other? What is happening in the woods that is harming the trees? Why are the three of them still healthy even though they were exposed to pox? Are they immune?
Don’t worry! The author answers all of your questions while pulling the rug out from under you! Some twists were foreseeable, but a few really caught me off guard.
Levi reminded me of Robert Pattinson’s reverend character (Preston Teagardin) from Netflix’s *The Devil All the Time.* He’s sneaky, power-hungry, manipulative, and one of those dangerous characters you love to hate!
**Overall:** The characterization is impeccably well-built, the tense atmosphere is eerily successful, and the conclusion is both hopeful and meaningful.
I’m giving this book five gazillion stars! It’s a smart, dark, delicious journey that I highly recommend you don’t miss!
Millions of thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.
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December 12, 2021
This book might just be in my top 10 favorite books of the year 😍🙌 I went into this book a little nervous because I thought it would be out of my comfort zone, but I was completely wrong. This is a captivating mystery and I was immediately drawn in from the beginning. We follow a man named Travis who has a gift for finding missing people, he can touch an object of theirs and see visions. He’s hired by the family of Maggie St. James, a children’s author who has been missing for five years now. He travels to a place that many believed to be only a legend — a place called Pastoral, a reclusive community founded by like-minded people. But soon after he finds it, Travis goes missing just like Maggie. Years later, we follow our protagonist Theo, who’s been a lifelong member of the community, and he discovers Travis’s truck. No one is allowed in or out of their community, not without the risk of bringing a disease — the rot — into Pastoral. Their isolated world isn’t as safe as it seems.
This story is GORGEOUSLY written. The writing is absolutely haunting and atmospheric and it’s one of the best written books I’ve read this year. I LOVED the characters, I thought they were all so fascinating. I was 100% invested in the mystery going on in this story, and the freaking PLOT TWIST!!! I was shook. What an amazing story. The ending made me cry?? I felt all of the emotions reading this one. I can see myself rereading this one again in the future. This book reminded me why I LOVE reading, and that’s such a great feeling. 🥺🥰
This story is GORGEOUSLY written. The writing is absolutely haunting and atmospheric and it’s one of the best written books I’ve read this year. I LOVED the characters, I thought they were all so fascinating. I was 100% invested in the mystery going on in this story, and the freaking PLOT TWIST!!! I was shook. What an amazing story. The ending made me cry?? I felt all of the emotions reading this one. I can see myself rereading this one again in the future. This book reminded me why I LOVE reading, and that’s such a great feeling. 🥺🥰
February 10, 2022
this was utterly
magical, captivating, and dreamlike.
This was like an idyllic dream where the stories are twisted and told from a different point of view; not the way you would expect to hear. This was super slow moving with almost very little pay off. And that was okay to me. Not a lot happens. In a way, it's about the history of starting over, forgetting, and remembering the broken pieces of a home, the sense of belonging.
The writing in this book was so fucking sexy and beautiful. It was very delicate and yet tangible at the same time. This is the type of book where lost things are found and remembered. A quiet book, almost the feeling of being silent.
"Silence can hold a thousand of untold stories."
This is one such story.
watch my full thoughts on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myv3U...
4.5 STARS
Twitter | Bookstagram | Youtube |
___
"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."
MY GOD. AND IT'S ADULT?!! FUCKING GIVE IT TO ME ALREADY!!!!
Christmas is gonna be a blast.
This was like an idyllic dream where the stories are twisted and told from a different point of view; not the way you would expect to hear. This was super slow moving with almost very little pay off. And that was okay to me. Not a lot happens. In a way, it's about the history of starting over, forgetting, and remembering the broken pieces of a home, the sense of belonging.
The writing in this book was so fucking sexy and beautiful. It was very delicate and yet tangible at the same time. This is the type of book where lost things are found and remembered. A quiet book, almost the feeling of being silent.
"Silence can hold a thousand of untold stories."
This is one such story.
watch my full thoughts on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myv3U...
4.5 STARS
Twitter | Bookstagram | Youtube |
___
"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."
MY GOD. AND IT'S ADULT?!! FUCKING GIVE IT TO ME ALREADY!!!!
Christmas is gonna be a blast.
October 24, 2024
Five years after popular Children's author, Maggie St. James, goes missing, her parents hire Travis Wren to search for her.
Known for her dark fairy tale stories, it seems Maggie may have wandered into a nightmare of her own.
Travis, although seemingly a last resort, has an uncanny ability for finding people; one that channels his own very unique set of abilities.
Chasing one particular clue, Travis heads out alone into a cold, unforgiving stretch of forest in search of a place known only as Pastoral.
Founded in the 1970s, Pastoral is a commune, where the residents gathered searching for a simpler way of life. Fully self-reliant, Pastoral was essentially able to cut itself off from the rest of the world.
According to local lore, the commune shouldn't exist anymore, but after Travis stumbles upon it, he disappears just like Maggie before him.
Years later, a commune member, Theo, breaks the rules of the community and explores past the marked boundary. It is at that time that he discovers a broken down old truck once owned by a man named Travis Wren.
Theo and his wife, Calla, come to believe that Travis wasn't just in Pastoral at some point, he's been in the their house. They both become completely focused on solving the mystery.
Who was Travis and what was he doing there? They believe it had something to do with a woman named, Maggie, but they don't know her either.
The more they dig, the more the couple come to understand that the community they thought they knew so well, may not be the safe oasis they've always believed it to be.
Calla's sister, Bee, who has been secretly engaged in a romantic relationship with the community's charismatic leader, begins to come to her own unsavory conclusions about Pastoral. Have they all been living a lie?
A History of Wild Places is a completely unique and contemplative story, channeling all the haunting vibes of M. Night Shyamalan's, The Village.
I really enjoyed how this story began. Getting to know Travis, his abilities and the case he was currently assigned to. I became attached to him quickly and was shocked when he disappeared.
For me the pace slowed a bit once I was introduced to our main characters in Pastoral. Eventually it picked back up, most notably after Theo and Calla begin investigating who Travis was and what might have happened to him.
Overall, I felt a little detached from Calla and Theo. While I liked them both, they were initially so rigid, it was hard to relate to them in a way. As the story progressed, however, I felt them both loosening up as their commitment to the community began to wane.
The pace steadily increases from there as Calla, Theo and Bee continue to lift the veil from Pastoral.
Ernshaw's writing is absolutely beautiful. There's something so enchanting about it, as she truly has the ability to build out a sense of place. I could picture the setting of Pastoral perfectly in my mind. She really excels at atmosphere.
This is an intricate story; one I had to think about quite a bit upon completion. I was torn on how to rate it. I did really, really enjoy this story, but it never crossed the line into love territory for me. I think mainly because it slowed down a bit too much for my taste around the middle.
With this being said, this is Ernshaw's Adult debut and I think she did a fantastic job expanding into that space. This is a great book, one that I know so many Readers are going to absolutely adore.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This one will stick with me for a long time!
Known for her dark fairy tale stories, it seems Maggie may have wandered into a nightmare of her own.
Travis, although seemingly a last resort, has an uncanny ability for finding people; one that channels his own very unique set of abilities.
Chasing one particular clue, Travis heads out alone into a cold, unforgiving stretch of forest in search of a place known only as Pastoral.
Founded in the 1970s, Pastoral is a commune, where the residents gathered searching for a simpler way of life. Fully self-reliant, Pastoral was essentially able to cut itself off from the rest of the world.
According to local lore, the commune shouldn't exist anymore, but after Travis stumbles upon it, he disappears just like Maggie before him.
Years later, a commune member, Theo, breaks the rules of the community and explores past the marked boundary. It is at that time that he discovers a broken down old truck once owned by a man named Travis Wren.
Theo and his wife, Calla, come to believe that Travis wasn't just in Pastoral at some point, he's been in the their house. They both become completely focused on solving the mystery.
Who was Travis and what was he doing there? They believe it had something to do with a woman named, Maggie, but they don't know her either.
The more they dig, the more the couple come to understand that the community they thought they knew so well, may not be the safe oasis they've always believed it to be.
Calla's sister, Bee, who has been secretly engaged in a romantic relationship with the community's charismatic leader, begins to come to her own unsavory conclusions about Pastoral. Have they all been living a lie?
A History of Wild Places is a completely unique and contemplative story, channeling all the haunting vibes of M. Night Shyamalan's, The Village.
I really enjoyed how this story began. Getting to know Travis, his abilities and the case he was currently assigned to. I became attached to him quickly and was shocked when he disappeared.
For me the pace slowed a bit once I was introduced to our main characters in Pastoral. Eventually it picked back up, most notably after Theo and Calla begin investigating who Travis was and what might have happened to him.
Overall, I felt a little detached from Calla and Theo. While I liked them both, they were initially so rigid, it was hard to relate to them in a way. As the story progressed, however, I felt them both loosening up as their commitment to the community began to wane.
The pace steadily increases from there as Calla, Theo and Bee continue to lift the veil from Pastoral.
Ernshaw's writing is absolutely beautiful. There's something so enchanting about it, as she truly has the ability to build out a sense of place. I could picture the setting of Pastoral perfectly in my mind. She really excels at atmosphere.
This is an intricate story; one I had to think about quite a bit upon completion. I was torn on how to rate it. I did really, really enjoy this story, but it never crossed the line into love territory for me. I think mainly because it slowed down a bit too much for my taste around the middle.
With this being said, this is Ernshaw's Adult debut and I think she did a fantastic job expanding into that space. This is a great book, one that I know so many Readers are going to absolutely adore.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This one will stick with me for a long time!
November 23, 2022
2.5
Well, I think I'm going to keep my thoughts on this one short, as it's really just personal reasons and expectations as to why this didn't work for me, and most of those reasons are spoiler filled fodder. If you're planning on reading this book, I humbly recommend the audio version if you enjoy that format, as the narration was a splendid production.
The beginning of the book really hooked me, so much so that I thought this would result in an easy 5 stars for me to give. We follow Travis as he is using his special sense of connecting with objects that people have touched to track down missing author Maggie, who seemingly fell off the earth at a certain point. His POV goes abruptly dead, and we don't hear from Travis's narration again after.
Next, we jump to an off the grid community called Pastoral that is led by a man named Levi, and we follow the POV of Theo, his wife Calla (I think this was her name?), and Bee, Calla's sister. Bee is blind and can hear unborn baby's heartbeats and other things that help the community, as they cannot leave to go to town because of a disease from the surrounding forest called The Rot. Also, the rain is bad and you don't want to get caught out in it.
I can't really give anything else without spoiling, but once we hit the Pastoral transition, I guessed one of the major plot twists immediately, because it was just so obvious from the set up and clues immediately given. Maybe if we'd had a little time to separate the beginning portion from the next section, our brains would have forgotten what had just happened and it would have been more surprising? Also, the big twist as to what's going on in Pastoral and the mystery surrounding it all was not what I was hoping for at all. I was expect layers of fantasy, horror, or at least magical realism, and the explanation behind everything felt like a let down for me. If you can keep an open mind and are ok with the pieces not quite fitting together, you should give this one a try for yourself.
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.
Well, I think I'm going to keep my thoughts on this one short, as it's really just personal reasons and expectations as to why this didn't work for me, and most of those reasons are spoiler filled fodder. If you're planning on reading this book, I humbly recommend the audio version if you enjoy that format, as the narration was a splendid production.
The beginning of the book really hooked me, so much so that I thought this would result in an easy 5 stars for me to give. We follow Travis as he is using his special sense of connecting with objects that people have touched to track down missing author Maggie, who seemingly fell off the earth at a certain point. His POV goes abruptly dead, and we don't hear from Travis's narration again after.
Next, we jump to an off the grid community called Pastoral that is led by a man named Levi, and we follow the POV of Theo, his wife Calla (I think this was her name?), and Bee, Calla's sister. Bee is blind and can hear unborn baby's heartbeats and other things that help the community, as they cannot leave to go to town because of a disease from the surrounding forest called The Rot. Also, the rain is bad and you don't want to get caught out in it.
I can't really give anything else without spoiling, but once we hit the Pastoral transition, I guessed one of the major plot twists immediately, because it was just so obvious from the set up and clues immediately given. Maybe if we'd had a little time to separate the beginning portion from the next section, our brains would have forgotten what had just happened and it would have been more surprising? Also, the big twist as to what's going on in Pastoral and the mystery surrounding it all was not what I was hoping for at all. I was expect layers of fantasy, horror, or at least magical realism, and the explanation behind everything felt like a let down for me. If you can keep an open mind and are ok with the pieces not quite fitting together, you should give this one a try for yourself.
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.
November 10, 2021
SE really excels at atmospheric storytelling. i can guarantee you will feel as if you are living inside a mysterious compound, hidden deep in the dark woods, while reading this.
and im so grateful for that because even though the biggest mystery of the plot is super predictable, i found that i honestly didnt mind. and its because of how much i was enjoying experiencing the setting. its definitely the highlight of the story.
for SEs first adult book, i think this is a pretty great start. some elements of her writing and characterisation still feel very YA, but im excited to see if she continues to embrace more mature themes and write more adult books in the future.
thank you so much, atria books, for the ARC!
↠ 3.5 stars
and im so grateful for that because even though the biggest mystery of the plot is super predictable, i found that i honestly didnt mind. and its because of how much i was enjoying experiencing the setting. its definitely the highlight of the story.
for SEs first adult book, i think this is a pretty great start. some elements of her writing and characterisation still feel very YA, but im excited to see if she continues to embrace more mature themes and write more adult books in the future.
thank you so much, atria books, for the ARC!
↠ 3.5 stars
November 11, 2023
This might become a five star book for me down the line, because I LOVED IT. The writing style stood out to me the most.. the way she described the atmosphere? INCREDIBLE. Things do end up becoming a bit predictable, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment in seeing how things played out. I definitely recommend this one!
January 4, 2022
The book started out strongly when we meet Travis, an investigator who has the psychic ability to touch items belonging to people and know their last movements. I was intrigued by his character, loved his voice, and couldn’t wait to hear more, especially when he is hired to find Maggie St James, a children’s author who disappeared five years earlier.
Just when I was invested is how his gift would play out in the investigation, this is where his character ends. He disappears too. The entire build-up has no relevance whatsoever.
From here, the perspective changes to the inhabitants of a commune, and the author lost me. There are some strange things happening but I could not have cared less about the characters in the commune and the overwrought angsty prose was a hint that the author was a YA author and this was her first adult book.
If you enjoyed the 2004 movie, The Village, you may enjoy this more than I did, but I recommend just re-watching the movie. This was a buddy read with Marialyce who enjoyed it much more than I did so do please check out her review.
Just when I was invested is how his gift would play out in the investigation, this is where his character ends. He disappears too. The entire build-up has no relevance whatsoever.
From here, the perspective changes to the inhabitants of a commune, and the author lost me. There are some strange things happening but I could not have cared less about the characters in the commune and the overwrought angsty prose was a hint that the author was a YA author and this was her first adult book.
If you enjoyed the 2004 movie, The Village, you may enjoy this more than I did, but I recommend just re-watching the movie. This was a buddy read with Marialyce who enjoyed it much more than I did so do please check out her review.
December 21, 2021
I haven't been that annoyed at a book in a while.
The story started off great. Travis' chapter was engaging and intriguing. I enjoyed the eerie and unsettling atmosphere and could not wait to find out what else his gift would reveal about the missing woman, what small clues he might discover throughout his search.
Then the story fell completely flat and turned into some disjointed story of deranged people. It also became annoyingly repetitive - the trees, and the rot, and the fear, constantly reiterating the same events that had already happened as if we might have forgotten about them.
All the build-up was for nothing because at the end the explanation for Travis and Maggie’s disappearances and what happened to them in Pastoral sounded completely mediocre and ridiculous.
The story started off great. Travis' chapter was engaging and intriguing. I enjoyed the eerie and unsettling atmosphere and could not wait to find out what else his gift would reveal about the missing woman, what small clues he might discover throughout his search.
Then the story fell completely flat and turned into some disjointed story of deranged people. It also became annoyingly repetitive - the trees, and the rot, and the fear, constantly reiterating the same events that had already happened as if we might have forgotten about them.
All the build-up was for nothing because at the end the explanation for Travis and Maggie’s disappearances and what happened to them in Pastoral sounded completely mediocre and ridiculous.
September 7, 2023
My thanks to Atria books, Shea Ernshaw and Netgalley. This was everything I expect in a story about communes. Creepy leader and people who can't seem to think for themselves. Ah, but it's really so much more. I was put through the wringer! I found some lovable characters here, and was worried sick. Eventually? I felt like I'd just come home and discovered that someone had left a plate of warm, home made chocolate chip cookies. This story was a gift!
July 12, 2022
Moody, atmospheric, an impenetrable mystery, some truly anxiety-inducing scenes, and a staggering twist! Die-hard horror fans will be "over-the-moon satisfied" with this new release from Shea Ernshaw.
The problem is that I can't tell you very much about this ingeniously preposterous plot without giving everything away. Most certainly the psychic element grabbed my interest and kept me riveted until ... Oie, I can't tell you that!
Pastoral was a veritable Shangri-la right up until.... well.... that's another comment that would have had to be redacted by the FBI or the Ruthless Powers That Be in Pastoral. Rats! Foiled again!
Everyone in Pastoral was ruled by FEAR - it informed every decision they made. They were so terrified of the outside world, that any newcomers would....
(BIG SIGH!) that's another "mum's the word" spoiler alert secret....
Suffice it to say that, just after the half-way point, I had to skim over some very large portions of this book because things got pretty horribly graphic, very fast, and I got SO VERY ANXIOUS that I had to power off my e-reader and run to the gym to calm down. I ultimately decided to skim over what I couldn't endure and I just flipped the pages over quickly on THAT AWFUL SCENE. I did not even pretend to read it because I WAS SO FREAKED OUT JUST THINKING ABOUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO THOSE POOR CHARACTERS.
. . . . . . . . . .
On a lighter note - THANKFULLY! - the last chapter tied up a lot of loose ends quite neatly, but I wasn't completely happy with the ending because it made no sense for certain Unnameable Characters to return to the scene of the crime, because, for all they knew, they could have been the next victims of a SIMILARLY AWFUL SCENE THAT I COULD NOT ENDURE READING ABOUT EARLIER ON IN THE NOVEL! I was getting the jitters all over again!
Likewise, in those final chapters, some of the Unnameable Characters' decisions to hide the truth of what was happening in Pastoral also made little or no sense to me. A certain Unnameable Mad Person (or Persons) was doing Unmentionable Things to Numerous Hapless Residents of that Hellish Rural Idyll. I would at least have sent in a SWAT team - or a therapist! All those poor deluded residents were going to need a ton of counseling at the very least! (But, seriously, my preference? TWO SWAT TEAMS!)
I have to admit that when I hit that major twist, the above-mentioned word "PREPOSTEROUS" fairly exploded from my lips! I haven't felt this flabbergasted since I got to that horrendously heartbreaking twist in The Last House on Needless Street
Did I enjoy this one? Yes, quite a lot, despite THAT AWFUL SCENE THAT I ALMOST LOST MY LUNCH OVER AND FORCED ME TO RUN SCREAMING TO THE GYM to help lower my blood pressure. (Big shudder just remembering that sick feeling in my poor tummy! And to think I used to be able to read Stephen King without batting an eye in my younger days!)
Suffice it to say that I put a bottle of rosé wine in my fridge before I left for the gym, because for sure I would need it when I came home and finished the rest of the book and wrote this review.
I'm rating this one a 4 out of 5 Stars simply because I could not put this one down, until I absolutely had to, because I didn't want to start screaming and running hell for leather from my unit and alarm all of my neighbours!! (Okay, seriously now: this novel isn't scary as much as it is dark, suspenseful and horrifyingly graphic. Very much in the vein of The Walking Dead "gross-me-out antics" - for me, anyway!) Will I seek out more books by this author: NOT ON MY LIFE!!!!
I would like to give my thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this hair-raising novel in exchange for an honest review.
(Expected release date: December 7, 2021.)
The problem is that I can't tell you very much about this ingeniously preposterous plot without giving everything away. Most certainly the psychic element grabbed my interest and kept me riveted until ... Oie, I can't tell you that!
Pastoral was a veritable Shangri-la right up until.... well.... that's another comment that would have had to be redacted by the FBI or the Ruthless Powers That Be in Pastoral. Rats! Foiled again!
Everyone in Pastoral was ruled by FEAR - it informed every decision they made. They were so terrified of the outside world, that any newcomers would....
(BIG SIGH!) that's another "mum's the word" spoiler alert secret....
Suffice it to say that, just after the half-way point, I had to skim over some very large portions of this book because things got pretty horribly graphic, very fast, and I got SO VERY ANXIOUS that I had to power off my e-reader and run to the gym to calm down. I ultimately decided to skim over what I couldn't endure and I just flipped the pages over quickly on THAT AWFUL SCENE. I did not even pretend to read it because I WAS SO FREAKED OUT JUST THINKING ABOUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO THOSE POOR CHARACTERS.
. . . . . . . . . .
On a lighter note - THANKFULLY! - the last chapter tied up a lot of loose ends quite neatly, but I wasn't completely happy with the ending because it made no sense for certain Unnameable Characters to return to the scene of the crime, because, for all they knew, they could have been the next victims of a SIMILARLY AWFUL SCENE THAT I COULD NOT ENDURE READING ABOUT EARLIER ON IN THE NOVEL! I was getting the jitters all over again!
Likewise, in those final chapters, some of the Unnameable Characters' decisions to hide the truth of what was happening in Pastoral also made little or no sense to me. A certain Unnameable Mad Person (or Persons) was doing Unmentionable Things to Numerous Hapless Residents of that Hellish Rural Idyll. I would at least have sent in a SWAT team - or a therapist! All those poor deluded residents were going to need a ton of counseling at the very least! (But, seriously, my preference? TWO SWAT TEAMS!)
I have to admit that when I hit that major twist, the above-mentioned word "PREPOSTEROUS" fairly exploded from my lips! I haven't felt this flabbergasted since I got to that horrendously heartbreaking twist in The Last House on Needless Street
Did I enjoy this one? Yes, quite a lot, despite THAT AWFUL SCENE THAT I ALMOST LOST MY LUNCH OVER AND FORCED ME TO RUN SCREAMING TO THE GYM to help lower my blood pressure. (Big shudder just remembering that sick feeling in my poor tummy! And to think I used to be able to read Stephen King without batting an eye in my younger days!)
Suffice it to say that I put a bottle of rosé wine in my fridge before I left for the gym, because for sure I would need it when I came home and finished the rest of the book and wrote this review.
I'm rating this one a 4 out of 5 Stars simply because I could not put this one down, until I absolutely had to, because I didn't want to start screaming and running hell for leather from my unit and alarm all of my neighbours!! (Okay, seriously now: this novel isn't scary as much as it is dark, suspenseful and horrifyingly graphic. Very much in the vein of The Walking Dead "gross-me-out antics" - for me, anyway!) Will I seek out more books by this author: NOT ON MY LIFE!!!!
I would like to give my thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this hair-raising novel in exchange for an honest review.
(Expected release date: December 7, 2021.)
February 1, 2022
this was interesting and I loved the cult setting but the lackluster ending kinda ruined it for me
December 31, 2021
Hard for me to put my finger on exactly what this book was missing for me. The set up for A History of Wild Places was intriguing enough, even if it was a little long-winded in getting to its eventual destination. Travis Wren is a private investigator of sorts, but a reluctant one. His ability to ‘read’ objects and see what their previous owners were doing in the past is as unusual as it is useful in his line of work. And he’s going to need every bit of those skills to locate missing author Maggie St. James, who disappeared five years ago. We follow Travis as he retraces Maggie’s steps to her last known location, and then beyond that.
It’s on this journey following strange markings in the woods that we get cut off from Travis’ point of view. We do not hear from him again, and instead switch to the perspectives of three people living in a kind of haunted version of those very same woods. Husband and wife Theo and Calla live with Calla’s blind sister, Bee, in a community known as the Pastoral. They’ve lived there their entire lives and have never ventured outside of its close borders. Lately a sickness has been spreading through the trees, known as the Rot, that makes travel outside of the Pastoral too dangerous for anyone to embark on. But Theo and Calla start uncovering things, pieces of someone else’s history, and they begin to question what they’ve been told.
It’s kind of a perfect storm for a creepy and unsettling atmosphere. An unknown disease, the makings of a cult, total isolation from society—plus a slew of disappearances associated with the area. So why didn’t this book deliver? I think it might be too much of a slow-burn for what we eventually got. I guessed the big ‘secret’ pretty early on, and was disappointed that I ended up being right, because it wasn’t a super thrilling answer. Instead of fully leaning into the eeriness and mysticism, Shea Earnshaw seemed to pump the breaks at the end, for what reason I’m not sure.
I might not have been so disappointed if it wasn’t such a trek to get there in the end. Really, the entire plot was hanging on this ~mystery~ being dangled in front of the audience, and to me it just wasn’t worth the effort. I can appreciate the writing and the world-building around such a cool and fascinating location, but why put all that effort in for the equivalent of ? A History of Wild Places was not so much ‘genre-bending’ as it was not sure what it was trying to be.
I think the author has plenty of talent and clearly some great ideas, but didn’t stick the landing for me here. I’d like to try reading more from her granted she’s fully committed to that premise and sees it through til the end.
*Thanks to Atria Books for an advance review copy!
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
It’s on this journey following strange markings in the woods that we get cut off from Travis’ point of view. We do not hear from him again, and instead switch to the perspectives of three people living in a kind of haunted version of those very same woods. Husband and wife Theo and Calla live with Calla’s blind sister, Bee, in a community known as the Pastoral. They’ve lived there their entire lives and have never ventured outside of its close borders. Lately a sickness has been spreading through the trees, known as the Rot, that makes travel outside of the Pastoral too dangerous for anyone to embark on. But Theo and Calla start uncovering things, pieces of someone else’s history, and they begin to question what they’ve been told.
It’s kind of a perfect storm for a creepy and unsettling atmosphere. An unknown disease, the makings of a cult, total isolation from society—plus a slew of disappearances associated with the area. So why didn’t this book deliver? I think it might be too much of a slow-burn for what we eventually got. I guessed the big ‘secret’ pretty early on, and was disappointed that I ended up being right, because it wasn’t a super thrilling answer. Instead of fully leaning into the eeriness and mysticism, Shea Earnshaw seemed to pump the breaks at the end, for what reason I’m not sure.
I might not have been so disappointed if it wasn’t such a trek to get there in the end. Really, the entire plot was hanging on this ~mystery~ being dangled in front of the audience, and to me it just wasn’t worth the effort. I can appreciate the writing and the world-building around such a cool and fascinating location, but why put all that effort in for the equivalent of ? A History of Wild Places was not so much ‘genre-bending’ as it was not sure what it was trying to be.
I think the author has plenty of talent and clearly some great ideas, but didn’t stick the landing for me here. I’d like to try reading more from her granted she’s fully committed to that premise and sees it through til the end.
*Thanks to Atria Books for an advance review copy!
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
November 7, 2022
4.5/5
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw begins with Travis Wren and his efforts to locate Maggie St. James who has been missing for over five years. Maggie is the author of a series of children’s books - 'Eloise and the Foxtail: Foxes and Museums' . The books have been criticized as too dark and gruesome for children having a damaging influence on its young readers. Travis has special abilities and can visualize a person’s past actions and location by touching an object belonging to said person. As a favor to a friend, he has taken Maggie's case despite still being in grief over the death of his sister. In the course of his search, he reaches Klamath National Forest and deeper into the woods he reaches the gate of Pastoral, a commune that is said to have been set up in the 1970s by a group of people who wanted a simple life off the grid and amid nature but has mostly been considered a myth.
“My eyes are sore from crying, my lungs are sore from coughing, my knees are sore from kneeling, and my heart is sore from believing. If you are sore and tired, then come into these woods and sleep.”
Fast forward a few years ahead and we meet Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee living in an old farmhouse near the edge of the commune. Theo is responsible for restricting access in or out of the commune premises. Pastoral is a gated community with strict rules about not letting outsiders into the premises and not allowing residents to leave the premises in fear of them contracting the “rot”, a disease that is assumed to be the result of contact with the dying and diseased trees in the forest. To avoid contagion anybody suspected of being infected is rid of the illness in the harshest ways in keeping with Pastoral rules. Theo is tempted to venture outside the commune and unbeknownst to anybody explores the area outside the gates - a fact that he hides from his wife, but Calla is not blind to the fact that Theo is hiding something from her. He discovers Travis's abandoned car outside the premises and on searching inside finds a picture of Maggie St James. At home, he discovers Travis’s journal in which he outlined the details of his search for Maggie. Calla and Bee also harbor secrets of their own and hide their thoughts and suspicion from each other, Bee, who lost her eyesight at the age of nineteen, is in a complicated romantic relationship with Levi, the leader of Pastoral. In a separate incident, Calla finds a broken charm from Maggie’s necklace – the same charm Travis was using to access Maggie’s location. She also discovers a copy of Maggie’s book buried in her garden. Bee, on her part, has vague memories of Travis having stayed in an abandoned section of their farmhouse but is not completely sure of what her memories mean. They share a sense of foreboding and begin to suspect that things are not what they seem in their peaceful commune.
What happened to Travis and Maggie? What was their connection to Pastoral? Is Pastoral truly the idyllic community that it seems to be? Are Levi's restrictive rules designed truly in the best interests of Pastoral? What is this mysterious disease affecting the trees and the people who come into contact with those dying trees? Should Calla, Theo and Bee be concerned for their own safety and the well-being of their friends in Pastoral?
Told through multiple POVs with snippets from Maggie’s Eloise and the Foxtail series interspersed throughout the narrative , Shea Ernshaw’s A History of Wild Places is dark and suspenseful with an ending that is hard to see coming. To fully enjoy this immersive novel with its intriguing premise and atmospheric setting you do need to suspend disbelief. With vivid imagery, gripping narrative and complex characters I was drawn in from the very first page and completed it in a day. The transition from Travis’s POV to the characters of the Pastoral commune seemed a bit abrupt and confusing but the author brings everything together masterfully with a shocking twist at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw begins with Travis Wren and his efforts to locate Maggie St. James who has been missing for over five years. Maggie is the author of a series of children’s books - 'Eloise and the Foxtail: Foxes and Museums' . The books have been criticized as too dark and gruesome for children having a damaging influence on its young readers. Travis has special abilities and can visualize a person’s past actions and location by touching an object belonging to said person. As a favor to a friend, he has taken Maggie's case despite still being in grief over the death of his sister. In the course of his search, he reaches Klamath National Forest and deeper into the woods he reaches the gate of Pastoral, a commune that is said to have been set up in the 1970s by a group of people who wanted a simple life off the grid and amid nature but has mostly been considered a myth.
“My eyes are sore from crying, my lungs are sore from coughing, my knees are sore from kneeling, and my heart is sore from believing. If you are sore and tired, then come into these woods and sleep.”
Fast forward a few years ahead and we meet Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee living in an old farmhouse near the edge of the commune. Theo is responsible for restricting access in or out of the commune premises. Pastoral is a gated community with strict rules about not letting outsiders into the premises and not allowing residents to leave the premises in fear of them contracting the “rot”, a disease that is assumed to be the result of contact with the dying and diseased trees in the forest. To avoid contagion anybody suspected of being infected is rid of the illness in the harshest ways in keeping with Pastoral rules. Theo is tempted to venture outside the commune and unbeknownst to anybody explores the area outside the gates - a fact that he hides from his wife, but Calla is not blind to the fact that Theo is hiding something from her. He discovers Travis's abandoned car outside the premises and on searching inside finds a picture of Maggie St James. At home, he discovers Travis’s journal in which he outlined the details of his search for Maggie. Calla and Bee also harbor secrets of their own and hide their thoughts and suspicion from each other, Bee, who lost her eyesight at the age of nineteen, is in a complicated romantic relationship with Levi, the leader of Pastoral. In a separate incident, Calla finds a broken charm from Maggie’s necklace – the same charm Travis was using to access Maggie’s location. She also discovers a copy of Maggie’s book buried in her garden. Bee, on her part, has vague memories of Travis having stayed in an abandoned section of their farmhouse but is not completely sure of what her memories mean. They share a sense of foreboding and begin to suspect that things are not what they seem in their peaceful commune.
What happened to Travis and Maggie? What was their connection to Pastoral? Is Pastoral truly the idyllic community that it seems to be? Are Levi's restrictive rules designed truly in the best interests of Pastoral? What is this mysterious disease affecting the trees and the people who come into contact with those dying trees? Should Calla, Theo and Bee be concerned for their own safety and the well-being of their friends in Pastoral?
Told through multiple POVs with snippets from Maggie’s Eloise and the Foxtail series interspersed throughout the narrative , Shea Ernshaw’s A History of Wild Places is dark and suspenseful with an ending that is hard to see coming. To fully enjoy this immersive novel with its intriguing premise and atmospheric setting you do need to suspend disbelief. With vivid imagery, gripping narrative and complex characters I was drawn in from the very first page and completed it in a day. The transition from Travis’s POV to the characters of the Pastoral commune seemed a bit abrupt and confusing but the author brings everything together masterfully with a shocking twist at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
December 1, 2022
3.5 Stars:
“A History of Wild Places” is story of a commune; what makes this a special commune is that the leader has convinced the members of the commune that the outside world is physically dangerous. The community was founded in the 1970’s by a man who wanted to live a wholesome life outside of social and society pressures. The original founder bought acres of inhospitable land and founded a community he called “Pastoral”. There is no electricity or running water. The members live off the land. After the founder died, his son, Levi, ascended to leader. His son is not as benevolent of a leader as the original founder.
The story opens with Travis, an empath who can “see” things when he holds a possession, looking for a missing woman. An example: he comes across a dilapidated house. When he touched the house, he “saw” the history of the house: who lived there; what happened there; how it happened. It’s a curse. In fact, Travis comes from “a family of uncommons” from Ireland. When Travis touched anything, he saw history, most of it bad. It was weighing him down. He used his skills to find missing people. His best friend from college is a Police Officer, and he asks Travis to help find the missing. Travis is hired to find a missing author of children’s books. Author Maggie St. James disappeared 5 years ago, and her parents want to know what happened.
As Travis hunts for Maggie, he gets into car trouble in the middle of a snowstorm, in a desolate area and he has no cell service. Author Shea Ernshaw writes a foreboding tale of Travis struggling to find where Maggie went. When Travis finds a guard post and a sign saying “Pastoral”, the story abruptly switches focus to three characters: Theo, Calla, and Bee.
Theo and Calla are married, and Bee is Calla’s sister. Bee has been blind since she was a teen. Her cause of her blindness is a mystery. Because of the community, no medical help is ever sought. Immediately the reader learns that Theo is keeping a secret from his wife, and she has her own secrets. Because Bee lost her sight, her auditory powers have been enhanced. She can hear heartbeats; she can hear voices from far away. She can tell if someone is sick based upon their heart rate and other bodily functions.
It became evident that Pastoral is “cultish” with a charismatic leader who controls the members of the community. He has convinced them that the outside world is dangerous, and no one can infiltrate their world.
There are paranormal themes, dark fairy tales, and magic. Through the story, the reader keeps wondering what happened to Maggie and Travis. Both are now missing for an additional two years. The reader looks for clues to what happened to them through the character chapters. When Theo secretly goes beyond the borders of the community and finds Travis’s truck, the story gains thriller strength.
I enjoyed reading this suspenseful story that kept me reading well into the night. For me, paranormal themes and magic are difficult to do well, and author Shea Ernshaw crafts a remarkably creepy tale.
I recommend it for those who enjoy a good slow burn of a story. The prose is great. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning but picked up fairly quickly. Ever wonder how people can stay in a cult? Ernshaw provides a good story showing how it happens. My biggest niggle is that it is a closed community with very limited members. I couldn’t get over inbreeding. How can such a small closed off community make it in the end? That aside, it’s an intriguing story.
“A History of Wild Places” is story of a commune; what makes this a special commune is that the leader has convinced the members of the commune that the outside world is physically dangerous. The community was founded in the 1970’s by a man who wanted to live a wholesome life outside of social and society pressures. The original founder bought acres of inhospitable land and founded a community he called “Pastoral”. There is no electricity or running water. The members live off the land. After the founder died, his son, Levi, ascended to leader. His son is not as benevolent of a leader as the original founder.
The story opens with Travis, an empath who can “see” things when he holds a possession, looking for a missing woman. An example: he comes across a dilapidated house. When he touched the house, he “saw” the history of the house: who lived there; what happened there; how it happened. It’s a curse. In fact, Travis comes from “a family of uncommons” from Ireland. When Travis touched anything, he saw history, most of it bad. It was weighing him down. He used his skills to find missing people. His best friend from college is a Police Officer, and he asks Travis to help find the missing. Travis is hired to find a missing author of children’s books. Author Maggie St. James disappeared 5 years ago, and her parents want to know what happened.
As Travis hunts for Maggie, he gets into car trouble in the middle of a snowstorm, in a desolate area and he has no cell service. Author Shea Ernshaw writes a foreboding tale of Travis struggling to find where Maggie went. When Travis finds a guard post and a sign saying “Pastoral”, the story abruptly switches focus to three characters: Theo, Calla, and Bee.
Theo and Calla are married, and Bee is Calla’s sister. Bee has been blind since she was a teen. Her cause of her blindness is a mystery. Because of the community, no medical help is ever sought. Immediately the reader learns that Theo is keeping a secret from his wife, and she has her own secrets. Because Bee lost her sight, her auditory powers have been enhanced. She can hear heartbeats; she can hear voices from far away. She can tell if someone is sick based upon their heart rate and other bodily functions.
It became evident that Pastoral is “cultish” with a charismatic leader who controls the members of the community. He has convinced them that the outside world is dangerous, and no one can infiltrate their world.
There are paranormal themes, dark fairy tales, and magic. Through the story, the reader keeps wondering what happened to Maggie and Travis. Both are now missing for an additional two years. The reader looks for clues to what happened to them through the character chapters. When Theo secretly goes beyond the borders of the community and finds Travis’s truck, the story gains thriller strength.
I enjoyed reading this suspenseful story that kept me reading well into the night. For me, paranormal themes and magic are difficult to do well, and author Shea Ernshaw crafts a remarkably creepy tale.
I recommend it for those who enjoy a good slow burn of a story. The prose is great. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning but picked up fairly quickly. Ever wonder how people can stay in a cult? Ernshaw provides a good story showing how it happens. My biggest niggle is that it is a closed community with very limited members. I couldn’t get over inbreeding. How can such a small closed off community make it in the end? That aside, it’s an intriguing story.
December 31, 2022
4.5 ⭐️
Haunting, gorgeously written, beautiful message. ✅✅✅
I could not get enough of this book.
It’s my life goal to feel so connected to the natural world, yet, I can’t even keep a bathroom plant alive. 😩🤷♀️
Although it had its predictable moments and slow parts here and there, it was well worth the ride and more.
Ernshaw has this beautiful and endearing way of telling a story and making you fall in love and feel for the characters. This book felt quite reminiscent of The Drowning Kind / Children of the Corn. I loved the descriptions of the love, memories and fear that each of the characters felt and remembered. It felt like true emotions and not something sugar-coated or over-described for shock value. I thought each character had a lot of depth and were an integral part in the story.
The ‘shocks’ didn’t overly-surprise me, yet I still felt connected to each character and didn’t think any less of the story.
With a strong ending and a hope for a great future for the characters, I look forward to reading more from this author, although I felt like the Author’s Note suggested this might be a last? 🤔
I sure hope not!
Haunting, gorgeously written, beautiful message. ✅✅✅
I could not get enough of this book.
It’s my life goal to feel so connected to the natural world, yet, I can’t even keep a bathroom plant alive. 😩🤷♀️
Although it had its predictable moments and slow parts here and there, it was well worth the ride and more.
Ernshaw has this beautiful and endearing way of telling a story and making you fall in love and feel for the characters. This book felt quite reminiscent of The Drowning Kind / Children of the Corn. I loved the descriptions of the love, memories and fear that each of the characters felt and remembered. It felt like true emotions and not something sugar-coated or over-described for shock value. I thought each character had a lot of depth and were an integral part in the story.
The ‘shocks’ didn’t overly-surprise me, yet I still felt connected to each character and didn’t think any less of the story.
With a strong ending and a hope for a great future for the characters, I look forward to reading more from this author, although I felt like the Author’s Note suggested this might be a last? 🤔
I sure hope not!
December 30, 2021
I am A.S.T.O.N.I.S.H.E.D. at the abundance of positive reviews for this book here on GoodReads, because it's been well over five years since I've ever felt so annoyed frustrated and regretful that I've read a book since I wasted twelve hours of my life over this one. There is one aspect of the story that surprised me to a degree I was not expecting, and it was a really clever and interesting twist, one I can't recall ever encountering in a story before, which is impressive. It's also really impressive considering the rest of the prose surrounding this twist is replete with the most basic, trope-heavy nonsense I've ever read. I had one last Audible.com credit and I wasted it on this tripe. Do NOT repeat my mistake. The only reason this gets two stars is that the prose is not terrible (at all, actually) and I really enjoyed the two-thirds twist which came at a great time as I was this close to stopping altogether. Though after the ending, I wish I had.
My spoiler-free review is that this is the worst piece of fiction I've read in well over five years, if not ten. To be fair, I only read between six to twelve novels a year and I try very very hard to not to read bad ones. So I have no doubt there are lots of much worse novels out there than this one. But to my mind, I have rarely been so enraged by wasting so much time on a novel that left me with nothing but contempt and ire.
Longer - Spoiler Filled review below: You have been warned.
First let's dispense with the pros:
- The prose. It's not extravagant or particularly captivating but it's very workman-like and certainly not bad at all. Simple, almost Hemingway-like. When I read that the previous works that the author had written were YA novels... I BELIEVED IT. But, regardless, nothing I would complain about much with the writing style.
- The atmosphere. In specific, especially in the first few chapters, the book does a pretty decent job of creating atmosphere.
- The Opening - Speaking of the first few chapters, I was pretty hooked. Good characterization. Interesting hook, both with the mystery and the weird psychic ability (an ability I should note which NEVER EVER EVER had any relevance to the rest of the story ONCE, I have NO idea why in a story that is essentially secular (read-non-paranormal) this had to be a defining aspect of this character which never resurfaces in the entire book. Sorry, I'm supposed to be listing positives...
- Uh... I liked Bee as a character and I thought her sections were pretty interestingly described, as the author had to make use of details a sighted person would ignore or not take notice of, though the fact that she could tell who people were (and whether they were sick or not) based on their breathing seemed a little far-fetched, that was okay especially compared to the mountain of far-fetchedness we get later on.
Now the cons:
- NOTHING in this book makes any sense, no matter which part of the book you're reading (except for the first few chapters). None of the characters' choices seem to make any sense. Everyone seems preternaturally stupid and gullible. This is revealed later on to be sort of explained because you see...
- Hypnosis is magic. Apparently, if you learn hypnosis, you can convince anyone of anything. You can convince people that they're related to each other. You can convince people to become amnesiac. You can convince people to completely blot out their senses. You can turn people into your slave and force them to go out into the woods and butcher trees and retain no knowledge of the act. Oh, but there are limits... you can't convince people to... uh... love you? and not want to leave? This seems like a pretty omnipotent power in this book with one very weird blind spot.
As someone who has an interest in magic and has studied a bit of hypnotism, none of this makes any sense. This is not how hypnosis works. You can't hypnotize people, let alone an entire community of people, into major life-long term delusions.
And even if Hypnotism worked the way the book wants us to believe it works, then why didn't Levi use it to defuse or render useless the growing threats under his purview? If he has this all-encompassing power then none of his actions in the book make any sense whatsoever, and likewise, none of the actions of the other three characters make much sense either. It is confounding. Plus, if this was like a hostage situation with even three hostages that eventually get hypnotized by their captor and very much brainwashed, that I could believe. But Levi has supposedly done this to an entire town. That means we have to imagine that after both Calla and later Theo arrived, he had to sit down with every single person in the town and hypnotize them into believing they'd been there the entire time. I'm sorry, but that is just staggeringly stupid and impractical.
Speaking of the town:
- One of my biggest complaints as I read the book before we hit that surprising but ludicrous twist, is how big a town is this? What is the culture like? How do they provide for themselves being completely cut off from the world? I've read a bunch of other stories like this where a group of people are living under the thumb of a leader who warns (either correctly or incorrectly) of terrible dangers beyond their community and they punish any who transgress with terrifying punishments. This is something I've seen in Star Trek, in The Book of Koli, Lord of the Flies, etc. Despite trying to paint Levi as benevolent, it was extremely clear from his very introduction that he was the big bad fabricating this fake threat to keep his followers in line.
This is a tired trope but one that works in other contexts because they're usually extremely isolated. This all happened within the span of ten years separated from human contact by a group of people who just happened to want to live in a commune in the woods. You're telling me that in the span of ten years after their defacto leader died, his successor, some random magic-trick-loving kid takes over the entire town so unquestionably that they'll watch him commit capital punishment of a dad trying to secure medicine for his child? I know they're all supposed to be hypnotized, but I don't really understand how that power structure or culture came into being.
Part of my difficulty in understanding this is that aside from the four/six (depends on how you count) main characters, every other character is barely a character. They are barely characterized, barely given a sense of actually being or importance or just even individuality. The whole community seems barely conceived. It's as thin as tissue, which makes the ending all the more baffling because:
- The ending completely undermines almost the entire rest of the book. So the big switch that happens two-third of the way into the book, is that you think you're reading a book about a group of people in an isolated community overcoming their tyrannical ruler when it's revealed that you're actually reading a penny-rate version of Suzanna Clarke's Piranesi. To avoid spoilers in that book, I'm including a spoiler tag. (that book is fantastic and I cannot recommend it enough)
Speaking of the ending...
- So let's just think about this premise. There's some ex-hippie commune that's been around this area of Northern California for fifty years. They bought it outright and have constructed an independent community that's existed for the past forty years outside of civilization. Then ten years ago they cut themselves off and imprisoned and memory wiped anyone who happened to wander into their territory.
What about property taxes? Even if Levi managed to hypnotize and memory wipe all of the people in his little community, I'm assuming he didn't do the same nearby actual town. Surely those residents would remember this weirdo commune very close to their borders, even if they did go dark ten years ago. Actually, when Maggie St. James goes missing, Pastoral has only been AWOL for five years. And NONE of the investigating police officers thought to investigate the area around this community? Sure, maybe some did and then got memory wiped too, but then you've got missing officers and that exasperates the problem too.
Also, what about the problem of airplanes? At one point Levi floats the idea that the entire rest of civilization has been conquered by these killer trees, but as someone who grew up in a rural part of Wyoming, let me tell you, there aren't many places you can go without occasionally seeing airplanes in the sky. How are you supposed to spin that or does Levi once again go around to every single denizen of his village and memory wipe them (again that's not how hypnotism works) to make them forget?
But let's not forget satellites. Surely Google and other satellites have noticed this community in the middle of nowhere, this area that's been associated with at least two if not many more disappearances. We're led to believe that nothing has been done with this information?
What's even more confounding is that once Theo and Calla make it back to civilization they're just treated as salvaged and no explanation is demanded of them by local authorities. Calla doesn't want to tell her parents about where she's been until her mom tells her she actually already knows. (which, as the last detail was just a snot-filled cherry on top of a turd sundae at that point) But shouldn't they have already been forced to tell that to police detectives? Like, I'm pretty sure when Elizabeth Smart or similar abductee cases have returned, detectives don't take, "No thanks, I don't want to say" as an answer.
- This book was released in 2021 during the unfortunate abatement and second coming of COVID-19 and all of its delightful variants. This is also a book in which a community is being scared into acquiescence by the myth of terrible disease that is entirely made up and it is only by ignoring the myth of this disease that our protagonists are able to overcome their many obstacles.
In another year, I wouldn't really think that much about this detail, but given that so many conspiracy theories are leading people around the world to resist vaccines, masks, and common life-saving measures despite the fact that our hospitals are flooded with the sick and the dying... The subtext of this book leaves a pretty bitter taste on my lips. I hope this book doesn't inspire anyone to start ignoring the CDC for fear of mass hypnosis.
------------------
All in all, this is the worst book I have read in a very long while and I deeply regret having wasted time on it. Listen, I love books that don't make sense. My favorite genre is surrealist-fantasy (observe my references to Piranesi). But if a book is going to purportedly take place in the real world and have real-world explanations for everything that happens (aside from the dropped psychic stuff) then it has to start passing some verisimilitude tests, and on every single one this book fails and it fails hard. I still find it confounding that anyone could read this book and find it anything other than a trope-filled catastrophic mess.
The only reason I'm not giving this one star is that the prose was workman-like and it got the job done, I was pleasantly surprised by the twist near the end (though less so as the implications began to make themselves evident), and I liked Bee. She was a fun character nicely realized.
Strong strong pass. Avoid like the plague.
My spoiler-free review is that this is the worst piece of fiction I've read in well over five years, if not ten. To be fair, I only read between six to twelve novels a year and I try very very hard to not to read bad ones. So I have no doubt there are lots of much worse novels out there than this one. But to my mind, I have rarely been so enraged by wasting so much time on a novel that left me with nothing but contempt and ire.
Longer - Spoiler Filled review below: You have been warned.
First let's dispense with the pros:
- The prose. It's not extravagant or particularly captivating but it's very workman-like and certainly not bad at all. Simple, almost Hemingway-like. When I read that the previous works that the author had written were YA novels... I BELIEVED IT. But, regardless, nothing I would complain about much with the writing style.
- The atmosphere. In specific, especially in the first few chapters, the book does a pretty decent job of creating atmosphere.
- The Opening - Speaking of the first few chapters, I was pretty hooked. Good characterization. Interesting hook, both with the mystery and the weird psychic ability (an ability I should note which NEVER EVER EVER had any relevance to the rest of the story ONCE, I have NO idea why in a story that is essentially secular (read-non-paranormal) this had to be a defining aspect of this character which never resurfaces in the entire book. Sorry, I'm supposed to be listing positives...
- Uh... I liked Bee as a character and I thought her sections were pretty interestingly described, as the author had to make use of details a sighted person would ignore or not take notice of, though the fact that she could tell who people were (and whether they were sick or not) based on their breathing seemed a little far-fetched, that was okay especially compared to the mountain of far-fetchedness we get later on.
Now the cons:
- NOTHING in this book makes any sense, no matter which part of the book you're reading (except for the first few chapters). None of the characters' choices seem to make any sense. Everyone seems preternaturally stupid and gullible. This is revealed later on to be sort of explained because you see...
- Hypnosis is magic. Apparently, if you learn hypnosis, you can convince anyone of anything. You can convince people that they're related to each other. You can convince people to become amnesiac. You can convince people to completely blot out their senses. You can turn people into your slave and force them to go out into the woods and butcher trees and retain no knowledge of the act. Oh, but there are limits... you can't convince people to... uh... love you? and not want to leave? This seems like a pretty omnipotent power in this book with one very weird blind spot.
As someone who has an interest in magic and has studied a bit of hypnotism, none of this makes any sense. This is not how hypnosis works. You can't hypnotize people, let alone an entire community of people, into major life-long term delusions.
And even if Hypnotism worked the way the book wants us to believe it works, then why didn't Levi use it to defuse or render useless the growing threats under his purview? If he has this all-encompassing power then none of his actions in the book make any sense whatsoever, and likewise, none of the actions of the other three characters make much sense either. It is confounding. Plus, if this was like a hostage situation with even three hostages that eventually get hypnotized by their captor and very much brainwashed, that I could believe. But Levi has supposedly done this to an entire town. That means we have to imagine that after both Calla and later Theo arrived, he had to sit down with every single person in the town and hypnotize them into believing they'd been there the entire time. I'm sorry, but that is just staggeringly stupid and impractical.
Speaking of the town:
- One of my biggest complaints as I read the book before we hit that surprising but ludicrous twist, is how big a town is this? What is the culture like? How do they provide for themselves being completely cut off from the world? I've read a bunch of other stories like this where a group of people are living under the thumb of a leader who warns (either correctly or incorrectly) of terrible dangers beyond their community and they punish any who transgress with terrifying punishments. This is something I've seen in Star Trek, in The Book of Koli, Lord of the Flies, etc. Despite trying to paint Levi as benevolent, it was extremely clear from his very introduction that he was the big bad fabricating this fake threat to keep his followers in line.
This is a tired trope but one that works in other contexts because they're usually extremely isolated. This all happened within the span of ten years separated from human contact by a group of people who just happened to want to live in a commune in the woods. You're telling me that in the span of ten years after their defacto leader died, his successor, some random magic-trick-loving kid takes over the entire town so unquestionably that they'll watch him commit capital punishment of a dad trying to secure medicine for his child? I know they're all supposed to be hypnotized, but I don't really understand how that power structure or culture came into being.
Part of my difficulty in understanding this is that aside from the four/six (depends on how you count) main characters, every other character is barely a character. They are barely characterized, barely given a sense of actually being or importance or just even individuality. The whole community seems barely conceived. It's as thin as tissue, which makes the ending all the more baffling because:
- The ending completely undermines almost the entire rest of the book. So the big switch that happens two-third of the way into the book, is that you think you're reading a book about a group of people in an isolated community overcoming their tyrannical ruler when it's revealed that you're actually reading a penny-rate version of Suzanna Clarke's Piranesi. To avoid spoilers in that book, I'm including a spoiler tag. (that book is fantastic and I cannot recommend it enough)
Speaking of the ending...
- So let's just think about this premise. There's some ex-hippie commune that's been around this area of Northern California for fifty years. They bought it outright and have constructed an independent community that's existed for the past forty years outside of civilization. Then ten years ago they cut themselves off and imprisoned and memory wiped anyone who happened to wander into their territory.
What about property taxes? Even if Levi managed to hypnotize and memory wipe all of the people in his little community, I'm assuming he didn't do the same nearby actual town. Surely those residents would remember this weirdo commune very close to their borders, even if they did go dark ten years ago. Actually, when Maggie St. James goes missing, Pastoral has only been AWOL for five years. And NONE of the investigating police officers thought to investigate the area around this community? Sure, maybe some did and then got memory wiped too, but then you've got missing officers and that exasperates the problem too.
Also, what about the problem of airplanes? At one point Levi floats the idea that the entire rest of civilization has been conquered by these killer trees, but as someone who grew up in a rural part of Wyoming, let me tell you, there aren't many places you can go without occasionally seeing airplanes in the sky. How are you supposed to spin that or does Levi once again go around to every single denizen of his village and memory wipe them (again that's not how hypnotism works) to make them forget?
But let's not forget satellites. Surely Google and other satellites have noticed this community in the middle of nowhere, this area that's been associated with at least two if not many more disappearances. We're led to believe that nothing has been done with this information?
What's even more confounding is that once Theo and Calla make it back to civilization they're just treated as salvaged and no explanation is demanded of them by local authorities. Calla doesn't want to tell her parents about where she's been until her mom tells her she actually already knows. (which, as the last detail was just a snot-filled cherry on top of a turd sundae at that point) But shouldn't they have already been forced to tell that to police detectives? Like, I'm pretty sure when Elizabeth Smart or similar abductee cases have returned, detectives don't take, "No thanks, I don't want to say" as an answer.
- This book was released in 2021 during the unfortunate abatement and second coming of COVID-19 and all of its delightful variants. This is also a book in which a community is being scared into acquiescence by the myth of terrible disease that is entirely made up and it is only by ignoring the myth of this disease that our protagonists are able to overcome their many obstacles.
In another year, I wouldn't really think that much about this detail, but given that so many conspiracy theories are leading people around the world to resist vaccines, masks, and common life-saving measures despite the fact that our hospitals are flooded with the sick and the dying... The subtext of this book leaves a pretty bitter taste on my lips. I hope this book doesn't inspire anyone to start ignoring the CDC for fear of mass hypnosis.
------------------
All in all, this is the worst book I have read in a very long while and I deeply regret having wasted time on it. Listen, I love books that don't make sense. My favorite genre is surrealist-fantasy (observe my references to Piranesi). But if a book is going to purportedly take place in the real world and have real-world explanations for everything that happens (aside from the dropped psychic stuff) then it has to start passing some verisimilitude tests, and on every single one this book fails and it fails hard. I still find it confounding that anyone could read this book and find it anything other than a trope-filled catastrophic mess.
The only reason I'm not giving this one star is that the prose was workman-like and it got the job done, I was pleasantly surprised by the twist near the end (though less so as the implications began to make themselves evident), and I liked Bee. She was a fun character nicely realized.
Strong strong pass. Avoid like the plague.
November 26, 2021
3.5 Travis has a knack for finding missing people. Touching an item of theirs allows him to trace the person he is seeking, seeing their last journey. When he is asked to find Maggie St James, a children's author who writes dark fairy tales, he wants to refuse. He is still recovering from the overdose death of his sister and still grieving. However, he owes the person asking, so he takes the case. He would become another missing person.
The book takes us to a community called Pastoral, a place that had started many years before. A place off the grid where people could live off the land, a quiet place of like minded people. A place of secrets and refuge. We meet the members, get to know many. What is this community hiding?
Intense in parts, suspenseful and a slow unwinding of a story where things are not what they seem.
The slowness of the story is necessary so that one gets to know the inhabitants, walk with them through their daily lives. Lives that are not what they seem. The answers requires a suspension of belief but fitting I think and not totally unbelievable. A good book, one with a different storyline of a place that was once magical and could beagain. Also, a book that shows how the quest for power is so often abused with devastating results.
ARC from Edelweiss
The book takes us to a community called Pastoral, a place that had started many years before. A place off the grid where people could live off the land, a quiet place of like minded people. A place of secrets and refuge. We meet the members, get to know many. What is this community hiding?
Intense in parts, suspenseful and a slow unwinding of a story where things are not what they seem.
The slowness of the story is necessary so that one gets to know the inhabitants, walk with them through their daily lives. Lives that are not what they seem. The answers requires a suspension of belief but fitting I think and not totally unbelievable. A good book, one with a different storyline of a place that was once magical and could beagain. Also, a book that shows how the quest for power is so often abused with devastating results.
ARC from Edelweiss
August 6, 2021
Man this had strong The Village vibes!
March 24, 2024
Wild places? How about a wild ride? That’s what this book was.
Darker than I expected and no doubt inspired by other tales of closed communities, haunted forests and “pastoral” life hiding evil. I especially loved the character development— as the story progresses, each character becomes like puzzle pieces hidden then suddenly found.
I will caution readers that this wild walk thru the dark woods is best taken without any pre-planning— in other words, avoid spoilers— just start walking (err, turning pages) in.
It’s a dark place definitely worth visiting!!
(Reviewed 3/24/22)
Darker than I expected and no doubt inspired by other tales of closed communities, haunted forests and “pastoral” life hiding evil. I especially loved the character development— as the story progresses, each character becomes like puzzle pieces hidden then suddenly found.
I will caution readers that this wild walk thru the dark woods is best taken without any pre-planning— in other words, avoid spoilers— just start walking (err, turning pages) in.
It’s a dark place definitely worth visiting!!
(Reviewed 3/24/22)
February 9, 2022
This book was creepy, emotional, and evocative…I could not put it down!!
Maggie St. James was a writer of dark children’s books. One day, she went on a hike in the woods and disappeared completely. No one was ever sure whether she started anew somewhere else or met a tragic end.
Five years later, Maggie’s parents hire Travis Wren to try and find her. Travis has a special gift: by touching an object that belonged to a missing person he can often see what happened to them. He tracks Maggie to Pastoral, a cult-like, isolated community in the Oregon forest. And then Travis disappears.
Years later, Theo, a member of Pastoral, finds Travis’ truck beyond the borders of the community. No one is allowed outside the community, for fear they might bring disease back to the other members. But Theo can’t stop thinking about the truck or the things he finds inside, items that mention someone named Maggie.
As the community faces growing challenges, Theo, his wife Calla, and her sister Bee are haunted by memories they can’t explain, memories of a man and a woman who might have come to Pastoral. But what happened to them?
"There is no history in a place until we make it, until you live a life worth remembering."
A History of Wild Places was fascinating and eerie, as mysteries are unraveled and long-hidden secrets are revealed. I stayed up so late to finish the book because I couldn’t put it down, as I needed to know what happened.
I was so mesmerized by the lyrical style of Shea Ernshaw’s writing. I’ll definitely be picking up some of her YA books!!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Maggie St. James was a writer of dark children’s books. One day, she went on a hike in the woods and disappeared completely. No one was ever sure whether she started anew somewhere else or met a tragic end.
Five years later, Maggie’s parents hire Travis Wren to try and find her. Travis has a special gift: by touching an object that belonged to a missing person he can often see what happened to them. He tracks Maggie to Pastoral, a cult-like, isolated community in the Oregon forest. And then Travis disappears.
Years later, Theo, a member of Pastoral, finds Travis’ truck beyond the borders of the community. No one is allowed outside the community, for fear they might bring disease back to the other members. But Theo can’t stop thinking about the truck or the things he finds inside, items that mention someone named Maggie.
As the community faces growing challenges, Theo, his wife Calla, and her sister Bee are haunted by memories they can’t explain, memories of a man and a woman who might have come to Pastoral. But what happened to them?
"There is no history in a place until we make it, until you live a life worth remembering."
A History of Wild Places was fascinating and eerie, as mysteries are unraveled and long-hidden secrets are revealed. I stayed up so late to finish the book because I couldn’t put it down, as I needed to know what happened.
I was so mesmerized by the lyrical style of Shea Ernshaw’s writing. I’ll definitely be picking up some of her YA books!!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
December 10, 2021
"There is always danger for those who are afraid." - George Bernard Shaw.
Travis Wren, who has a talent for finding missing people, has been hired to find Maggie St. James, a missing author. While looking for Maggie, his talent leads him to place many believed to be a legend.
A perfect community away from it all - Pastoral. It's a place to be safe, a place to start over, a place to leave everything else behind. But when Travis follows Maggie there, he disappears just as Maggie did.
Years later, Theo, who has lived in Pastoral finds Travis's truck beyond the boundary of Pastoral. It is forbidden to leave the boundary as you risk catching the pox. But Theo can't help himself. He is inquisitive and wants to explore past Pastoral. He is not the only one who wants to explore beyond the Boundary, there is another person curious and willing to take risks
There is fear of the Rot and the pox it brings, but there are also secrets lurking there. Deep, dark secrets. Horrible secrets. The adage "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" applies in this book. I enjoyed getting to know most of the characters and in the back of my mind wondered what happened to Travis and Maggie. I really enjoyed this one and it's strong "The Village" vibes. The fear of the outside world, the stories about what will get you if you leave, the being self-sufficient and the wondering what to do when someone needs medical help.
You will need to suspend some disbelief here and sit through a disturbing scene or two. I had to tell myself not to over think the fact that they were living in two story homes and not in huts or tents. That somehow away from it all, deep in the woods, was a community of built homes that they just moved into or perhaps founders had built. But I digress. After suspending some disbelief, I found this book hard to put down and as thy secrets began to fall like leaves falling in the forest, I soon realized what the real Rot was.
I enjoyed the underlying sense of something not being right of underlying danger, mounting dread and the fear of breaking the rules. It had a very low-key creepy vibe at the heart of it, you won’t feel or notice it at first, but as things are uncovered, you will sense it as the community members begin to sense that their community isn't quite so perfect after all. This book is atmospheric and dark. Naturally, I was intrigued from the very beginning.
This was my first book by the author, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Dark, captivating, and clever!
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
Travis Wren, who has a talent for finding missing people, has been hired to find Maggie St. James, a missing author. While looking for Maggie, his talent leads him to place many believed to be a legend.
A perfect community away from it all - Pastoral. It's a place to be safe, a place to start over, a place to leave everything else behind. But when Travis follows Maggie there, he disappears just as Maggie did.
Years later, Theo, who has lived in Pastoral finds Travis's truck beyond the boundary of Pastoral. It is forbidden to leave the boundary as you risk catching the pox. But Theo can't help himself. He is inquisitive and wants to explore past Pastoral. He is not the only one who wants to explore beyond the Boundary, there is another person curious and willing to take risks
There is fear of the Rot and the pox it brings, but there are also secrets lurking there. Deep, dark secrets. Horrible secrets. The adage "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" applies in this book. I enjoyed getting to know most of the characters and in the back of my mind wondered what happened to Travis and Maggie. I really enjoyed this one and it's strong "The Village" vibes. The fear of the outside world, the stories about what will get you if you leave, the being self-sufficient and the wondering what to do when someone needs medical help.
You will need to suspend some disbelief here and sit through a disturbing scene or two. I had to tell myself not to over think the fact that they were living in two story homes and not in huts or tents. That somehow away from it all, deep in the woods, was a community of built homes that they just moved into or perhaps founders had built. But I digress. After suspending some disbelief, I found this book hard to put down and as thy secrets began to fall like leaves falling in the forest, I soon realized what the real Rot was.
I enjoyed the underlying sense of something not being right of underlying danger, mounting dread and the fear of breaking the rules. It had a very low-key creepy vibe at the heart of it, you won’t feel or notice it at first, but as things are uncovered, you will sense it as the community members begin to sense that their community isn't quite so perfect after all. This book is atmospheric and dark. Naturally, I was intrigued from the very beginning.
This was my first book by the author, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Dark, captivating, and clever!
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
January 4, 2022
At times, especially these time, we envision a place we could go to where we could leave the ills of our life behind. We, perhaps long for tranquility, peace, and a feeling of being safe.
In this unusual story we meet Travis Wren who himself is unusual, having the innate ability to touch an object of a missing person and find them. He is tasked by the family of Maggie St.James, a children's book author, to find their missing daughter. Travis himself is a lonely man having lost his younger sister to a drug overdose, minutes before he was able to find her.
As he is looking for clues to her whereabouts, the mother secretly gives him the name of a place, Pastoral, and as he seems to find it, he too disappears.
The years go by and we meet a man named Theo, who secretly ventures away from Pastoral, as a nightly guard of the village. He finds Travis's abandoned truck and the story evolves from there. Travis is married to a young woman named Calla and all the villagers have been constantly warned to remain within the confines of the village because of the disease found beyond their borders. Called the rot, it has infected the trees and for those who venture beyond Pastoral's borders death seems to be in their imminent future. Living with Call's sister, Bee, a young blind girl, there are a few who wonder about the outside world but their leader Levi, runs a strict charismatic village where few seem to leave.
Mysterious and haunting, this story once again touches on the way some can mold a mind, a thinking, and direct the actions of others.
I can understand why many would not enjoy this book as much as I. It demands that you leave reality behind and move into the world of fantasy and what if.
Jan and I read this one, and although she was not a fan, she did enjoy the start of the story. WE both agreed that is it fine to not like the same books and talk and disagree. The world would be a most boring place if we all walked in lockstep towards the future.
In this unusual story we meet Travis Wren who himself is unusual, having the innate ability to touch an object of a missing person and find them. He is tasked by the family of Maggie St.James, a children's book author, to find their missing daughter. Travis himself is a lonely man having lost his younger sister to a drug overdose, minutes before he was able to find her.
As he is looking for clues to her whereabouts, the mother secretly gives him the name of a place, Pastoral, and as he seems to find it, he too disappears.
The years go by and we meet a man named Theo, who secretly ventures away from Pastoral, as a nightly guard of the village. He finds Travis's abandoned truck and the story evolves from there. Travis is married to a young woman named Calla and all the villagers have been constantly warned to remain within the confines of the village because of the disease found beyond their borders. Called the rot, it has infected the trees and for those who venture beyond Pastoral's borders death seems to be in their imminent future. Living with Call's sister, Bee, a young blind girl, there are a few who wonder about the outside world but their leader Levi, runs a strict charismatic village where few seem to leave.
Mysterious and haunting, this story once again touches on the way some can mold a mind, a thinking, and direct the actions of others.
I can understand why many would not enjoy this book as much as I. It demands that you leave reality behind and move into the world of fantasy and what if.
Jan and I read this one, and although she was not a fan, she did enjoy the start of the story. WE both agreed that is it fine to not like the same books and talk and disagree. The world would be a most boring place if we all walked in lockstep towards the future.
January 25, 2022
Wowowowowow. The prologue to A History of Wild Places sure got me invested in this story. I had no idea where this book was going to take me. I’ve said a million times I don’t remember synopses when I read, and I had no idea the story would wind up in a strange, highly restrictive, hidden commune.
An author has gone missing, and Travis, somewhat of a psychic private investigator, has been hired by the family to find her. He follows her path that leads him to Pastoral, but then he disappears along with her.
Unexpected twists, atmosphere like no other, delectable, rich, yet somehow precise, storytelling, I really, really adored this. It is a slow builder, so just be aware of that, but this world understandably takes some time to come together.
I immediately bought Ernshaw’s first two books!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
An author has gone missing, and Travis, somewhat of a psychic private investigator, has been hired by the family to find her. He follows her path that leads him to Pastoral, but then he disappears along with her.
Unexpected twists, atmosphere like no other, delectable, rich, yet somehow precise, storytelling, I really, really adored this. It is a slow builder, so just be aware of that, but this world understandably takes some time to come together.
I immediately bought Ernshaw’s first two books!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
October 13, 2022
teetering between 4-4.5 stars! why is everyone so hard on this book? it’s beautiful and unique and so atmospheric! the perfect book for all fall vibes.
my friend explained this book to me like this: it’s like a puzzle that you try to figure out as you go. and she was SPOT ON! some people say it’s predictable but i didn’t think so. sure you could guess things along the way but you won’t guess it all… there are multiple twists which i appreciated. it’s a great book club book too—the ending leaves you with much to discuss!
the main characters were beautiful and Bee reminded me SO much of Inti from ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES (an all time fave). if you’re looking for a book that’s unlike others and very vibey and suspenseful/confusing in a good way, pick this up.
the ending was a bit wrapped up for me and i’m not sure i tooootally believe the reasoning behind the plot twist (keeping this spoiler free and vague lol) but overall i deff enjoyed and recommend it!
thanks to Atria for the gifted copy 🖤
my friend explained this book to me like this: it’s like a puzzle that you try to figure out as you go. and she was SPOT ON! some people say it’s predictable but i didn’t think so. sure you could guess things along the way but you won’t guess it all… there are multiple twists which i appreciated. it’s a great book club book too—the ending leaves you with much to discuss!
the main characters were beautiful and Bee reminded me SO much of Inti from ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES (an all time fave). if you’re looking for a book that’s unlike others and very vibey and suspenseful/confusing in a good way, pick this up.
the ending was a bit wrapped up for me and i’m not sure i tooootally believe the reasoning behind the plot twist (keeping this spoiler free and vague lol) but overall i deff enjoyed and recommend it!
thanks to Atria for the gifted copy 🖤
June 28, 2021
I genuinely don’t know how to review this book without spoiling anything. My recommendation is to go in blind and enjoy the ride. This book just reiterates that Ernshaw can write some of the most atmospheric stories I’ve ever read and still manage to pull off entirely unique plots.
This one gives off The Village and The Devil All the Time vibes if you want to know the type of book you’re getting into. There’s a missing macabre children’s book author, a man with a gift for finding people, a cult-like commune deep in the woods, a pox, multiple POVs and a very ominous tone throughout. Does that work for ya? I went in not knowing anything and I can honestly say I didn’t see any of the twists coming and I throughly enjoyed myself the entire time. Highly recommend experiencing this book without reading any reviews and just experiencing all the dark and spooky vibes it throws at you!
This one gives off The Village and The Devil All the Time vibes if you want to know the type of book you’re getting into. There’s a missing macabre children’s book author, a man with a gift for finding people, a cult-like commune deep in the woods, a pox, multiple POVs and a very ominous tone throughout. Does that work for ya? I went in not knowing anything and I can honestly say I didn’t see any of the twists coming and I throughly enjoyed myself the entire time. Highly recommend experiencing this book without reading any reviews and just experiencing all the dark and spooky vibes it throws at you!
December 27, 2022
Update: Atmospheric. Troubling. Different. Beautifully written. I can't wait for Ernshaw's next book to be published! 4.5 stars
Look at that cover... Just WOW.
And the blurb... I have no words other than "perfect". I'm so excited!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Look at that cover... Just WOW.
And the blurb... I have no words other than "perfect". I'm so excited!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
February 28, 2023
3 disappointed stars ⛧⛧⛧
A History Of Wild Places offers a dark, dreamy atmosphere and a hauntingly beautiful, almost poetic writing style. Sounds pretty freaking good, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't.
I want to love the book this book could have been, and while i can appreciate the original concept of the story, I feel like it missed the mark. I didn't care about the characters. The plot twists were predictable and underwhelming, and that took a nasty bite, and not the fun kind of bite, out of my reading experience. I found myself waiting to be immersed in surprising twists, but instead, i was left feeling disappointed.
A History Of Wild Places offers a dark, dreamy atmosphere and a hauntingly beautiful, almost poetic writing style. Sounds pretty freaking good, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't.
I want to love the book this book could have been, and while i can appreciate the original concept of the story, I feel like it missed the mark. I didn't care about the characters. The plot twists were predictable and underwhelming, and that took a nasty bite, and not the fun kind of bite, out of my reading experience. I found myself waiting to be immersed in surprising twists, but instead, i was left feeling disappointed.
May 22, 2022
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Mystery Thriller
When Maggie St. Smith, an author of dark children’s books goes missing, her family hires Travis Wren to find their missing daughter. This leads Travis to a strange place called Pastoral, a small community that was founded in the 1970s and does not have much contact with the outer world. The strange thing is that even Travis goes missing! The story starts after many years following three members of the Pastoral community, Theo, Bee, and Calla. The more these three digs for information the more they unfold the secrets of this community and what happened to the missing people.
The story is narrated in the first person’s point of view. There are three POVs and excerpts from Maggie’s book as well as Travis’ notes. I’m not a big fan of multiple POVs, but in this book, they worked for me. The story itself is very haunting. The atmosphere is beautiful and scary at the same time. This is not the first time I read a book by Shea Ernshaw. I absolutely loved her young adult fantasy debut novel “The Wicked Deep”. I think this is her first adult book and it is fabulous as well. I believe all her books are highly atmospheric regardless of their genre and that’s a fantastic thing.
Keep in mind that this is a story about a pandemic. A disease that is spreading everywhere. They call it the pox or the rot. This could be a trigger warning to some people, especially with the news of monkeypox spreading everywhere now! When I picked up the book I had no idea that a pandemic was involved. It is about this small community that closed its door to protect its members. When there is chaos outside there will always be another chaos from inside. Somehow it reminds me of the concept behind Stephen King’s The Mist.
The book is beautifully written, well structured, and extremely atmospheric. The plot has some big twists that will make you question many things when you think about our real world. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Genre: Mystery Thriller
When Maggie St. Smith, an author of dark children’s books goes missing, her family hires Travis Wren to find their missing daughter. This leads Travis to a strange place called Pastoral, a small community that was founded in the 1970s and does not have much contact with the outer world. The strange thing is that even Travis goes missing! The story starts after many years following three members of the Pastoral community, Theo, Bee, and Calla. The more these three digs for information the more they unfold the secrets of this community and what happened to the missing people.
The story is narrated in the first person’s point of view. There are three POVs and excerpts from Maggie’s book as well as Travis’ notes. I’m not a big fan of multiple POVs, but in this book, they worked for me. The story itself is very haunting. The atmosphere is beautiful and scary at the same time. This is not the first time I read a book by Shea Ernshaw. I absolutely loved her young adult fantasy debut novel “The Wicked Deep”. I think this is her first adult book and it is fabulous as well. I believe all her books are highly atmospheric regardless of their genre and that’s a fantastic thing.
Keep in mind that this is a story about a pandemic. A disease that is spreading everywhere. They call it the pox or the rot. This could be a trigger warning to some people, especially with the news of monkeypox spreading everywhere now! When I picked up the book I had no idea that a pandemic was involved. It is about this small community that closed its door to protect its members. When there is chaos outside there will always be another chaos from inside. Somehow it reminds me of the concept behind Stephen King’s The Mist.
The book is beautifully written, well structured, and extremely atmospheric. The plot has some big twists that will make you question many things when you think about our real world. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
February 11, 2022
read for a booktuber 2021 favourites vlog https://youtu.be/GAaPKqtXZ4I
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