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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5/5 ⭐️
Tenía una idea de lo que el libro se trataba, pero me encontré algo mucho más oscuro de lo que pensaba.
August y Jack son amigos desde niños y nunca han pasado demasiado tiempo separados. Solían jugar un juego del que era parte El Rey de Mimbre, pero cuando crecieron August no pensó volver a escuchar ese nombre, hasta que inevitablemente regresó a su vida.
Gradualmente se va dando cuenta de que su amigo Jack no parece estar bien, siempre ve cosas que no están ahí, se distrae demasiado y cuando le confiesa que existe todo un mundo que se desarrolla frente a sus ojos sin que los demás sean capaces de verlo, se da cuenta de que tiene que hacer algo para ayudar a su amigo, pero probablemente su decisión no sea la correcta.
Esta historia se desarrolla en secreto, con unos padres ausentes y unos cuantos amigos que intentan ayudar a unos chicos que no buscan ayuda. August y Jack tienen una relación insana, tóxica y codependiente, pero sumamente intensa y profunda, por lo que me hace sentido todo lo qué pasa.
Me sentí muy confundida en varias partes de la historia, pero de verdad me parece que el tipo de relación “enfermiza” que tienen estos chicos está descrita de una manera que te hace entender claramente lo que es. Me gustó mucho cómo está escrito, con capítulos cortos, y definitivamente que las páginas se vayan oscureciendo mientras la historia se torna más densa me encantó.
Lo que me hace no darle una calificación más alta son dos cosas; en primera siento que al clímax de la historia le faltó fuerza. Todo el libro estuve conociendo el desarrollo y en el momento en que llegó la catástrofe…no fue tan catastrófica y de hecho pasó muy rápido. Y la segunda es el final, medio ambiguo y siento que los personajes pudieron aprender más e incluso sanar un poco.
Tenía una idea de lo que el libro se trataba, pero me encontré algo mucho más oscuro de lo que pensaba.
August y Jack son amigos desde niños y nunca han pasado demasiado tiempo separados. Solían jugar un juego del que era parte El Rey de Mimbre, pero cuando crecieron August no pensó volver a escuchar ese nombre, hasta que inevitablemente regresó a su vida.
Gradualmente se va dando cuenta de que su amigo Jack no parece estar bien, siempre ve cosas que no están ahí, se distrae demasiado y cuando le confiesa que existe todo un mundo que se desarrolla frente a sus ojos sin que los demás sean capaces de verlo, se da cuenta de que tiene que hacer algo para ayudar a su amigo, pero probablemente su decisión no sea la correcta.
Esta historia se desarrolla en secreto, con unos padres ausentes y unos cuantos amigos que intentan ayudar a unos chicos que no buscan ayuda. August y Jack tienen una relación insana, tóxica y codependiente, pero sumamente intensa y profunda, por lo que me hace sentido todo lo qué pasa.
Me sentí muy confundida en varias partes de la historia, pero de verdad me parece que el tipo de relación “enfermiza” que tienen estos chicos está descrita de una manera que te hace entender claramente lo que es. Me gustó mucho cómo está escrito, con capítulos cortos, y definitivamente que las páginas se vayan oscureciendo mientras la historia se torna más densa me encantó.
Lo que me hace no darle una calificación más alta son dos cosas; en primera siento que al clímax de la historia le faltó fuerza. Todo el libro estuve conociendo el desarrollo y en el momento en que llegó la catástrofe…no fue tan catastrófica y de hecho pasó muy rápido. Y la segunda es el final, medio ambiguo y siento que los personajes pudieron aprender más e incluso sanar un poco.
Quick and easy read, to the point, without overcomplicating itself.
The Wicker King by K. Ancrum explores themes of alienation, possessiveness, mental illness, and the burning dark passion of youth in interesting ways.
With a twist that's effective and a gut punch, this is one YA novel that really captures doomed youth in a way that feels honest, true, and resonating.
The Wicker King by K. Ancrum explores themes of alienation, possessiveness, mental illness, and the burning dark passion of youth in interesting ways.
With a twist that's effective and a gut punch, this is one YA novel that really captures doomed youth in a way that feels honest, true, and resonating.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This ripped my heart out and I was NOT expecting that.
Jack and August are outwardly polar opposites; Jack is the wealthy, varsity rugby player with the seemingly perfect life, and August is the poor kid who runs drugs in their high school to make extra money for his mostly invalid mother. Instead, they have an inexplicably codependent relationship that is a cross between worship, love, and blind devotion. When Jack begins hallucinating fantastical things, he settles into this unwavering conviction in an effort to save the parallel world only he can see. Helpless, August devotes himself entirely to Jack's will, forsaking anything else including their health and sanity leading to potentially life altering consequences.
What the actual fuck did I just read? I genuinely can't even say for sure if I liked this book because I was so confused. For a while I thought this felt like a drawn-out queer bait, which was really irritating me, but there was some validation in that arc. I will say the construction of this book is really cool. It looks like journal entries with mixes of doctor's notes, detention slips, pictures, and scribbles along with the pages growing increasingly more black as if singed in the fire as well as mirroring the climax of these events. The limited plot there is much more stream of consciousness, going off of these journal entries, and focuses on this main relationship of Jack and August, but it's a genuinely confusing book. I didn't know what was real and I never really understood what any of it was supposed to mean.
After reading lots of reviews and the authors note, apparently this is a toxic, co-dependent relationship rooting in mutual neglect and abandonment from people who should care and protect them so they found this love and nurture in each other. They also seem to trauma bond in their mental illness and social ineptitudes as well, it's very strange. But then it also throws in this mystical aspect of Jack being 'the wicker king' because he has these powers of seeing this other world and he owns August and occasionally treats him as his slave, but then also as his salvation? I found the entire thing a muddled, confusing mess and finished it feeling just as loss and bewildered as I was when the book started, I have no clue what this book is trying to say and I'm further baffled that this is the start of a series?!
It's clearly a very niche and personal read as it's very highly rated and some people are obsessed with it. The author's note pinpointed those with mental illness or with trauma or parental neglect, so maybe it speaks to a certain group of people and touches their hearts with this strange story, but I did not connect to this at all. Give this a try if any of this sounds interesting to you as clearly it went over my head, but some seemed to really like it. I wouldn't say I disliked it, but I definitely didn't understand or appreciate it, not my cup of tea.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I really don't have too much to add for this section as I straight up didn't understand this book enough to go into finer details. I really did not understand Jack and August's relationship at all. I thought for sure they were romantically in love with each other the entire time, but they kept insisting it wasn't like that and their bond was different. They also have multiple moments of hooking up with women, August especially, but then they tell him that they're really just placeholders for what he really wants which is obviously Jack. I genuinely thought this was going to be queer bait the amount of times they came so close to doing everything but kissing, but then would just cuddle and hold the other while being like 'LOL NO HOMO' (they didn't say that, but pretty much) and it was so bizarre, but then August would physically be in pain when separated from Jack, it was so weird. They finally acted on this at the very end, but even then it's not fully explained. Jack's hallucinations are explained by the fact that he had a straight up brain tumor, but then it's not explained how the twins knew what the fuck was happening and why they were so anxious this was going to go wrong. Literally nothing was explained and it just ends with both boys getting out of the mental hospital after serving their time and are able to be reunited together and while Jack's tumor is gone, he still believes he's the Wicker King and that August is his servant, I just don't understand. I feel like the crazy quest they had to go on to validate Jack's insanity made a ton more sense if it was strictly tumor based and August just deluded himself into doing whatever Jack wanted because he loved him so much he'd do anything for him, but that's just not really what happened and it still made no sense. Also what was any of it for anyway? They needed August to almost drown or burn down that building? For what? Did they even accomplish anything?! I DON'T UNDERSTAND! This whole book is so weird, I just cannot wrap my brain around it. I'm so glad others liked it, but it was just too weird for me, I do not understand what it was trying to accomplish at all. Not my thing.
What the actual fuck did I just read? I genuinely can't even say for sure if I liked this book because I was so confused. For a while I thought this felt like a drawn-out queer bait, which was really irritating me, but there was some validation in that arc. I will say the construction of this book is really cool. It looks like journal entries with mixes of doctor's notes, detention slips, pictures, and scribbles along with the pages growing increasingly more black as if singed in the fire as well as mirroring the climax of these events. The limited plot there is much more stream of consciousness, going off of these journal entries, and focuses on this main relationship of Jack and August, but it's a genuinely confusing book. I didn't know what was real and I never really understood what any of it was supposed to mean.
After reading lots of reviews and the authors note, apparently this is a toxic, co-dependent relationship rooting in mutual neglect and abandonment from people who should care and protect them so they found this love and nurture in each other. They also seem to trauma bond in their mental illness and social ineptitudes as well, it's very strange. But then it also throws in this mystical aspect of Jack being 'the wicker king' because he has these powers of seeing this other world and he owns August and occasionally treats him as his slave, but then also as his salvation? I found the entire thing a muddled, confusing mess and finished it feeling just as loss and bewildered as I was when the book started, I have no clue what this book is trying to say and I'm further baffled that this is the start of a series?!
It's clearly a very niche and personal read as it's very highly rated and some people are obsessed with it. The author's note pinpointed those with mental illness or with trauma or parental neglect, so maybe it speaks to a certain group of people and touches their hearts with this strange story, but I did not connect to this at all. Give this a try if any of this sounds interesting to you as clearly it went over my head, but some seemed to really like it. I wouldn't say I disliked it, but I definitely didn't understand or appreciate it, not my cup of tea.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I really don't have too much to add for this section as I straight up didn't understand this book enough to go into finer details. I really did not understand Jack and August's relationship at all. I thought for sure they were romantically in love with each other the entire time, but they kept insisting it wasn't like that and their bond was different. They also have multiple moments of hooking up with women, August especially, but then they tell him that they're really just placeholders for what he really wants which is obviously Jack. I genuinely thought this was going to be queer bait the amount of times they came so close to doing everything but kissing, but then would just cuddle and hold the other while being like 'LOL NO HOMO' (they didn't say that, but pretty much) and it was so bizarre, but then August would physically be in pain when separated from Jack, it was so weird. They finally acted on this at the very end, but even then it's not fully explained. Jack's hallucinations are explained by the fact that he had a straight up brain tumor, but then it's not explained how the twins knew what the fuck was happening and why they were so anxious this was going to go wrong. Literally nothing was explained and it just ends with both boys getting out of the mental hospital after serving their time and are able to be reunited together and while Jack's tumor is gone, he still believes he's the Wicker King and that August is his servant, I just don't understand. I feel like the crazy quest they had to go on to validate Jack's insanity made a ton more sense if it was strictly tumor based and August just deluded himself into doing whatever Jack wanted because he loved him so much he'd do anything for him, but that's just not really what happened and it still made no sense. Also what was any of it for anyway? They needed August to almost drown or burn down that building? For what? Did they even accomplish anything?! I DON'T UNDERSTAND! This whole book is so weird, I just cannot wrap my brain around it. I'm so glad others liked it, but it was just too weird for me, I do not understand what it was trying to accomplish at all. Not my thing.
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i think this is a five stars for idea & concept, two for execution.
Slow burn
This isn't your typical slow burn the way you would think this term is used. This is the slow burn of watching the corner of paper catch on fire, then the edges start to blacken and curl and smoke as the flame starts to consume everything.
That's THE WICKER KING. The first 20% was just... Crinkling. A whiff of a spark, the sputter of the lighter struggling to catch.
Then, the flame. One that draws you in and makes you forget everything but the fact that it's there and hungry.
So you feed it, and watch as the bitter edges turn to ash, uncaring as long as you were able to burn with it.
And wish that you could be so possessed.
This isn't your typical slow burn the way you would think this term is used. This is the slow burn of watching the corner of paper catch on fire, then the edges start to blacken and curl and smoke as the flame starts to consume everything.
That's THE WICKER KING. The first 20% was just... Crinkling. A whiff of a spark, the sputter of the lighter struggling to catch.
Then, the flame. One that draws you in and makes you forget everything but the fact that it's there and hungry.
So you feed it, and watch as the bitter edges turn to ash, uncaring as long as you were able to burn with it.
And wish that you could be so possessed.