Scan barcode
kiandra_jane's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Easy to read, loved reading about an Australian town in the 1980's.
Story felt a little slow, or maybe I just wasn't that invested in the story. The twists and reveals didn't feel super suspenseful or shocking.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed The Nowhere Child, and The Wife and the Widow.
I didn't feel like the characters had much depth, and didn't feel overly connected to any of the characters.
The developments felt just dropped into the story out of nowhere, with no lead up, I think for the shock factor but just felt disconnected.
Story felt a little slow, or maybe I just wasn't that invested in the story. The twists and reveals didn't feel super suspenseful or shocking.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed The Nowhere Child, and The Wife and the Widow.
I didn't feel like the characters had much depth, and didn't feel overly connected to any of the characters.
The developments felt just dropped into the story out of nowhere, with no lead up, I think for the shock factor but just felt disconnected.
jacki_f's review against another edition
4.0
This reads like a twisty Harlan Coben-esque TV series. It's centered on a small community in Victoria in the closing weeks of 1989. A teenage girl has gone missing and while it's initially assumed that she's run away, the neighbours begin to suspect that a local boy might have been involved.
I pelted through this in a single afternoon, completely engrossed and wanting to know what was going to happen. As with The Wife and the Widow, White is brilliant at misdirection. There are a number of pleasing reveals along the way and then suddenly - bam! - a couple of whopper "I did not see THAT coming" twists. While ultimately I am not sure that there's much here that's memorable, it was a gripping read that I did not want to put down.
I pelted through this in a single afternoon, completely engrossed and wanting to know what was going to happen. As with The Wife and the Widow, White is brilliant at misdirection. There are a number of pleasing reveals along the way and then suddenly - bam! - a couple of whopper "I did not see THAT coming" twists. While ultimately I am not sure that there's much here that's memorable, it was a gripping read that I did not want to put down.
kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
5.0
"Why do good people do bad things?" is an interesting question, explored fully in WILD PLACE by Christian White.
Set in the heart of Australian suburbia, during the height of the summer of 1989, seventeen year old Tracie Reed vanished one night. Her parents in the middle of a fraught divorce, Tracie's behaviour had changed in the leadup and despite her mother's protestations to the contrary, police have basically dismissed her as a runaway. Part of the local neighbourhood watch, Tracie's high school English teacher, and neighbour, starts digging into her disappearance, worried about his own two boys, quickly settling on his own idea of a suspect - the teenager next door, Sean Fryman. Sullen, reclusive, a bit weird, with a love of gothic clothing and heavy metal music, there's nothing like being different to mark you out as a potential suspect in anything dodgy.
Right from the very start of WILD PLACE there's a sense of "otherness" going on. In the middle of supposedly tranquil, ordered suburbia there's one of those little pockets of bushland that used to be common - the titular wild place, that Tom's own house backs onto. The place where kids played, teenagers gathered for illicit assignations or just simply to smoke and hang out and snakes lurked, access to these places is increasingly disappearing as nature is wiped away and built out. Once Tracie goes missing though, the Wild Place goes from somewhere innocent and mildly threatening, to something lurking, mysterious and frightening. Especially as far as Tom's concerned as he bans his young son from every going there, and takes to exploring the area himself, finding plenty of odd things to worry over.
As the story progresses it increasingly becomes obvious that the "wild place" is a convenient scapegoat, and there is plenty of oddity and danger lurking much closer - in the houses and the people of the suburb, many of whom seem to be hiding a lot of secrets. To say nothing of a spot of "Satanic Panic" very common in the 1980's in particular. Carefully letting the boundaries of possibilities slide outwards, the author takes the reader from a contained, acceptable threat - whatever is other and lurking in the wild place, to the wider area - and the people in it. The possibility that the threat is within the community, one of them, nothing "other" about it at all slowly reveals itself, leaving the reader disconcerted and baffled, until the epilogue at which point you'd be forgiven for taking a rather different look at everyone around you.
Having never been a child of the suburbs, and only briefly an adult in those places it's books like WILD PLACE that could make you look more fondly on the wide open, sparsely populated areas of our world. You know where you stand with a snake, but this novel could leave you wondering if you ever really know that about people.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/wild-place-christian-white
Set in the heart of Australian suburbia, during the height of the summer of 1989, seventeen year old Tracie Reed vanished one night. Her parents in the middle of a fraught divorce, Tracie's behaviour had changed in the leadup and despite her mother's protestations to the contrary, police have basically dismissed her as a runaway. Part of the local neighbourhood watch, Tracie's high school English teacher, and neighbour, starts digging into her disappearance, worried about his own two boys, quickly settling on his own idea of a suspect - the teenager next door, Sean Fryman. Sullen, reclusive, a bit weird, with a love of gothic clothing and heavy metal music, there's nothing like being different to mark you out as a potential suspect in anything dodgy.
Right from the very start of WILD PLACE there's a sense of "otherness" going on. In the middle of supposedly tranquil, ordered suburbia there's one of those little pockets of bushland that used to be common - the titular wild place, that Tom's own house backs onto. The place where kids played, teenagers gathered for illicit assignations or just simply to smoke and hang out and snakes lurked, access to these places is increasingly disappearing as nature is wiped away and built out. Once Tracie goes missing though, the Wild Place goes from somewhere innocent and mildly threatening, to something lurking, mysterious and frightening. Especially as far as Tom's concerned as he bans his young son from every going there, and takes to exploring the area himself, finding plenty of odd things to worry over.
As the story progresses it increasingly becomes obvious that the "wild place" is a convenient scapegoat, and there is plenty of oddity and danger lurking much closer - in the houses and the people of the suburb, many of whom seem to be hiding a lot of secrets. To say nothing of a spot of "Satanic Panic" very common in the 1980's in particular. Carefully letting the boundaries of possibilities slide outwards, the author takes the reader from a contained, acceptable threat - whatever is other and lurking in the wild place, to the wider area - and the people in it. The possibility that the threat is within the community, one of them, nothing "other" about it at all slowly reveals itself, leaving the reader disconcerted and baffled, until the epilogue at which point you'd be forgiven for taking a rather different look at everyone around you.
Having never been a child of the suburbs, and only briefly an adult in those places it's books like WILD PLACE that could make you look more fondly on the wide open, sparsely populated areas of our world. You know where you stand with a snake, but this novel could leave you wondering if you ever really know that about people.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/wild-place-christian-white
molly_reads_books's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
dominellireads's review against another edition
5.0
It is no suprise that I loved this book as I have lovvvvvvved Christian White’s other two novels (seriously people are probably sick of me talking about Wife & The Widow) so this was def an auto-buy for me!!!
I honestly just want to crawl inside his head and hug his brain, he is one talented writer that I will forever enjoy!!
Wild Place is a mystery/thriller (I’d say more mystery) set in the late 80s in a small town Camp Hill of Australia. This is one juicy plot, I have never read anything about the satanic panic and I wasn’t quite sure I’d like this story line… but it was done so so so well. You will be kept guessing right up until the end…. And even then you still won’t know what the f happened and how the f you got there
I honestly just want to crawl inside his head and hug his brain, he is one talented writer that I will forever enjoy!!
Wild Place is a mystery/thriller (I’d say more mystery) set in the late 80s in a small town Camp Hill of Australia. This is one juicy plot, I have never read anything about the satanic panic and I wasn’t quite sure I’d like this story line… but it was done so so so well. You will be kept guessing right up until the end…. And even then you still won’t know what the f happened and how the f you got there
carole888's review against another edition
3.0
Set in 1989 and the New Year 1990 - A plot that twisted and had me guessing all the way to the end.
bianca89279's review against another edition
3.0
Wild Place is Christian White's third novel.
It's a short and well-paced crime novel, with the usual red hearings, there weren't many plot holes or unbelievable aspects to it.
My rating is about how I felt during and after finishing it, not about the novel's quality.
I've got to take a break from reading this genre, no matter how much readers rave about this title or that title.
It's a short and well-paced crime novel, with the usual red hearings, there weren't many plot holes or unbelievable aspects to it.
My rating is about how I felt during and after finishing it, not about the novel's quality.
I've got to take a break from reading this genre, no matter how much readers rave about this title or that title.
nina_reads_books's review against another edition
3.0
Wild Place is Australian thriller writer Christian White's third novel. I loved his previous two in particular The Wife and the Widow. White has the art of misdirection down pat and this was supremely evident when the twist in The Wife and the Widow was revealed. My jaw dropped and I had to re-read a few chapters to understand what the heck had happened! So I think I had unrealistically high expectations for this third book as it fell a little flat for me.
It's set in suburban Australia in 1989. A teenager goes missing and local high school teacher Tom Wittner thinks he can uncover the truth. There's talk of Satanic rituals and a weirdly obsessive neighbourhood watch group.
The story is quite engaging and I binged it over two sessions as soon as we arrived on holiday but the twist just didn't wow me. I definitely hadn't seen it coming but it just didn't seem believable at all. Once the second twist came the story came together but I just wasn’t satisfied and it felt a bit meh.
As I said I think this book suffered from just how much I loved his previous book. It's definitely a page turner so I'd still recommend it as a great holiday read. And I'm 100% reading whatever White writes next!
It's set in suburban Australia in 1989. A teenager goes missing and local high school teacher Tom Wittner thinks he can uncover the truth. There's talk of Satanic rituals and a weirdly obsessive neighbourhood watch group.
The story is quite engaging and I binged it over two sessions as soon as we arrived on holiday but the twist just didn't wow me. I definitely hadn't seen it coming but it just didn't seem believable at all. Once the second twist came the story came together but I just wasn’t satisfied and it felt a bit meh.
As I said I think this book suffered from just how much I loved his previous book. It's definitely a page turner so I'd still recommend it as a great holiday read. And I'm 100% reading whatever White writes next!
amparker__'s review against another edition
3.0
The who did it and the why did they do it was super obvious and lame. The ending was pretty good though.