Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Empire of Wild

A few places dragged, a few bits were too on the nose. Nothing worth dropping a star over, I liked this one very much and there were some very interesting and creative ideas and turns of phrase. Great wo ld-building, I appreciate that the reader is expected to know something about native people or look it up. The uncanny image of

the rougarou dancing away too fast for comprehension

really creeped me the fuck out and lingered. There were several well-set-up heartbreaks that I knew were leading somewhere and when I figured them out I consciously thought "oh, noooo" but was desperate to keep reading to see them fulfilled. Excellent narration by Michelle St John.

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maryfranvs's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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jackie_marion's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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narbine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

once again, a book that did not need that much explicitly sexual content. However I really enjoyed the Indigenous legend story telling

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avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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yaoipaddle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

(Would have been 3 stars but the ending disappointed me enough to move it down to 2.)

I picked this book up because I saw Margaret Atwood recommend it, I'm interested in reading more books by indigenous authors, and I love werewolf adjacent creatures. (The one in this story is a rogarou.)

The setting and the scenes between Joan (main character) and her family are so well written and make me perfectly visualize everything. The small details in character interactions and the places they visit or live in make everything feel so alive and immersive.

One thing I had to get used to is that at least early on the author uses so many pronouns when we're still being introduced to the large cast of characters. I had to reread passages a few times to organize in my head who was doing what or saying what. I'm not sure if the writing got better about naming who did what or if I just got used to it as the book went on.

If you read this book please be aware of the large amount of sexual content most of which is quite graphic. The sheer amount of it in what is a mystery novel surprised me and tbh annoyed me. Everyone other than the kid characters are constantly talking about sex, thinking about sex, or having sex. To the point where I'm just waiting for it to be mentioned yet again in every chapter. Everyone is so freaking horny and most of it is so purposeless to me. Even if you like having sexual content in anything you read, the content in this book feels so out of place so often.

The pacing for most of the book was pretty good. The plot is interesting and gives just enough mystery to make you feel interested but not overwhelmed. And just when I thought the pacing was going too fast I realized that it was pretty well planned!

However by the last few chapters of the book it felt very rushed and everything was a bit to convenient just to wrap the story up.

(There is one scene where Joan travels somewhere, gets angry at something that tbh I felt was just to add conflict and not representative of how she has acted throughout the book, and then gets over it in a couple paragraphs and drives home. :/ Useless.) The last two chapters especially just felt annoying and almost like the author wanted to end on a cliffhanger instead of be content with the story she already finished.

I also felt let down and like some important characters were introduced too late with zero prep and just gone as soon as they came. (No pun intended considering all the sex in this book).

Overall an immersive setting and cast with a fun mystery to keep you on your toes. This all is dragged down by out of place sex and rushed pacing at the end.

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