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caseythereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Abandonment, Miscarriage, Blood, Child death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Infidelity
Moderate: Sexual content and Pregnancy
lasamviela's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, and Animal death
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Child death, Miscarriage, and Blood
Minor: Vomit, Animal cruelty, Child death, Medical trauma, and Excrement
madeleinebay's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Grief, and Pregnancy
merle_bookdragon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Hm, so I am still not entirely sure what I thought of this book. I chose this book as part of my master thesis corpus and the premise sounded really interesting. I still think that the concept of the book is a good basis to explore family relationships under specific circumstances, I just think parts of the book were simply not my style.
The book is divided into 7 parts and it started out really well until around parts 5 and 6 where it took a bit of a downward spiral. I do not want to spoiler too much but I think was mostly bothered me that nothing was explained, not even at the very end. There is no explanation as to what the state of the world is to make living in it so horrible except for "there is a lot of smog" but that's nothing new. Additionally, between time jumps, especially one character changes their personality quite a bit, which could have been explained. Without any explanation, I started to instantly dislike them and kept wondering what the hell had happened at this time. I understand that keeping readers in the dark is a common tactic but without any resolve, in the end, it is simply unsatisfying. For example, as a second book for my MA, I read The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He. In this book, I was also very confused for a long time because a lot of information is withheld from the reader for a long time. But in the end, you still receive an explanation, which might not make you like the story or the characters more but at least you learn about a motive. That was really missing in The New Wilderness.
Also, this is really just personal preference butall that very vigorous and animalistic fucking around the campfire really did nothing for this story. It just made me skip over those parts and grow more annoyed with all the characters for some reason. Oh well.
The book is divided into 7 parts and it started out really well until around parts 5 and 6 where it took a bit of a downward spiral. I do not want to spoiler too much but I think was mostly bothered me that nothing was explained, not even at the very end. There is no explanation as to what the state of the world is to make living in it so horrible except for "there is a lot of smog" but that's nothing new. Additionally, between time jumps, especially one character changes their personality quite a bit, which could have been explained. Without any explanation, I started to instantly dislike them and kept wondering what the hell had happened at this time. I understand that keeping readers in the dark is a common tactic but without any resolve, in the end, it is simply unsatisfying. For example, as a second book for my MA, I read The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He. In this book, I was also very confused for a long time because a lot of information is withheld from the reader for a long time. But in the end, you still receive an explanation, which might not make you like the story or the characters more but at least you learn about a motive. That was really missing in The New Wilderness.
Also, this is really just personal preference but
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Animal death, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Sexual content, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death of parent, and Grief
maddiebusick's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.25
Really interesting and compelling concept. It lagged a bit at times but I guess that reflects the way these characters were living. I enjoyed the fact that this was an environmental warning of a novel without being set in space.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
ruthie_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Miscarriage
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Violence
katjoyphil's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Miscarriage, and Vomit
sarahs_shelf_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I really really enjoyed this book. It took me a bit to get into it, but one I did it was fantastic. The story itself is sort of heartbreaking, I mean it's about the climate catastrophe and a group of people's final attempts to live outside of the City. In this near future pretty much everyone lives in cities and the air and living conditions have become so bad that children are deathly ill pretty much as soon as they're born.
There was one portion of the book were the passing got a little slow for me and I really wanted to know what was going to happen...but overall I think the pacing is done really well. It's medium to slow paced and the movement of seasons really dictates the pacing of the characters lives which I always find soothing (even though, as I said it is mostly a heartbreaking book). One thing I found super interesting is the use of maps in the story, I think that's something that has stuck with me the most after reading this book, and I hope to have discussions with people about it. And of course the mother-daughter relationship is at the forefront of this story. I don't have much to say about it except that it was amazingly well done and I marked so many passages about them.
There was one portion of the book were the passing got a little slow for me and I really wanted to know what was going to happen...but overall I think the pacing is done really well. It's medium to slow paced and the movement of seasons really dictates the pacing of the characters lives which I always find soothing (even though, as I said it is mostly a heartbreaking book). One thing I found super interesting is the use of maps in the story, I think that's something that has stuck with me the most after reading this book, and I hope to have discussions with people about it. And of course the mother-daughter relationship is at the forefront of this story. I don't have much to say about it except that it was amazingly well done and I marked so many passages about them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Miscarriage
Moderate: Death of parent and Grief
leekaufman's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Grief
booknerdnative's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The New Wilderness shocked me in a deep way. It was far more introspective and reflective than I anticipated going into it. I never expected an adult Dystopian novel to be as hard hitting and inward looking. I think that this would be a fantastic book club pick, as it offers so many questions about the land, our government, and how people survive as communities. What does it mean to be a leader? Is it possible to survive without government, and how do we manage to make our own self governing rules? What are ethics, and what is right and wrong? How do our decisions for a group affect us as individuals, and how do they affect the land around us? How do our decisions for ourselves affect the group, and the land around us?
It's hard to write a review for this one without demonstrating the kinds of questions that this book asks, because I feel that it was entirely the point of the novel. I think that this book has a lot to offer for a lot of different readers. There is a clear plot and narrative direction. There is a wide cast of characters with sweeping story arcs. It's adventurous and challenging, but also emotional and contemplative. The narrative has a clean enough ending, with still many questions to be answered and ideas to reflect upon.
I loved this one for the same reasons I loved Station Eleven - for the questions it asked and the for the way it made me look at the world through a clearer lens.
It's hard to write a review for this one without demonstrating the kinds of questions that this book asks, because I feel that it was entirely the point of the novel. I think that this book has a lot to offer for a lot of different readers. There is a clear plot and narrative direction. There is a wide cast of characters with sweeping story arcs. It's adventurous and challenging, but also emotional and contemplative. The narrative has a clean enough ending, with still many questions to be answered and ideas to reflect upon.
I loved this one for the same reasons I loved Station Eleven - for the questions it asked and the for the way it made me look at the world through a clearer lens.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Blood, Animal death, and Grief
Moderate: Violence and Police brutality