Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - A History of Wild Places

Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw

64 reviews

kayelina's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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miak2's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Perhaps just like Eloise and the Fox, we have feared the wrong thing, when we should have feared what's right here within our own borders. Within our own walls. The beast is already inside the castle, tearing people apart, yet we stare into the woods waiting for it to appear.

3.5 stars

I liked the premise of this a lot but thought the execution of it was just okay. The book hinged on a few twist reveals which, largely, I saw coming. But I still enjoyed getting the full picture uncovered - all the motives and the explanations. I especially appreciated the multiple narrators for the audiobook, it made listening such an immersive experience, and all the narrators did a great job.

I want to praise Ernshaw for really creating the perfect, mysterious vibe for Pastoral. I could really picture their community and the spaces they occupied. The narrators all had strong voices that conveyed their speculations and emotions well. I also liked how the book wrapped up. The big reveals, while not surprising, all did make sense with the story and were pretty interesting.

You know the 'big book small book' meme? Throughout reading, though, I kept thinking about how many things could have been solved if straight people could just communicate. Theo and Calla. Bee and Levi. Just...talk to each other. Work together! Express your emotions!

Some other things I didn't like. The use of blindness as a plot point. I won't say much more, as I don't want to spoil anything, but what I thought was great disability rep ended up being...not quite that. Travis is shown to have a neat almost supernatural power that doesn't really come into play much at all. And there's some late-book reveals, past the climax of the plot, that seemed both super relevant but also very much an afterthought.

Very excited that I read this for my book club, though, as I think there'll be a lot to dissect!

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amplawrence's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book kept me guessing around every turn, keeping me on the edge of my seat. At first a bit confusing, as it starts off with an event and a character that doesn't seem to fit into the rest of the narrative, but as the mysteries slowly unfold, the beginning is only made better. This book was well crafted in a way that I haven't experienced in a while-- where the twists were both surprising yet made complete sense, and tempting me to read the whole book again with my newly-gained perspective.

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hillbilly_heroine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It’s a fun page-turner but relies on some weird old chestnuts to move the plot forward, e.g. that visually impaired people have super-human hearing. The big reveal was oddly disappointing. That said, the characters are well-written and I was invested in what happened to them. I’d read more by this author, particularly if she ventures outside the mystery genre. Not bad at all.

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toriwatson's review against another edition

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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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The premise of the book was interesting, I really liked the beginning. It kind of felt anticlimactic/like it didn’t deliver though? Like the answers were given but not in a satisfying way… The switch in narration sort of gave away one of the reveals (not all of it, but if you were paying attention it was fairly easy to spot). Also I wish Bee & Travis' abilities were more explored! It was a quick read though and nice to read on this rainy day!

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torturedreadersdept'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? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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billyjepma's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

God, I thought I'd never finish this. I picked up the audiobook of this almost on a whim, informed only by some positive reviews and the fact that it has a small cast of narrators, a feature I always enjoy. While it starts solidly enough, the plot quickly spirals into monotony. The story is little more than a conglomeration of tired true-crime trappings that meander in circles, devoid of memorable characters, meaningful tension, and satisfying payoffs. It's disappointing because the payoffs are interesting on paper, but the reasoning is so flimsy and half-baked that it feels like Ernshaw had to scramble at the end to come up with something.

The writing is mostly fine, despite some stylistic choices I didn't vibe with (no one should ever use "flesh" as often as this book does). There's a decent sense of environment and tone, too. I just spent most of the book waiting for something to happen, and when nothing did, wishing that it had more momentum so I could get to the end and move on.

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erinmjustice's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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anarchist_al's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A pretty disorienting read—we begin with a narrator whose storyline is simply abandoned for basically the rest of the book. It eventually makes sense, but was kind of a head scratcher for the majority of the book. I really liked the setting of Pastoral, with beautiful descriptions of trees and forest and darkness. I was really intrigued by Travis’s ability to read after images of an object’s history, and was disappointed that it wasn’t explored or explained more. It was very very light magical realism. Also,

the idea of a charismatic cult leader works really well, and that he could lead a community to believe existential falsehoods is totally realistic. However, the whole thing being hypnosis was kind of a stretch. If it had been another bit of magical realism special ability thing, I would have liked it more and it would have mirrored Travis/Theo’s ability.

Overall, cool concept and setting, cool mystery, interesting characters—an entertaining listen.

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