A review by xabbeylongx
Where The World Turns Wild by Nicola Penfold

adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Spoilers Ahead: 
I had to read this book for university, and it was a very meh story for me. 
We follow Juniper and her younger brother, Bear, in this story. Basically, after a pandemic that causes ticks to spread deadly diseases, and because of that Portia Steel, the Governess, rids the world of all nature. Juniper and Bear, who were adopted by their Aunt BLANK, originally came from the wild, intending to go back to their parents some day, but they never did. 
Ju soon finds out that they are trying to make a cure against the disease, but it involves the immune’s blood. Immune’s as in Ju and Bear. They are running out of time, and Aunt BLANK isn’t immune, so she must stay, but she sends the other two off into The Wild. 
They struggle to survive at first, trying to find food and water and fight the cold, all the whilst staying away from the drones sent out to find them. Bear gets lost one of the nights, and a woman tries to save him, but then they find out she can’t be trusted, and they have to run away from her. All the whilst there is a Lynx, whom they name Ghost, who follows them, warning them of any danger and occasionally finding them food to eat. 
Ju gets her foot caught in a trap, but luckily they go past a travelling group, and they feel safe again. The drones think they’ve probably passed away in a fire (thanks to Ju’s clever thinking) and they help to heal Ju up, whilst taking some of the stress of looking after Bear off of her. 
Their whole plan was to go to Ennerdale to be reunited with their parents, but both of them don’t want to leave. They do, however, and when they get to Ennerdale they find that their mother isn’t even alive anymore. They are welcomed in by a woman who’s actually dating their father, and pregnant with his son. They join their community, which Juniper is named after, and they finally feel like a part of society. 
There’s a lot to this book that didn’t make sense to me. For one, where on earth did the drones go, and why did they just stop hunting? We got halfway through the book and it was like there wasn’t any threat any more? And I don’t get what BLANK has to add to the story? Like, we get it, they were close once, but why aren’t they close now? The storyline didn’t make sense, and I would have liked it to either have contributed to the plot a bit more, or just not been there at all, because, in my opinion, it achieves nothing. It hits a little too close to home for me! COVID days are a rather un-fond memory, although thank god we never had any nature banned. The ending was very abrupt for me, and very anti-climatic, and the characters themselves I wasn’t the biggest fan of. I can’t lie, I found Bear absolutely insufferable. I know it’s probably quite a realistic portrayal of these children, but come on. Why are you showing off again? I wasn’t a fan of Ju, but I did feel sorry for her throughout almost the entirety of the book. 
I thought it was a very cool concept, but I think it would be even cooler to know about what happened whilst going through it! That could be a whole other book, and I would like to hear more about it, especially more about Ju’s relationship with her mother. 
Ooh, that’s another thing: It’s SUCH a pet peeve of mine when dialogue overuses a characters name. In every sentence at one point, Bear was saying ‘Ju’ or ‘Juniper’, and it almost made me put the book down (but I need this degree, aha). 
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