emilymaedilley 's review for:

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

4.0

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It took me 2 weeks to read the first 100 pages of this book and 3 hours to finish the last 150 pages, which pretty much sums up my feelings on it. Someone I know described this as a "female version of Hatchet," and I see why she thinks so. The writing reads like a lullaby, even though the content is harrowing at times. Groff illustrates the wilderness settings and the flashbacks to civility both in incredible detail. The girl, our main character, is someone I spent the whole book figuring out and who I could have spent more time with. My favorite part was probably in the fever section of the book, namely chapters 15-17, where there are interesting musings as the girl starts to ponder dominion, what's in a name, what is god, and a female's place in the world. Well done overall, though I wish the wrap up at the end had been stretched a little more.