A review by geofrog
The Wicker King by K. Ancrum

4.0

This book feels personal to me especially after I was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia. The Wicker King is a psychological young adult thriller that follows two friends struggling as one spirals into madness. August is a misfit with a pyro streak and Jack is a golden boy on the varsity rugby team — but their intense friendship goes way back. Jack begins to see increasingly vivid hallucinations that take the form of an elaborate fantasy kingdom creeping into the edges of the real world. With their parents' unreliable behavior, August decides to help Jack the way he always has, on his own. He accepts the visions as reality, even when Jack leads them on a quest to fulfill a dark prophecy. August and Jack alienate everyone around them as they struggle with their sanity, free falling into the surreal fantasy world that feels made for them. In the end, each one must choose his own truth. This book reminds me of one of my favorite indie horror movies, They Look Like People, in the sense that it is about two boys who reunite and find solace in each other as one of them spirals into madness, later revealed to be mental illness. Content warning for mental illness, forced institutionalization, toxic relationship, child abuse, panic attacks and homophobia. I loved the depiction of both characters, and the exploration of a toxic relationship that is detrimental to one’s mental health. I read this physically and my copy of the book had white pages that slowly became black, which really added to the story and atmosphere. I loved that the relationship that the two boys have is queer coded but the story remains centered in their toxic friendship. I felt like a lesser book would have focused on a romantic relationship that spiraled and it wouldn’t have had the same effect as this book had on me. I do feel like a lot of modern audiences wouldn’t understand or appreciate this book if they hadn’t experienced mental illness themselves or if someone they loved didn’t. I highly recommend this book for people who have gone through this or if someone you love has, as I feel like it gave a realistic depiction of someone spiraling and someone exacerbating another person’s mental illness. I found the ending to be realistic. I really admire the author for writing about a sensitive and tough subject for a younger intended audience.