A review by gwenswoons
The Wilds by Sarah Pearse

dark 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? Yes

2.0

This is okay, or like…borderline okay. I enjoyed The Sanatorium couple years ago, and I thought The Retreat was okay — I guess I buy most of Sarah Pearse’s books kind of automatically(??) to listen to as, like, a thriller in the car…but, honestly, I thought this one was just so unremarkable and formulaic. It’s not even that it’s predictable so much as it is really unremarkable. The characters are not very good and not very bad, either in their depictions or in who they are as people; and the way that the plot unfolds around these characters is also just not very interesting, quite repetitive, and ultimately completely unmemorable. As I write about this, I’m wondering why I would even give it 2 stars, but the reality is I get it — it kind of works, if you want a sort of known quantity, something vaguely atmospheric, something vaguely feminist (only very vaguely – it’s not like the main character is, like, good at her job, particularly), something somehow at once mildly twisty and fully mindless. I just don’t think I’m going to read Pearse’s books any more after this one. It was so unenjoyable that I ended up speeding up the audio narration to get through it as fast as I possibly could, and my lingering feeling is STILL that I wish I could have these hours back. I also finally think I understand what people mean when they say trauma porn, and I have to say it’s not a pleasant thing. I cannot possibly recommend this book.
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