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fiendfull 's review for:
Wild Things
by Laura Kay
Wild Things is a romantic comedy about a woman who resolves to be more wild and ends up moving to a falling apart house in the countryside with her three friends, whilst hiding from the fact that she's in love with one of them. El has been stuck doing admin at a newspaper in London for years, where the only perk is that she can see her best friend Ray, who she also has a crush on. After El starts trying to do a wild thing a month on Ray's suggestion, El finds that she's not really enjoying these wild things, until the wild thing is a suggestion for El, Ray and their friends Will and Jamie to move to a house a 45 minute train journey from London and to attempt to do it up. As they start their queer (apart from token straight Will) commune, can El handle living so close to Ray?
This is exactly the kind of light romcom that it's easy to get into and read quickly (I stayed up late to finish and then write this review), as you follow El's ups and downs. Though her crush on Ray, and Ray's presence in general, is important in the novel, the romantic plotline isn't the only thing in the book, as there's also the whole moving to the countryside with your friends element, which is more of the concept of the book than the romance is. In light of the housing crisis, it's a concept that isn't so far away from reality, even if this version of moving with your friends to be a queer commune is very idealised and simple, because it is a romantic comedy. The vision of the countryside and the village they live in is very much how characters who lived in London would see the countryside, and probably if you grew up in an English village, as I did, then you do question a bit how harmonious it would actually be, and if people would be so community-spirited, but it is meant to be escapism, and maybe aimed more at people who have lived in cities or large towns more.
The narrative is very light and clearly going to end up happily (the main troubles in the book are the crush, somewhat absent parents, and a dead-end job), which makes it ideal for people looking for that sort of thing. It is cosy and sweet and though it isn't really the kind of thing I would usually read (it's more saccharine I think than Kay's other books, which I've also read), I did enjoy it, and it had a satisfying romcom plotline.