A review by thatotherjlo
The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

One night, Nora Wilder disappeared, leaving behind her daughters Zadie and Finn. Five years later, Finn (who can see people's pasts) recruits her estranged older sister (who can glimpse the future) to go find their mother. Along the way, they learn more about their mother, each other, and themselves.

I had high hopes for this novel. The premise was promising and, from the first few chapters, could see the novel working both as a mystery and as a reflective, "it's about the journey" type narrative, focusing on the relationship between the sisters and their growth arc. Unfortunately, by the end, there was not really any pay-off on either front. The resolution of the mystery plot (what happened to Nora Wilder?) was predictable and underwhelming.

At the very least, I'd have liked a more complex explanation of what exactly it means for Nora's gift to be that she migrates, since the endless bird and migration motifs starting on page 2 had as good as already told us that was what had happened.

Similarly, the tensions that had developed within and among Zadie and Finn

(Zadie feels abandoned by both her mother and Finn, Finn feels that she is losing herself, Zadie's anger at her mother)

are unresolved by the end, and seem simply brushed aside for the sake of a clean resolution;

Zadie and Finn yell at each other about these issues one night (Finn yells at Zadie for not stopping their mother from leaving and not being unfair to their mother, Zadie accuses Finn of leaving her alone/moving on to another family), but then find Nora in the next chapter, apologize to each other, and that's that. Similarly, despite an entire novel of Zadie brooding in her anger and resentment of Nora's abandonment, the moment she finds Nora this all seems to vanish. While I understand that happiness would have won out at first, it felt unfair to Zadie's character development throughout the book (and to the reader) to not allow her to voice that anger with Nora.

The writing itself is generally enjoyable, and Lang deploys some imagery with skill (I particularly enjoyed the comparison between Zadie and Finn's relationship and coastal homes, "slowly succumbing to the ocean as tides ate away at the cliffs they were built on). However, at times the imagery seemed irrelevant or distracting, bordering on purple prose (what does it mean for "the pool [to] burst open like a ripe fruit" and how did opening with that image contribute to the scene?). Additionally, Lang's foreshadowing through the motif of

birds, nests, and migration (see, for starters, Finn's five pigeons that escaped in chapter one)

felt clumsy, like it is hitting the reader over the head. That issue contributed to the lack of payoff at the end, since it felt like there should have been a twist or a subversion of some kind after such heavy-handedness throughout.