A review by thevioletfoxbookshop
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 The New Wilderness by Diane Cook is heartbreaking, timely, terrifying, and beautiful at the same time.

In a not-so-distant future, civilization has overtaken the planet, with the exception of one natural preserve known as The Wilderness State. This last bit of untouched nature is heavily protected and the only people allowed onto the preserve are the rangers and twenty volunteers. Those twenty volunteers call themselves the community and are part of an experiment to see if humans can live alongside nature, follow rules set forth for them, and not impact the natural world or destroy it. Bea count herself lucky to be amongst the community, not so much because she loves nature or because the nomadic lifestyle of the community is easy, but because the clean air of The Wilderness saved her daughter's life. Being in the city spelled death for her daughter, Agnes. But the years in The Wilderness State have taken their toll on the community, on the rangers, and on the land. In a world where human progress has paved over nearly every bit of the earth, will this motley group prove any different? Do human values change once they've reached the brink of no return? And what does that spell for our own future outside of Cook's fictional world? 

The natural world in The New Wilderness is a character all on its own. Breathtaking, fierce, everchanging, and full of both life and death, the wilderness is both unforgiving and abundant. Immersing yourself in the wilderness state is a comforting return to nature, but also a cruel reminder that mother nature can be ruthless. And the human characters are no simpler. 

The New Wilderness is about what happens when you mix the illogical, emotional, often egotistical ways of humans mix with the powerful, yet fragile natural environment. On the surface, it's about how humans impact the environment, but it's also very much about how the natural world impacts humans. And that two-way relationship has positive and negative aspects in both directions. The New Wilderness also deals with how humans interact with and impact each other. Again, sometimes for good and sometimes not so much. Even the central mother-daughter relationship in the story is layered and muddy, heartbreaking and touching.

I've seen some negative reviews of this book from people who expected a dystopian thriller. And this is both dystopian and thrilling, but not in the way you're expecting. It's emotional, cerebral, and making a very serious point. This book is not brain candy; it's not The Hunger Games; it's not supposed to be an unputdownable page-turner or pure entertainment. And in all honestly, I think the negative reviews on the dirty river's book review site are a symptom of the larger problem that I think Diane Cook is trying to address in this book. Humanity is uber-focused on immediate satisfaction, reliant on modern convenience, and disconnected from the natural world and what true survival entails, that we've lost sight of the big picture and the importance of the planet we inhabit. 

The Natural Wilderness is definitely going to stay with me for a long time. As I watch new condos being built, consumerism take over, and the rainforest burning on the nightly news, I think of that last piece of nature and how long it will be until we've consumed even that. 
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