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Book Review: The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury

The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury

William Morrow, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0062741998

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

Mother’s rules: never lose sight of the house; never come in with dirty hands, and most importantly, never, ever, make a person bleed.

The Wild Inside is a different kind of thriller. It’s been compared to a mix of Stephen King and the Bronte sisters, but that’s an unfair deal. What Bradbury has done is something unique, and should stand apart from those names. It truly is a wild novel both in narrative and story, something that adventurous readers should devour this spring and summer, despite the arctic bite that infects every chapter. It should also resonate strongly with the YA crowd and would do well to infiltrate that market, too.

Tracey Petrikoff is an unusual young woman. Kicked out of school for fighting, she harbors a darkness that usually can be contained. She seeks to please her parents and loves her little brother, even if things get a little crazy. When her mother passes away, Tracy is forced to grow up and help her father, an Iditarod musher who has been suspended. She also races, and aches to make the profession her life, although her behavior steps in and keeps her sidelined.

She is forced to focus on her hunting and trapping, skills she excels at, as she has a natural sense of what the prey feels and thinks. She keeps her mother’s warnings at the front of her mind, yet impulsiveness often rears its ugly head. When a stranger crosses her path in the wild, her knife flashes and blood spills. Her father saves his life, unaware that it could be his daughter who nearly killed the man. After a discovery nearby threatens to change her life, Tracey finds her world slowly unraveling. Then a boy steps out of the same woods to rent a room on their property: a character who holds more secrets than she.

What sets The Wild Inside apart from other contemporary YA fare is Bradbury’s narrative style. First person narrative is common, but while it’s not always well done, here the author excels. Bradbury’s style is both razor sharp and claustrophobic, resulting in a tense, but welcoming read. Dialogue tags are thrown to the side, often clashing with internal thoughts, forcing the reader to discern which is which: a heady, often trippy, experience that may put off casual readers, but for the dedicated, will bring rewards. Tracey is one of the more memorable characters in recent YA literature due to her moral makeup and her struggles both within herself and with the outside world.

Recommended for the thriller lover who craves something different, much different and can handle a different kind of narrative.

Contains: gore, violence, murder, descriptions of child abuse, LGBTQ+ themes

Reviewed by Dave Simms

 

 

 

Posted on April 19, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne

The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0735213005

Available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, audio CD, Kindle edition

 

This breakout novel has been hailed by some critics as THE must-have thriller of 2017, as well as the year’s perfect “Daughter” book.

Karen Dionne, author of high concept science thrillers Freezing Point and Boiling Point, decided to change tracks in favor of something much more organic and disturbing in The Marsh King’s Daughter. The book succeeds on all levels because of what it sets out to do– simply tell a story without all the bells and whistles. Dionne’s writing has a songstress’ voice and rhythm, yet doesn’t overwhelm with the love of language. It embraces the feel of the setting and story, pulling the reader deep into the marsh’s realm, only relenting when the final page is turned.

The story is deceptively simple. Helena loves her easygoing life. Great husband, great kids, great job all without much stress or fuss. In the unique world of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, life is decidedly different. The land feels cut off from the country readers know as America, but also feels like home. Then she hears the news of an escaped prisoner, and realizes that the life she has built for herself and her family is about to shatter. The escapee is her father, a man she knows she must track and send back to prison, to have any chance to hold onto the life she knows.

Helena’s father  abducted her mother when she was a teenager. He raped her and kept her hostage in the marshes for many years. Until Helena was a teenager herself, she knew nothing of life outside of their cabin in the middle of the marsh. Her father taught her the ways of a hunter, tracker, and survivalist, and even though she escaped him years ago, she hasn’t forgotten them. Helena knows that the police will never find him– but she can, and will. She plans to find him before the life she has made is overtaken by her nightmare past.

The novel blazes past, as good thrillers do, but there is something special about The Marsh King’s Daughter: the story has a magic that must be experienced. Easily the hottest thriller of the year, this book is recommended for anyone who loves great storytelling and a voice that will suck them in. Fans of David Morrell’s early work, John Connelly, and Elizabeth Massie will want to be sure to check this out.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Posted on January 7, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell

The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell

HMH Editions for Young Readers, 2010 (reprint)

ISBN-13: 978-0547334004

Available: Paperback, Audible, Kindle edition

 

Scott O’Dell is best known as a writer of historical fiction for children, particularly for novels set  in California or Mexico. He is most well-known for his middle-grade survival story and Newbery Award-winning novel Island of the Blue Dolphins, as well as three Newbery Honor books: The King’s Fifth, Sing Down the Moon, and The Black Pearl. In addition to winning several additional awards, he also established one: The Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, which is awarded yearly to an American writer of an outstanding work of historical fiction for children. The Black Pearl, first published in 1967, is indeed a work of historical fiction– but it’s also a pretty terrifying book, with much of it devoted to a legendary sea monster, the Manta Diablo.

Sixteen year old Ramon Sandoval’s father is a pearl merchant, and has just made him a partner in the business. Ramon is eager to learn to dive for pearls, but his father has reservations. His father and the other pearl divers are large, muscled men, while Ramon is still not entirely grown. When Ramon finally convinces his father to take him on an expedition, he meets the Sevillano, a talented diver with a storehouse of outrageous stories about frightening monsters and giant pearls.

During his father’s next absence, Ramon, determined to prove himself, pays an Indian who has come to sell a pearl to teach him how to dive. He hopes to find the great pearl of the Sevillano’s stories: the Pearl of Heaven. The Indian warns Ramon of the Manta Diablo, a vengeful giant black manta ray who guards the pearls in his cave under the lagoon where the Indian dives. Despite the warning, Ramon dives into the cave, pries out a gigantic oyster, and finds an enormous black pearl.  When the Manta Diablo discovers the cave is in disarray,  it’s a race to escape home with the pearl before he is caught.  Once revealed, the pearl garners a great deal of unwanted attention from the town, but despite its size and beauty, he and his father are unable to sell it. Ramon comes to believe the pearl is cursed and that he must return it to the monster, but the Sevillano has other ideas, and they embark on a dangerous voyage by water, chased by the Manta Diablo.

The story is framed by the introduction of the Manta Diablo, a local legend used by mothers to scare their children into behaving. Ramon, while not a believer, loves this story. The Sevillano, who has been out in the ocean, makes this a more believable story, and the Indian’s dread reinforces it. None of this is enough to convince the skeptical Ramon, who is determined to find the legendary Pearl of Heaven– when it comes to legends, apparently greed and ambition outweigh fear. As the novel progresses, the Indian’s dread is infectious, and Ramon actually begins to believe that there might really be some truth to the legend. The manta’s chase and the battle with the manta up the tension, although it’s certainly possible that Ramon is more terrified of the Sevillano than he is of the manta.

While the writing is somewhat stilted and dated, and the book starts with somewhat of a slow pace, once the pearl divers enter the scene the story becomes engaging, not just because Ramon is engaged in the experience, but because it is fascinating, and something most people know little about. As the book progresses, it’s interesting to see how his relationship with both his father and the Sevillano develop. Ramon’s experiences as he learns to dive in the lagoon are immersive; O’Dell’s descriptions are gorgeously written. Ramon’s interactions with the Indian at that time start to ratchet up the suspense, especially once Ramon enters the cave of the Manta Diablo. The legendary manta of terror and its appearances in the novel, be they through story or through Ramon’s perceptions of his experience, snagged this reader from the first page, and O’Dell’s suggestion that something can be both beautiful and evil is food for thought.  Recommended for grades 4 and up.

Reader’s advisory note: Older children and teens who like this book might like The Pearl by John Steinbeck or The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Content note: The representation of the Indians in the book as especially superstitious and violent is a talking point you might want to cover with your child, as well as the religious motivations behind some of the actions (not being Catholic, certain children thought the Madonna referred to in the story was the American pop singer, which caused some confusion).


Posted on February 20, 2017 by , Reply
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