Title: Wildwood
Author: Colin Meloy
Illustrator: Carson Ellis
Publisher: Balzar and Bray
Series: Wildwood #1
Other Reviews for This Author: None
Wildwood is a book that shouldn't work when you consider its individual parts. It's like a platypus. The bill of a duck. A body that looks like an otter's. A beaver tail. Webbed appendages. It all sounds so oddly put together.
Wildwood is the platypus of the children's book world. You have Portland, nature, politics, 560 pages, a middle-grade focus, and lots of animals. Much like the platypus,
Wildwood is much better when you look at the bigger picture. What seems like a random mishmash of parts turns out to be something finely crafted for a bigger purpose than one would expect.
Wildwood is both a homage to the youth fantasy that has captured many hearts...and an entirely new entity that could very well prove to be a classic if it goes over well with its readers.
Prue is a child of several appropriately able talents, but her one true love is drawing the nature around her. She carries her sketchbook like a security blanket, and will spend hours drawing a few little leaves that come into her sight. She carries around a book of birds to sketch from. Nature, to Prue, is something worthy of taking down in an art. It is with unparalleled shock in which Prue realizes that nature is something more than a subject for sketching. A murder of crows appears out of the sky to kidnap her baby brother and takes him in the Impassable Wilderness just outside of Portland, where no one dares go into for fear of never coming out. Prue may be scared and frightened, but to her there seems no other option but going in to retrieve him.
In the same sense of childhood curiosity, Prue's friend from school follows her into the Wilderness. He sees her just after the kidnapping and is all too like her in his sense of adventure and morals. How can he let her go off into the Wilderness by herself? Curtis, who unlike Prue never graduated from drawing superheroes for his artistry, joins Prue and her faithful bike on the journey into the Wilderness. What they find at first is nothing more than a seemingly ordinary wood that is covered in dense moss, forgotten dropped foliage, and trees that allow anything to hide within them.
The Wilderness hides more than either kid can think to imagine. Prue and Curtis begin an adventure that goes beyond a simple kidnapping-by-bird. They discover through unusual means that humans are not the only ones to speak in human tongues. Animals that walk on two feet like humans and speak English litter the woods. Coyotes, owls, foxes, and more. Human bandits haunt it as well. Perhaps more so than any of these similarities is the struggle for political power. Like their human counterparts, the animals are locked in battles that go beyond the simple calls of nature. The Impassable Wilderness is facing a crisis, and when Prue and Curtis get separated they begin to uncover the depths of it. Wronged political figures, conspiracies, armies, and prophecies all amass as these two Outsider children make there way into uncharted territory that brings to mind Lewis' Narnia and Carroll's Wonderland.
Whenever I read a middle grade novel, I find it hard to really connect with a character in a way that doesn't befit a certain level of nostalgia. It's hard to say "I connect with them as a teenager", when some characters are most exclusively meant to appeal and resonate with middle grade readers. In that regard, it's hard for me to say I will make connections and dig into them the way I do with YA and adult characters. Prue and Curtis were a breath of fresh air for me.
Wildwood is in many senses an adult novel in how it operates itself, and the characters are quiet adult in terms of their levels of complexity and appeal. The characters themselves act their age and have to fend off some intense scrapes within the novel, but the overall complexity lies within the situations we see them in. We don't see them talking just about simple first crushes or feelings of displacement in the world. We see them fighting battles. Feeling what it's like to be the reason someone's life ends. Being variables in a legal system and political situation that is crazy and falling apart around them. These are situations that, for better or worse, bring out the adult connectors in our brains. Going into
Wildwood with the preconceptions of middle grade novels did not prepare me for what I found there in the characters, and the simple fact of connection was just breaking the surface.
Of the two, Prue is the character that we see most within the story. Her storyline is the strongest, and I loved right off the bat that the female character got to be the one focused on the most within the book. Prue is depicted as a character that is very attuned to nature to some degree. Her sense with plants and animals in her art is something that's depicted almost immediately within the story, and it's no surprise that she is the character to start the journey into the Wilderness. What is immediately appealing about Prue is her sense for adventure and responsibility. She is someone who feels responsible for her baby brother and does not go to her parents for help, but feels it is up to her to save him because he was kidnapped around her. She does it so her parents can avoid being emotionally distraught about his disappearance, and she can avoid the guilt and the powerlessness that would come from just telling them, which would result in nothing. Prue does these things for a reason. She starts this journey with a purpose that is backed up by a sensible nonsense and a heart brimming with courage, and what's better is that she still grows from the experience. Prue learns about her connection to nature and the natural world - about politics and the ways that the governmental machine can be severely messed up. For a story that is seemingly just about some magical woods, Prue's becomes about so much more. Responsibility is also a repeated theme, and it's interesting how Prue learns about it in regards to politics and her brother's kidnapping. Meloy ties together some unexpected threads that bring to mind the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, and in these ties and knots in the storyline he makes some great themes come out in Prue's development.
The secondary story of Curtis is perhaps just as strong, though I preferred Prue's. Curtis does not get as much page time, and whereas Prue is dealing with politics from a broader end, Curtis himself becomes the captive of a group of rogue coyotes lead by a woman known as the Dowager Governess. He opens the story as a follower - someone who is just as curious about Prue as he is about the Wilderness itself. We see him as someone who is possibly more childish and bold. Superheroes, after all, are only for children. Our protagonist Prue makes that observation quite frankly early on. In some ways, we learn that Curtis does indeed need to grow up. He experiences some awakenings that Prue does not need to - including the harshness of war in the political and social field, as well as the terrors of imprisonment. Yet in many ways we understand that Curtis does not need to grow up completely. He is a character that becomes more and more confident as the book goes on. He sheds his worst fears in order to become a stronger person, and is fine with a few remaining in the process. Leadership is one of his big themes, and that is where he becomes most interesting to observe. Curtis' connection to nature is more subtle than Prue's, and in many ways it contrasts it throughout the novel. What I liked about their relationship is that they are friends, first and foremost. There is no immediate romantic relationship that I could possibly decipher between these two characters. Meloy instead focuses on the magic of loyalty in a friendship, and how friendship can allow people to cross barriers that are otherwise inaccessible to them.
The strong characters gain their complexity from the events in which they participate, and plot-wise there is a lot to praise in
Wildwood. For a book that is filled with stimulating and beautiful illustrations, it's the events that are portrayed that stay with the reader most. The events are also surprisingly adult. Meloy does not play with any simple fantasy ideas here, but instead takes a deep and dark look at politics. He brings to mind many wars and troubles that we've seen go on throughout the world. The names of specific characters bring to mind a connection to the Romanov Dynasty (Alexei and Alexandra), and when I made that connection I immediately began reading more into the politics. Meloy tells a tale that has a purpose, and in many ways the story is not even about Prue and Curtis, but about the Wildwood itself. The pro's and con's of rebellion and disunity - of government and power. This book is meaty for a reason. Meloy chooses to explore a story that is complex and does anything but talk down to its audience. The world itself shines and could very well be alive somewhere today. That is how realistic the fantasy is. It radiates the natural world. After reading it, one does not feel it unlikely for animals to talk or have their own frantically put-together postal system. Coyotes in uniforms carrying muskets seems almost normal. Grounding this kind of world is pivotal for the reader, and in some ways it does a better job than classics like Narnia ever did in that regard. The magical world is, in this case, a direct effector of the natural world. They are in many ways the same thing. Meloy just loves his cause and effect, and you'll find quite a lot of thought that goes into his plotting because of it.
A praise-worthy book like this - one so literary and daring for the genre - wouldn't go without issues, however. I am not one for being afraid of a thick book, but
Wildwood intimidated me after reading it for so long. Yes, the ideas are excellent and cerebral. That does not mean that the book itself needs to be a doorstop. Sometimes the longest stories are the simplest, and the shortest the most complex. I feel the need to compare this to a short story I read in class by Anne Proulx. It was three paragraphs and titled 52 Miles to the Gas Pump. We had an entire forty-five minute discussion on this one story - three simple paragraphs. You can tell a lot with sparse prose, and you can tell little with dense prose.
Wildwood is written in a dense style that uses a lot of flourishes, adjectives, and big vocabulary words. In some places it's advantageous - you feel like there is a lot of understanding, and you are able to really picture yourself in the situations with the characters. The middle of the novel, however, drags. A good hundred pages feel like a slog because of just how expansive everything in this book is. I think it goes without saying, too, that I find it difficult to relate this to the target audience. I think they could handle and fall in love with the complexity of the storyline and the beautiful prose, but I feel like they will shy away from a large book that feels unregulated in the pacing. The wording could have been trimmed without losing any of the weight or the power of the storyline, and in that regard I was disappointed. This is such an excellent book, but little things like pacing can make a huge difference to a younger audience. The prose is beautiful - don't get me wrong - but at the same time the beauty doesn't always add to the experience of the story, which is what makes a book special.
At the same time....I'm conflicted about this book. The pacing issue I would normally overlook in the review because I am a reader that can deal with a slow-paced story. I have loved books like
Gone with the Wind,
Pegasus...books that are beautiful and show that length can have purpose and reason. In this sense, I don't feel bad recommending
Wildwood. I do feel like I have an issue with the pacing because of the genre it's aiming towards. One thing to notice about traditional children's fantasy is that it's short. While I did not like Narnia, the books are fairly concise. One can build an entire world in someone's head and make it come alive without dealing with excess issues.
Wildwood is much larger in scope than any one of the Narnia books, but I feel like it's an idea worth exploring. As a reviewer I feel that the book has a critical problem in regards to the target audience. Middle grade readers are not stupid, but nor are they happy with a book that will slow down for no good reason. A lot of the best middle grade fantasies faced a series progression from small to larger books (see Harry Potter), and that allows reluctant readers to fall in love with the book at its best before seeing the expanded side - the side that is more thinking and slower. It's harder to get that when the first book is straight-off long. I can see middle grade readers liking it, but I haven't personally talked to one who has read it. My biggest concern is that it will ward off readers/lose their interest because of the pacing, and that is probably its biggest flaw as a novel.
Like the book, my review turned into a big rambler. It goes without saying that this book is beyond what you'd expect for a middle grade novel. It will surprise you with how thoughtful and deep it is. With how much justice it does to the reader in terms of plot content and characters. However, I still think the pacing was a bad choice - not because readers can't handle it, but because younger readers know and care more when prose is excessive and needless. That is something that is very important to think about in middle grade literature, and I don't think that choice with
Wildwood was the best one. I loved the book as a book. I think it is something that will have me running to read the next book in the trilogy. There is no question of that. I just hope that the next one can consider more for pacing.
Cover: The artwork in this book is so good. It adds to the experience AND is high quality. Best combination.
Rating: 4.0 Stars
Copy: Received from publicist/publisher for review (Thank you, Heather and Harper Collins!)
