The Wilderwomen

Five years ago, Zadie Wilder watched her mother Nora walk away one night out of hers and her sister, Finn’s, lives. Nora had been increasingly having trance-like states where she wandered off and stared up at the birds in the sky, losing all time and memory of these events. When she walked away that night, it was as if something unseen was leading her away.

Nora isn’t the only Wilder with strange abilities, though.  Her two daughters have them as well. Zadie is psychic, though she resents the ability and suppresses it.  Finn can sense other people’s memories during her own trance-like states called “echoes”. 

It’s these abilities that Finn is banking on to help answer: What was happening with Nora and where did she go? Under the guise of going on a post-graduation beach vacation with Zadie, Finn tells her foster parents she’ll be back in a couple weeks. What follows is a cross-country fantastical adventure to track down their missing mother relying mainly on Finn’s echoes, which she seems to be getting more and more lost in by the day.

What I liked:

The writing. Ruth Emmie Lang does magical realism so well, which I love! She knows how to engage the reader in that sense of adventure and mystery which is just the fun escapism I need sometimes. It was like a vicarious vacation with Finn and Zadie to some great places!

The characters. The sisters are very different, but their love for each other showed and it was a nice balance of personalities.  Along the way, they met so many fascinating and likeable characters, many of whom had special abilities of their own like hearing the music of the stars in the sky, communicating with trees, or being able to paint someone’s future. They added nice flavor to the story!

What I struggled a little with:

The plot.  I didn’t dislike it, but I wasn’t crazy about it. The premise of a mom leaving her children for ANY reason is challenging.  It set the stage for a decent road trip, but I don’t know how invested I felt in the girls finding Nora. It might have helped if we’d gotten to know her more.

The ending.  After spending so much time on the journey with Finn and Zadie and enjoying so many of the characters they met along the way, the ending felt a bit anticlimactic and a little mundane by comparison.  It also didn’t go far enough to explain why Nora left. 

I loved Lang’s Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3473213195  which sits on my Favorites shelf.  While I enjoyed this overall, I wasn’t drawn into this story quite as much. Nonetheless, I will always want to read everything she writes, and few authors can take me on the adventures she does! 

★★★ ½ (rounded to 4)

Thanks to St. Martins Press, NetGalley, and author Ruth Emmie Lang for this digital ARC to honestly review. It’s now available.