Wildwood

Originally reviewed here

In the vein of Chronicles Of Narnia comes Wildwood by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis (The Mysterious Benedict Society), a tale in which Prue’s baby brother Mac is abducted by a murder of crows and taken to the Impassable Wilderness, otherwise known as Wildwood. Joining Prue in her quest to save Mac is Curtis, a classmate who doesn’t quite fit in. Wildwood, like Narnia, is a vibrant world fit to bursting with an intriguing sociology and diverse residents. However, Wildwood does stand well on it’s own two feet.

I loved the language of Wildwood. Colin Meloy’s debut is absolutely a book for readers and people who love vocabulary. It does use some advanced language, however, I felt the language was no show more more difficult than Narnia, The Phantom Tollbooth, or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making. Meloy treats young readers with trust and intelligence. This is not a book that has been dumbed down for it’s audience. There are context clues for the vocabulary as well. I really enjoyed Meloy’s style because it did remind me of the sort of fantasy I loved as a child.

Inside of Wildwood are lovely illustrations by Carson Ellis. The pen and ink drawings help to bring the story to life. It’s absolutely a treat to see as well. I think my favorite were the drawings of the coyotes and the bandits. Ellis is definitely an illustrator on my watch list.

Yet, a story needs more than pretty pictures and words to stand on it’s own. Friends, Wildwood is totally an epic story. The scope is big, yet I think there are enough pages to cover the discontent and rival factions of Wildwood as well as Prue’s quest and Curtis’s self-discovery. I think Meloy does a wonderful job of framing the story. Further, the backdrop of the Impassable Wilderness/Wildwood itself is well done. Actual world building takes place, and as a reader I do have a sense of the geography of the Wildwood. You see, Wildwood has it’s own different types of governments. There’s bureaucracy, town halls, tyranny, anarchy, and monarchy in the different segments of the forest. It’s brilliant. I would say this might as well be a book of bigger ideas on politics, but I am not the analytical type and would rather leave that up to more inclined minds, however, I could see this book having a bit of a fun use in a government/citizenship studies class.

From my grown up perspective, Wildwood totally has adult appeal. It hearkens back to that grand tradition of hero journey books that I grew up with. Books that treated you with respect, that make you think. It’s absolutely worth the amount of time it takes to read Colin Meloy’s 560 pages if you want middle grade that isn’t trite or unintelligent. show less

I found the first few chapters to be very off-putting. The main character, Prue, who is only 11 or 12, comes off as an insufferable hipster and a rather irresponsible babysitter for her infant brother (not that her equally insufferable, hipster parents seem to notice or care). Also, Meloy is prone to wordiness and over-synonymization (which isn't a real word, but if it was Meloy would probably use it). Once the crows kidnap said baby brother and Prue goes off to find him, the story picks up pace.

In the book's version of Portland, all of Forest Park and south to Washington Park, is known as The Impassable Wilderness. (I found it particularly amusing that the Pittock mansion was the government building for South Wood.) What the Outsiders show more (folks like you and me...and the insufferable hipsters) call I.W. is known as Wildwood to the inhabitants, who include humans and talking animals, most of whom seem to be stuck in about the mid-19th century in terms of technology (although there are many inconsistencies to this general rule). Of course, the various factions (including a corrupt/inefficient human government, a coalition of birds, a recently organized army of coyotes, a pack of Gaelic bandits, and a multispecies hippie commune) are battling in various ways, and Prue and her classmate/stalker Curtis find themselves thrown into the midst of the conflict.

Overall, Wildwood is an interesting story, although it recycles many of the conventions from other books of the same genre. The Dowager Governess and Curtis reminded me of Narnia's White Witch and Edmund, for example. The characters aren't very well developed, so it's hard to sympathize with them at times. Some middle grade students might be turned off by the pacing and vocabulary.

As this is the first book in a trilogy, I suppose there are meant to be some loose ends left. The one I would really like to see wrapped up is how Curtis is a "half-breed." This is mentioned in passing and vaguely explained away as him having "odd relatives," which didn't satisfy me. However, since the second installation is just as long as this one, described as much darker, and ends in a cliff-hanger, I don't think I'll be reading it any time soon...if ever.

Update: Listened to the 15 hour (!!!!) audiobook (mostly on two car trips to Portland), excellently narrated by Amanda Plummer, with my husband & kiddos. The hubs really liked it. (He's kind of an insufferable hipster like that.) 12 y.o. loved it and wants to listen to the rest of the series. 10 y.o. agreed with my opinion that it borrows a lot from other fantasy books and that the pacing is inconsistent ("Some parts were really boring and the battle scenes were repetitive"). I'm going to upgrade my rating to 4, because half my family liked it so much and because listening to it was more enjoyable. show less

Spoiler Alert!

Vitriolic Diatribe Alert!

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, is a middle grade fantasy about Prue McKeel, whose baby brother Mac is abducted by crows and brought into the Impassable Wilderness (called the Wildwood, by locals) and its problems. The Wildwood is a series of loosely aligned townships that are in danger from the nefarious Dowager Governess. I was first attracted to Wildwood because of Meloy’s work with The Decemberists, an alternative rock band with intelligent, storytelling songs which speak of such things as ventricles being rent apart and ghosts wandering along parapets. I wanted to see how Meloy, clearly a creative and imaginative fellow, dealt with incorporating the fantastical into his novel.
Unfortunately, I show more was underwhelmed by Wildwood. Though the book had a great imaginative premise, it was severely lacking in creative solutions to various plot points that thoroughly and consistently pulled me from the story and undermined the suspension of belief that is necessary for a piece of good fiction. The true death knell for me, however, was a lack of empathy for the characters.
The story begins with Mac being kidnapped by crows. What a fantastic way to begin a book! But after that first paragraph we are dropped into a seven page flashback of needless information of what happened earlier that day.
Well and truly my biggest complaint about the book are the unrealistic scenes and absurd character decisions.
On more than a few occasions, Meloy set out to build tension in a scene, but the scenes are so poorly handled that they did little more than frustrate me as a reader. In one scene, Prue is hiding in a lidded kindling hamper with a few pieces of newspaper on top of her head, which she has actually pulled from underneath herself. She does this while surrounded by soldiers. A soldier reaches in and grabs the top paper and is distracted by the headline. This is simply ridiculous. There are so many problems with this scene it’s preposterous:

• It would be very difficult, nearly impossible, to pull the papers out from underneath herself within the confines of the hamper.
• Never mind doing it while escaping detection from the soldiers surrounding her.
• While there are anywhere from 5-10 soldiers searching this one room, she’s peeking out from the hamper! The soldiers would most certainly see her.
• When the soldier pulls off the lid to the hamper, there is simply no way that one would mistake a few sheets of newspaper on top of a person for a stack of newspapers. The shadowing is very different and the paper rests flat not convexly.

At least two other scenes come across this poorly, once when Prue is hiding out in a wooden box being smuggled out of the city, and another when Curtis, another main character, is leaping from a cage to escape from not only imprisonment, but the laws of physics.
There are also consistent and persistent decisions on the parts of characters that either don’t ring true, or are simply stupid.
When Prue tells her parents that she’s going to go rescue her baby brother, her father tries to stop her by saying: “Don’t do this, Prue,” said her father. His voice was weak, tired. “We can by happy, the three of us” (338). What father is going write off his baby son and allow his daughter to go off and attempt a rescue? It’s an infuriating violation of what nearly any father would say.
Another example is when Prue announces her arrival in the Wildwood by ringing a bell that she know will alert the vastly more powerful antagonist, the Dowager Governess. The Dowager Governess, upon hearing the bell, responds “Stupid, stupid girl” (354). I couldn’t agree more. Would Frodo have made it to the Cracks of Mount Doom if he’d sounded a siren at his arrival in Mordor? I think not.
In another instance, the Bandit King is simply left behind, alive and without a guard, after being tortured by the antagonist, the Dowager Governess (because she had to go off and sacrifice a baby). This villainess is obviously not someone with qualms about murder and had no reason to leave the Bandit King, a potential threat, alive. Meloy tries to handle this by having the character say: “They weren’t done with me, I don’t think, before they just left me there, hanging like a possum” (369). The author might as well have written, “I’m still alive because the author can’t think of a better way to keep me alive.”
As for the lack of empathy for the main characters, there isn’t a single quote that can succinctly summarize this, more it’s a lack of proper character building in the beginning to win us over to the protagonist’s plight. Little time is spent getting to know any of the characters because all of the time is spent keeping the characters busy. Though scenes should do double time (i.e. character building and advancing plot), in Wildwood this isn’t the case.
I also had some smaller issues in the form of what I feel is poor writing, such as “was Penny’s answer” (139), instead of Penny answered, as well as the use of anachronistic words that character’s simply wouldn’t know, like the Bandit King saying “You’re more of a tactical-ops man” (410).
In addition, and perhaps it’s a personal preference, I feel that at the beginning of a new chapter or white space, setting should be firmly established, and a number of times that isn’t the case. As in this example of an introduction after a white space: “The room was plain and simple” (135). Room? What room? Where the heck are we and what character are we going to be following now?
Overall, Wildwood was a disappointing read. I feel that Meloy is more a sprinter (wonderful song lyrics) than a marathoner (atrocious novel). The book was by no means completely devoid of redeeming qualities: the art was fantastic, the premise and world were imaginative and the overarching plot was engaging, even if it was poorly handled. For what I was reading it for, however, which was incorporating fantastic elements, it was a failure and, at the risk of being caustic, it was also a failure as a story.
All that having been said, this is a first novel and I'm sure that Meloy will improve as he builds his library.
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Of course it's the first of a trilogy! No one can write just a stand-alone book anymore: what a silly suggestion! At least this is complete in itself and not just one book hacked into three books (or into seven, drawn out as if on a rack to fit a procrustean school year). (My, I'm unearthing resentment after long-held resentment today, ain't I?)

Also, owls and ivy and hares with pruning shears! Bikes and bridges and children solving their own problems! I liked it a lot and am glad I didn't know it was part of a trilogy until I finished it.

There's a lot going on in Wildwood. I feel like this one needed to pick an audience and focus in on it. The writing is obviously reaching for middle-grade, but by the end of the book we've witnessed kidnapping, arbitrary imprisonment, violent coups, the start of an avian genocide, and seen both protagonists covered in blood-- fine, good. We can tackle difficult issues in literature at any age-- except most of these interesting issues are background, passing by with minimal comment by the protagonists.

That's one of my main complains of the book, honestly. There's a dreamy, disconnected sense blanketing what could be some really interesting issues, if only the characters would react more to their surroundings.

Curtis, in particular, is show more responsible for a number of deaths (human deaths even, though with sapient animals that distinction shouldn't matter) by the end-- a bit of trauma that's not really dealt with-- and while there were times when I was really impressed by the in-character maturity of the protagonists, more often than not I was underwhelmed by what felt like pro forma emoting.

As another complaint, there's also a lot of slow-paced political maneuvering which feels further out of place in what's so obviously an adventure story. Finally, one of my friends mentioned that they felt the book was condescending in tone, even towards the age group it's written for.

All that said, it's not a bad book. If I'm struggling to connect with it, if it doesn't speak for me, that's not to say there's not going to be readers out there for whom this is the perfect match. show less

A young girl is out for a stroll with her baby b rother when she witnesses him ‘napped by a murder of crows and carried away into the Wildwood – an impassible and possibly magical forest adjacent to her hometown of Portland. So, she decides to pass into the impassible wilderness to rescue him, and is unwillingly accompanied by a boy her age who wants to be her friend. They quickly get separated once in the Wildwood and each have their own adventures while hunting for the tot.

I think if I could have read this as a kid I would have adored it, as I was obsessed with All Things Narnia, and this book is clearly *heavily* influenced by Lewis’ Chronicles. But as an adult, it’s hard not to be distracted by just how much Meloy has show more borrowed from Lewis. But, if you know any middle graders who are bananas for Narnia, I’d definitely recommend recommending this one to them. show less

Fun fact: When my husband was a child he was in a community theater play with Colin Meloy. Also, I listened to a lot of Tarkio in college in Montana and love the Decemberists. So I came to this as a fan of Meloy and was excited to hear his take on an "American Narnia without all the Jesus" as I've heard it described.

But ye gods, what a snoozefest this turned out to be. I hated, hated, hated the main characters. I know this is supposed to be a fantasy, but seriously. What upper middle class Portland parents are letting their 12 year old pull their baby around in an open wagon hooked to a bicycle? And then she leaves the baby outside when she goes into the library? I'm pretty sure that is an instant phone call to Child Protective Services show more these days. And then your 12 year old is suddenly caring for the baby all day and putting him to bed and you don't even see him don't you as a parent just get a teensy bit suspicious?

Anyway, I gave it a go but it was just so boring and I was incredibly put off by the adventure set-up at the beginning. It's a little love song to Portland, I guess, and the illustrations are charming but I couldn't get through it. show less