It sounded like it could be good, and the first pages were definitely interesting. Then it slowed down, I felt I was waiting for her childhood to finish so we could get on with the story. And as soon as we did move on, I started getting bored. I didn't like the 2 guys who get into the protagonist's life, I find their interactions annoying, and the whole thing feels contrived and I feel I've seen it all before. Plus, I don't like the protagonist so much any more either.
I read a few reviews and apparently there is going to be a love triangle. Great. Teenagers and love triangles. How much more annoying can it get?
I'm not interested in the story anymore, so I'm quitting. ( )

Striking and engaging premise, somewhat undermined by a couple of plot choices. ( )

I'm almost at a loss for words, regarding this book. Still, I'll give it a go.

I'm a little stingy with my five-star reviews, but half-way through this novel I had to acknowledge that this was in line with other great, modern novels I've read. My tradition is to find signed, first edition, first printings of books that I find extraordinary; I've already started shopping for this one.

No doubt this is a book that will benefit from additional readings. I feel like, even though the prose was not particularly dense (really, not dense at all), there were so many things I simply wasn't able to pick up on in a first read. I think that's also by design, but then I'm trying not to put too much stock into what the author intended due to my natural tendency toward transactional reading and also because I think that's (ironically) one of the points of this story.

Rather than bog down with details, I'll say this: this is a story of a girl with a "gift," who touches living things and they die. Likewise, when she touches things that were alive in some way (and this is a very wide-ranging condition, believe me), they return to life. But as interesting as the premise was, and ultimately the reason I decided to read it, it was almost beside the point. This was a story of faith, of discovering truths that most would see as fairy stories or folklore. It's about the legacy of family, the nature of fatherhood, and our connection to our "sense of place." At least, for me, it was about these things. It is a beautiful, wonderful narrative. I challenge anyone to say otherwise.

I found myself thinking of The Testament of Gideon Mack frequently when reading. First, the structure of the narrative wasn't exactly linear, nor would it have worked otherwise. As a result, the reader has to keep a number of things straight in her head. Elements of the narrative that call back to earlier bits are frequent, but never made obvious, and the parallels between the two are never perfect which, like Gideon Mack, disorientates in the best possible way. What Should Be Wild isn't quite as open-ended as Gideon Mack in its central mystery, and as a result doesn't quite reach the same heights, but it comes close. I find myself reluctant to start another book, for fear of muddling my thinking about this one, as I did with Gideon.

The novel has its core elements that are as ancient as they are modern, random in spite of (or because of) the presence of ritual. There are mercifully few references to religion, though religion seems to play an important part in the narrative. Whatever gods are present here are more ancient, more forgotten, than any modern iterations. That contributes to the mystery, and while some knots are untangled, others remain tightly bound -- how could they not be so? So much of what we rely on to provide permanence is dependent on the written word, and the gods of this story (if there are any) predate written language. The relationship between stories, writing, and truth aren't as clear-cut, as the title reveals when it appears midway through the pages. Uncertainty is, ultimately, a feature in this novel, and it's quite frankly delicious.

Highly, highly recommended. If you know me IRL, be forewarned: This is the book I'll be pestering you to read for a while.
( )

Hm. I think this book was trying to do too much and wasn't quite successful. ( )

A strange, fluid read. Amazing transgression of boundaries between historic and original myth. Occasionally uncomfortably close to my particular real-world religious upbringing. Things I wish: that I cared about Matthew or was truly horrified by Rafe; that Maisie managed to make a female friend; that there was... any... hint of queerness in a very queer story. ( )