The Wildlands

A Novel

By: Abby Geni

Narrated by: Carol Monda

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

From the award-winning author of The Lightkeepers comes a pause-resisting new novel that explores the bond between siblings and the animal instincts that threaten to destroy them.

When a Category Five tornado ravaged Mercy, Oklahoma, no family in the small town lost more than the McClouds. Their home and farm were instantly demolished, and orphaned siblings Darlene, Jane, and Cora made media headlines. This relentless national attention and the tornado's aftermath caused great tension with their brother, Tucker, who soon abandoned his sisters and disappeared.

On the three-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetics factory outside of Mercy is bombed, and the lab animals trapped within are released. Tucker reappears, injured from the blast, and seeks the help of nine-year-old Cora. Caught up in the thrall of her charismatic brother, whom she has desperately missed, Cora agrees to accompany Tucker on a cross-country mission to make war on human civilization.

Cora becomes her brother's unwitting accomplice, taking on a new identity while engaging in acts of escalating violence. Darlene works with Mercy police to find her siblings, leading to an unexpected showdown at a zoo in Southern California. 

The Wildlands is another remarkable literary thriller from critically acclaimed writer Abby Geni, one that examines what happens when one family becomes trapped in the tenuous space between the human and animal worlds.

A Millions.com pick of most anticipated upcoming books. A Women.com pick of 15 awesome books with strong female protagonists. A Paperback Paris pick of new books this summer.

©2018 Abby Geni (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Narrator’s voice ruined this book

Some parts of the story were excellent, but the narrator’s voice made the overall experience pretty painful. A better narrator could have made a world of difference.

My Perfect Book

Abby Geni is my current favorite author. I fell in love with The Lightkeepers and this follow-up did not disappoint one bit. She has an elegant way of writing simple stories that are about much bigger things, without moralizing or passing judgement on the characters. She truly allows the characters to tell their messy tales. Her stories contain so much grace and humanity.

I questioned the choice of narrator for a second, but by the epilogue, the choice made perfect sense. I wanted to start it over again as soon as it was over. This will be my go-to recommendation for a while.

#SiblingStories
#Animals
#OnTheRoad
#tagsgiving
#sweepstakes

We Have a Winner

I'm labeling this as the best book I've encountered in 2018! I didn't want the story to end and hope to one day see it on the big screen.

Fabulous story of family relationships

One of the best stories I have heard on Audible. Beautiful story of family relationships and mental illness

loved it

beautiful writing, lovely story, captivating, it draws you in, such good characters. all in all a great read

Lacking research, not believable.

I had to give up on this book about halfway through. No little girl Cora’s age would understand many of the things happening to her or being told to her by her brother.
Then there’s the accuracy of the descriptions of Texas as they drove through it. Texas does not have any saguaro cacti. They only grow in the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico and most of Arizona. And the pronunciation has a silent g - sa-war-o, not sa-guar-o.
I also found it unbelievable that the police and FBI were so incompetent in finding Will and Cora, and how quickly it seemed to be considered a cold case.
There’s some truly beautiful descriptive writing that I enjoyed, but there were times I felt the author was trying too hard.

I do not recommend

The story rambles and is boring. The reader’s Oklahoma accent was not convincing and sometimes disappeared altogether. There are no saguaro cactus in Texas or Oklahoma as depicted; the reader consistently mispronounced saguaro.

An absolutely amazing read

This is one of the best books that I have ever listened to. Beautifully written, an epic tale of a family wrenched from their normal lives and having to pick up the pieces. Of an idealistic man who is a little mad and takes his younger sister from her family to take her on a Don Quixote plan that is dangerous and destructive. It also has the feel of Jurassic Park and Jumanji. I highly recommend this book.

Very well written.

Extremely entertaining. Abby Geni paints an incredible story, full of detail without managing to over-state. The voice over is great as well.

Very good drama/slice of Americana

I like this book a lot. I picked it up sight unseen based on my enjoyment of the author's previous work, The Lightkeepers, and I largely enjoyed this one more. I miss the occasional surrealness and horror aspects of the first one, but it trades that for being a more confident and artfully delivered piece of writing.
The biggest strengths are in the use of its setting in rural Oklahoma and Texas, and when it centers around its primary protagonist - and it's still very good when the focus shifts away to other members of her family dealing with what happened to her. My main criticism is a section in the middle that sags a bit when one of the characters repeatedly talks through their beliefs and motivations to various other characters. Not to even say what they might be getting right or wrong, it's just always difficult to pull off scenes like that without coming off preachy or didactic, and the book falls into that trap for a while.
Regardless, that does help describe their motivation and how they relate to the protagonist and other characters, so it's not the worst flaw. Overall, the book is still very strong, and a solid recommend.