This one took me a while to get into but once I did, I was hooked. Beautiful, haunting writing and a story that left me thinking about it long after the final page.

A mother with an ill child is given a chance to join a group of 18 individuals who will be allowed to enter the Wilderness State as an experiment. They need to survive there without damaging it purity but find themselves battling all nature instead. Their biggest fight for survival is when the Government decides on a new use for the New Wilderness showing what people are truly capable of.

The emotional core of the novel—and its true source of brilliance—lies in the intricate and morally arresting relationship between mother Bea and daughter Agnes. Cook's writing is most lyrical when she turns her vision on the landscape. No matter who the current narrator is in any section, the vivid descriptions of the beauty, power and danger of The Wilderness spring from the mind of a primitive being like Agnes.

I would definitely recommend this to family/friends and look forward to more of Cook's novels. Thank you to Netgalley, Harper and Diane Cook for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Updated: Congrats to Cook for having The New Wilderness shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize,

Diane Cook's debut novel, The New Wilderness, is a dystopian cli-fi novel that follows a group of pioneers as they travel around the "wilderness state," an area of land protected from a population ravaged by pollution and desolation in a crumbling city that most call home. So why is this group allowed to travel the wilderness? They have been selected to participate in a study led by a group of Rangers who give our nomads instructions for traveling the land and ensure that they follow the rules set forth in the Manual.

The New Wilderness spotlights Bea and her daughter Agnes. Agnes is Bea's reason for taking part in the wilderness study, as Agnes was dying back in the City due to the polluted air. Here in the wilderness, Agnes can finally breathe again, and Bea has peace of mind knowing that she gave up everything to save her ailing daughter. As the years go by and Agnes grows into a burgeoning young woman, she finds herself at odds with Bea, and the relationship between mother and daughter develops and changes in unexpected ways.

I was all-in with The New Wilderness at the start of this book. I was fully captivated by the premise of living off the land, leading a nomadic life, and traveling the wilderness as roaming hunter-gatherers. I found these parts of the book to be fascinating, and loved the tension that Cook built any time the group came in contact with the Rangers ... I couldn't wait to find out the true reason behind their wilderness study. I was prepared to give this novel 5 stars, but alas for all of the foreboding that it builds throughout its first half, it eventually ends up going nowhere. There is no big twist at the end, no secret government experiment being conducted on our travelers ... rather, the group benefitted from taking in all that the wilderness had to offer, and the Rangers learned much from their experiences. The New Wilderness's lack of drive and purpose turned what could have been a stellar novel into somewhat of a let-down. I am still rating this book 4 stars because I did enjoy it, but there was no pay-off or explanation at the end, which I found to be so disappointing after expecting so much from this otherwise thought-provoking read.

This was a book I saw mentioned somewhere and since I like dystopian fiction (sometimes) I picked it up. I should’ve done a full review when I read it, because it ended up having a strong effect on me, but some of the details are now lost to me, several months later. What I find interesting is that by the time I picked it up I did so grudgingly, like, I’ve had this for a while, I guess I should read it, SIGH POOR ME.

I didn’t like it at first – I never warmed to the narrator, Bea, and I was almost sort of considering dumping it (which I almost NEVER do). But the narrator changed to Bea’s daughter Agnes, and something clicked for me. Bea, Agnes and Bea’s stepfather are part of an experimental group that has left an unnamed city to live in the wilderness. The city is a dirty and diseased place, and though Bea had carved out something of a life for herself there, Agnes never thrived, suffering from a tuberculosis-like illness that would have eventually killed her. So Bea decides to join the pilot group – a strictly controlled gathering of about 20 people, who are watched over by the Rangers. The Rangers start out as seemingly imperious and capricious in the many rules they make for the group, and as time goes on they begin to feel almost sinister.

The New Wilderness is a strange book – at times the plot feels sort of meandering, and though it deals with a dystopian future and all the bleakness that’s implied by that, it’s at least as much about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. As I said, I wasn’t a fan of Bea’s, though I understood why she felt the need to make some of the choices she made. Agnes is tough and strange and sort of delightful, once you get to know her. I ended up giving this an A-.

I saw so much hype and excitement for this book and they were not wrong. This book is a long meditation on community and family and at times, does seem quite bleak and sad but it is well worth the read. I HIGHLY recommend this one!

A gripping and thought provoking dystopian literary novel with no shortage of dark humor. I very much enjoyed the complicated relationship between mother and daughter. Fans of Severance by Ling Ma or Afterland by Lauren Beukes will like this novel.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

The baby emerged from Bea the color of a bruise. I know this is the first sentence of the novel, but with so many to read these first couple of words are so vital. I have to say after reading page one this novel had me in its grips. Long enough to sustain to the read further pile, and then long enough to sustain to the completion pile. I’m excited to be able to read this novel and share it with the world.

Audio version. A different kind of dystopia that is a welcome change from zombies or plagues. A books for those interested in our environment and what the future holds. Still, a not so pretty look at humanity, against one another and our environment. The reader is engaging to listen to.

Warning: this is not a light read but it is well done . A dystopian novel that is fairly grim and bleak. However the intensity makes it very hard to put down. If you can handle a story like this right now add it to your list and you won't be disappointed.

It's safe to say I've never read a book like this. When I was trying to describe it to my boyfriend, I mashed together a bunch of words that probably made it seem like garbage - "feminist dystopian eco survival thriller about maternity and wildness" - and although all of those descriptors are correct, none of them do justice to the raw emotion and power of this book. The premise of the book is simple, jarring, and effective: in a near future America in which everyone lives in the City, a densely populated and heavily polluted urban area with not a single tree in sight, mother Bea and (step) father Glen are trying to raise their daughter Agnes. She's sickly, coughing out blood and intensely affected by the pollution in the City. The only cure is to leave. This was previously not an option whatsoever - residents of the City are not allowed out - but then a program emerges: the government wants to see if a group of humans can live in the relatively untouched Wilderness Zone without disturbing the ecosystem. Bea, Glen, and Agnes join this pilot study with no hesitation - if they don't, Agnes will surely die. The rules are simple: the Community must leave no trace and keep moving constantly (no settling down in one area). There's a whole manual of other rules, but these are the basics.

Fast forward years later, when the little family has been in the Wilderness for a few years already, part of a Community of about a dozen people who embarked on the study together. Bea is unhappy, but Agnes is healthy and flourishing. She's almost wild herself, having spent her formative years in the Wilderness observing animals, finding trails, learning to hunt and gather and tan and all of the other necessities of nomadic life. Bea misses the comforts of her normal life, and can't quite accept that this is their new normal, until she makes a decision that changes life for her and the Community forever.

The book is about all of the above - the wilderness, the Community, the dystopia - but it's mostly about the relationship between Agnes and Bea. The first third of the book is told somewhat from Bea's perspective, then the rest of the book shifts to wild Agnes. It's about what lengths mothers will go to protect their daughter, about the complex interpersonal relationships in a small Community, about daughters growing up, and about understanding the full, three-dimensional picture of our mothers. Every word of this book is powerful and beautifully written, the literal and metaphorical journey the characters go on is intense, gripping, and difficult. It's such a unique and brilliant story, immaculately researched (Cook notes and thanks various Indigenous communities for allowing her to observe their methods and base her book in their traditions) and executed to perfection. It's a commentary both on motherhood and daughterhood, but also on environmental destruction, government corruption, and power.

I can't recommend this book enough, and I certainly hope you pick it up. If you don't, turns out it's going to be turned into a TV series in the (hopefully near) future! Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the free ARC of this book. It is actually published now, though :) I thought the premise of this book sounded interesting and it definitely was. In the future (that seems very close, honestly), the world is overpopulated and so polluted. There is only one true Wilderness State left. A group of 20 people enter it as part of a study to live off the land, but there are rules they need to live by. They can’t make an impact on the land, so they can’t live in one spot for more than a few days. The book spans over at least 10 years. I am not a big “camper”, so I’m not sure if I could do what they did. I do admire their reasoning and ability to do it successfully for many years, though.

This book is beautifully written, has a super interesting premise and I found myself rooting for unlikely characters. I will definitely be recommending it to others.

A breathtaking beauty of a book. Reminiscent of The Book of M and Station 11; the world has changed in ways that are not completely defined. A woman and her husband and daughter are part of a small, select group of people sent to live in the last Wilderness area as part of a loose "experiment" that is never really explained. Despite the physical difficulties of living in the wild with no access to stores, healthcare, or permanent structures (the rules of the experiment have the group living a nomadic lifestyle), the people in the wilderness feel incredibly lucky to be there compared to how bad things are in the City - which seems to currently be the only other viable place for people to live. The wilderness setting is important to the story because it helps define their characters, but this book is about relationships. Relationships between a mother and daughter, mostly, but also between members of a group with disparate personalities and clashing goals. It's both heart-rending and utterly relatable.

3.5
The New Wilderness was incredibly original for a dystopian novel. It made me think and overthink about the ways in which we are killing our country, one decade at a time. Overpopulation and climate change are part of the problem that leads this small family of three to the New Wilderness. The rules put in place by the rangers are the guiding forces in this small sample of "residents".

From the start, there is a keen sense of mother/child relationships that is wonderfully and heartbreakingly brought to the page. This theme is further driven into the book and Bea and her daughter Agnes begin to lose each other as time goes on. The younger thrives on the land while the older can't forget her city life.

I'd consider this more of a literary read as the plot doesn't pulsate, yet the writing was beautiful. It got to be a lot of the same, which grew tiresome - therefore my 3.5 rather than a 4.

Links to follow.

This book was remarkable. Exquisite writing of nature, uncanny ability to make the mundane interesting, and precise fleshing out of at least the primary characters. I truthfully was left guessing the entire time - had little sense of what was to come next. It’s odd because nothing, yet everything, really happened.

The side characters were forgettable, and truthfully nothing really *happens*. That being said - I’m good with it and enjoyed it nonetheless.

Society is over populated and climate change has destroyed city life but a small group of originals get to live a nomad existence in the last wilderness. This dystopian novel set in the near future seemed all to real and relevant to the world we live in now. The underlying narrative of a mother daughter relationship and the things we will do to survive were impactful.

As this title is on the Booker longlist, it is going to be very popular for book clubs. The content is interesting, but not unique. The novel felt a bit long and overall fell flat for me. I see myself recommending it to patrons seeking a difficult book more focused on ideas than on characters.

This is an exploration of a mother and daughter's relationship when they are put into a unique situation of living in the wild for a study. The mother misses her urban lifestyle, while the daughter (who has breathing issues and is the reason they moved there) is becoming more attached to her new environment each day. The author captures the internal struggles and loyalty of the characters.

Mother/daughter relationship stories are not new but the wilderness setting of this dystopian novel make it unique. The premise of 99+% of humanity living in dangerous and squalid conditions in cities with a select few chosen to live in a vast wilderness as an experiment in man v. nature was intriguing. Learning to trust and choosing one's own life path were important points explored. I did wish there had been a bit more detail in how they learned to adapt to their surroundings; there were many time gaps in the narrative.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC to read and review.

This is from a debut author? Doesn't read like one. I am a very picky reader so I know that first books are just a stepping stone for author's starting out. It blew me away with it's intensity. The writing is seamless. Characters seem to jump off the page. Beautiful and poignant it will take your breath away. A must read. Happy reading!

The New Wilderness is about a group of people, initially an experiment, who are put into the wild, to see how they survive, adapt, and live.


Just like you might think, it doesn't go that well.


I truly liked the concept of this story. With all the characters, even what they would do if/when one of their members died or when any of them might come in contract with peril. It almost takes on a cult quality of itself in how the members interact with "new" vs "old".


Good, solid story.


The New Wilderness comes out tomorrow, August 11, 2020.


3.5/5 Stars