Something Wild is a powerful novel about abusive relationships and inherited trauma.

When Tanya and Nessa Bloom go home to help their mother and stepfather move, they realize their mother is being abused. However, Tanya and Nessa don't agree as to what the next steps should be. It's a beautifully written and frank look at how women grapple with abuse and their abusers and with their relationships with each other. Halperin's portrait of Tanya and Nessa's adolescence is particularly well done.

Overall, Something Wild is a remarkable debut novel about the complications of abuse and family.

This broke my heart. It’s so weird for me to read about terrible family situations because I had such a lovely childhood, but I know this story is very real for a lot of people. So many good lessons here. I wish women would read it and take charge of their lives - how not to raise your daughters and how not to stay with a man who is abusive. And for godsakes don’t keep secrets - tell someone what is going on! So frustrating that this mom kept coming back for more. So sad.

Adult children Tanya and Nessa try to get their mother to leave her abusive husband. The story alternates in time and between the three women. Very disturbing at times but there is hope in there as well.

Hannah Halperin’s novel, Something Wild, centers on need: the need to be wanted, loved, cared for, desire. So far, this isn’t an unusual premise for fiction. What is unusual is that Halperin looks at need through the perspective of how need pushes her main characters into making bad choices with men, to the point that one of them is being battered by a man she claims to love and who claims to love her. We watch Tanya, Nessa, and Lorraine in their relationships with each other and to the men in their lives, ranging from violent (Lorraine) to indifferent (Nessa), to possibly fulfilling (Tanya). We also see them reflect on their memories of each other, before terrible things pulled them apart. Because domestic violence plays such a large part of the book, I plan to tread lightly when I recommend it—but I do plan to recommend it.

When sisters Tanya and Nessa were younger, their father left their mother, Lorraine. After he left, Lorraine married Jesse. Nessa likes Jesse; Tanya very much does not. It doesn’t take long for us to figure out why. Jesse is controlling, jealous, and violent when angry. Lorraine stays with him because she needs to be with someone. The other men she dated before him were lackluster. They didn’t desire her the way Jesse does. Nessa—before she saw the evidence of Jesse’s violence—was as willing to excuse his worse behavior as Lorraine is. Shortly after Something Wild opens, Jesse attacks Lorraine and puts her in the hospital. Very shortly after that, Nessa and Tanya urge Lorraine to get a restraining order and leave Jesse.

Over the course of a weekend, all three women—spent in semi-hiding from Jesse—find themselves thinking very hard about how they all got to this point. For Nessa and Tanya, they think back to a very upsetting incident when they were young girls, one that sent them in different directions when it comes to what they can do in their relationships with men, and what satisfies them now in these relationships. For Lorraine, this means finding a way to balance all of the demands around her and her own need. Although she’s in an impossible position, Lorraine is the only one who isn’t tearing herself apart on the inside trying to decide if her needs and desires make her a terrible person.

Something Wild is unlike any other novel I’ve ever read about domestic violence. Although it includes some of the things you’d normally expect, it doesn’t tie things up in neat bows and answers. The novel goes deeper to try and understand three women’s reasons for being with the men they’re with instead of putting all of the focus on getting Lorraine out so that there can be an ultra-shiny happy ending. Even though this sounds terribly depressing, I was enthralled by this book. I marveled at its insight. I loved the emotional depth and originality of the story. For any reader willing to tackle a book with so much domestic violence, I highly recommend Something Wild.

here is a lot going on in this family drama about sisters Tanya and Nessa, their divorced parents, and the complexities of dysfunction, abuse, and love. It was a bumpy ride for the first half, but then came together and found its focus. The biggest distraction was the introduction of Wild Thing, which really could have been left out - it was weird and unnecessary.

This book. I don't know what to say. I was pleasantly surprised by the way the author was able to end the book, especially after so much sadness and fear. And I was glad I stuck with it through the rough spots.

My thanks to Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This is outstandingly harsh, intense, sad but also inspirational novel about women’s endurance, true power, resilience, standing up for themselves!

Three different women: mother and two daughters: they both have different but struggling, complex, traumatic experiences with men and each of them gives different reactions, looking at the events they’ve been through in different perspectives!

Everything starts when one weekend estranged sisters Tanya and Nessa Bloom’s trip to their childhood home in Boston to help their mother’s boxing her belongings to move to another place.

Their mother looks so startled, fragile, wearing braces. And as the sisters dig out more about her mother and stepdad’s sudden interest to move to a place hardly accessible in New Hampshire , they just have realize the ugly truth about the violent relationship between their mom and her husband.

Both girls approach differently to this heart wrenching situation for their mother’s safety. As Tanya forces her mother to get restraining order against her father, Nessa still has hard time to believe the man she truly adores a monster in disguise do such hurtful things to their mother.

The confrontation between sisters bring out a traumatic incident belongs to their adolescence which shaped their lives differently and affected their entire relationship patterns with men!

This is powerful novel which has realistic approach to the women who are treated with violent behavior, why they chose to stay with the partner who turned their lives into hell, how they struggle to stand up for themselves. It’s impressive, heartbreaking, dark but it also effective, heartfelt, sad family story!

Even though it hurt me like hell, I still enjoy this emotional turmoil, soul crushing story of three women which earned my 4 tear jerking, anger, resentment, complex relationships, feminism vibes stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group / Viking for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This is a very complex story of three women, two daughters and their mother. When Tanya and Nessa return home to help their mother and step-father move, red flags begin flying. Why does their mother have braces? Why are they moving to an inaccessible place in New Hampshire? Why does mom seem so fragile? The answers are soon apparent, when Jessie, their step-father beats her up and tries to strangle her. It is obvious that this is nothing new in their relationship.

At this point the sisters, who have their own complicated relationship, try to care for their mother. Lorraine exhibits the classic abused woman syndrome. It is this unfolding story that gives the novel its’ heft. This makes for a fascinating discussion in women’s groups and seminars. Why do women stay with bad men? How do these actions affect future generations?

Despite a degree of predictability and the introduction of extraneous sub-plots, this is certainly worth reading. I certainly recommend this to book groups. Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Sisters Nessa and Tanya have traveled to Boston to help their mother move out of the home they grew up in. Back in their childhood home, the sisters find themselves falling into the familiar routine of late night confidences, remembering their lives, both the good times and the bad. They also discover that their mother is in a violent, dangerous relationship, their stepfather is a cruel and brutal man. They try to convince their mother to seek legal help, all the while struggling to put a new face on the man they had liked and trusted. And in the midst of all this terror and angst, the sisters are forced to confront a traumatic, polarizing event from their own pasts. This is a brutal, beautiful story about the cruelty of men and the strength and resilience of women