Living in the Blue Ridge Mountains myself, I felt drawn to this particular book.

Adelaide moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains when she was twenty, for reasons unknown, and has kept herself apart from society and civilization as much as possible. Now an old woman, she delays her planned suicide until she can win a battle of wills with what she believes is a mountain lion screwing around with her garden. From this opening, the narrative heads off in directions I wasn't expecting.

I loved big chunks of this book, but there were a few things that just didn't work for me, unfortunately. I'm sure it's hard to write from the POV of a character who doesn't have language, but the made-up language (the "wild" language) felt like a cop-out, instead of really exploring what it would mean to not be able to put thoughts into words. I'm also pretty ambivalent about the ending. But it's definitely a strong story, and not every book has to be perfect to be worthwhile.

I don’t read horror at all, but this novel really gripped me with the writing and I enjoyed it. More of a novella or a long form short story.

This book has such an interesting premise, one that made me excited to dive in. I had no idea where the book was going to end up, especially given the tenuous nature of the relationships at hand. I felt like the author did a great job developing each character and their relations to everyone else involved.

This book is like the idealised cottagecore or rustic lifestyle but with a dark twist. Very poignant and compelling I found myself caring about each character and finding the story impossible to abandon!

After getting used to the writing style, this turned out to be quite a unique story. I love the "hermit in wilderness trope", but was not entirely sure about Adelaide's decision-making regarding the children.
I guess after postponing her suicide attempt she's not thinking rationally anymore at all. There are a lot of questions raised and I'm not 100% satisfied with the answers I got.

3.5 stars for this debut novel.

A lot of subject matters grabbed my attention, particularly the isolation aspect. However, I felt a lack of emotional attachment to the protagonist. I don't have to like them, but at least understand them, but I didn't. Adelaide's choice didn't always make sense to me.

Motherhood is an interesting subject to tackle. I didn't feel connected to that aspect of the story. We don't learn enough about the other characters to care about them.

Definitely a mixed bag of what you're getting. I'm not sure how I feel after reading it. The writing is interesting and dynamic but I'm unsure if I enjoyed it personally despite being someone who enjoys books about morality. Not every book will connect to every reader, I can certainly see how someone would love this completely but it wasn't for me. The writing saves a lot of this story as it's gripping and poetic.

More like 3.5

Would you want to live alone in the wilderness?

Adelaide is a hermit who makes her home in a remote cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Just when she has lost her will to live, an unknown beast disturbs her garden and she is compelled to solve the mystery. What she discovers as she sets out to catch the thief sets into motion a new raison d’etre for Adelaide as she rekindles her role of mother and faces the demons of her past.

Adelaide’s loneliness and despair grip you with their intensity. The reasons for her choice to live a solitary life are not revealed, but it’s clear that she has suffered as a result of her decision. Hope surfaces as her renewed interest in life spurs her into action. Questions arise as her motives are clouded by the events of her past.

This novel is haunting and suspenseful. The author’s ethereal artwork contributes to the eerie aura of the setting. Adelaide’s story addresses the sense of melancholy that accompanies isolation, something that has become all too relatable in the face of lockdown and quarantine.

Leah has given us a beautifully written meditation on what it means to be human. Her thought-provoking work is a worthy addition to your reading list.

I received and Advanced Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I am not going to lie. One of the reasons I wanted to read this novel was because the cover art reminded me a lot of "White Fur" by Jardine Libaire. The second, was that premise of Adelaide's life.

Coming out of quarantine, the hyper-consumerism, capitalist life I have spent my first 25 years around the sun enjoying no longer seemed important. The dream of running off and living the #cottagecore life a la Henry David Thoreau, complete with tax evasion, flashed through my brain. I debated why we humans, let ourselves develop a society that was overworked and underpaid. Was life even worth living, if we were just living to die?

Cue Adelaide: she has lived alone, and off-the-grid, for many years now. Although, it seems grass isn't always greener on the other side. Her daughter has long grown, and left. Her chickens, her remaining friends, no longer provide any nutritional value - unless she murders them. She two finds herself asking a similar question, what more is there left to live for? Everything changes when she notices a few items missing from her garden and instead, catches a mother of two feral children.

As this story takes you through various twists and turns with every chapter, you really do find yourself asking what really defines humanity.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞.

Adelaide lives apart from the world in the Blue Ridge Mountains, an old lady now, ready to end it all. A bit of a madwoman, if she’s honest with herself, keeping company with her chickens. A true hermit, having turned her back on society long ago to raise her child in the wilds, she knows it is a far less dangerous than other people. She has ‘earned it’, the right to end her own terrible suffering, a whole world of hurt she never chose. The river is hungry and waiting, she wants this one solitary act, but something curious is happening in her garden. Something has destroyed it, and she worked so hard to tend to it through these lonely years. What does she care, it will all ‘go to seed’ anyway and yet, care she does. She choses to build a gate, her death can wait another day.

Upon waking she finds the barricade hasn’t held up, her tomatoes and pumpkins have been ravaged. What sort if beast has done this? Even the onion has ‘unusual gouges’ taken out of it. Imaging it could be the long rumored mountain lion, she waits under the cover of darkness with barely any real protection. Ready to confront the creature, she feels she is being watched too. A growl, “a little like a hurricane, a little like a child wailing”, but not yet- not yet will she discover the feral children, more animal in nature than human. But soon, she will intervene while their beast of a mother circles her home and waits for her chance to get them back.

But the wild woman isn’t the only threat looming. There are local young men, brothers, accusing her of damaging their farm or knowing more than she’s telling about it. They have secrets they keep and are asking if she’s a witch (because all old woman are witches, aren’t they), but it’s the older man in the car with them who is the true evil she fears. There is a rotten history there, a story that is revealed as Adelaide confronts more than one beast. The ghosts in her head have been living on fertile ground for too long, terrorizing her, forcing her to shrink into her old bones. How long can she cower?

What was she thinking, “becoming a mother again”, such a terrible disaster her first time around, her grown daughter can attest that. The distance between them as vast as the harsh land where Adelaide raised her. Catherine knows firsthand it’s no place for children, a hardscrabble life, cut off from civilization. She left as soon as she could and resents these deliveries. Catherine’s sole purpose in Adelaide’s life is to bring her supplies but there are shadows between them, an insurmountable mountain that Adelaide is too weathered, worn out to scale. Anyone else would see madness in her mother’s behavior, it is troubling. All she wants is for her mother to come with her, back to reality. Why must Adelaide cling to this god forsaken place? Why has she chosen it over her own family? Why this self imposed exile, punishment? Why does Catherine think she was an “affliction”?

In so many ways it is a lost cause, showing her own daughter how much she loves her. Adelaide longs for a bond with her daughter, but she also needs to keep the presence of the feral children, keep them hidden. It is time for Adelaide to make a stand, to fight. The past that marked her has returned and is tangled in the present. Though terrifying, the wild mother may not be so different from her. How does a woman turn into such a beast? The hounds of hell are set upon them both and they will kill to take what they’ve come for. Will Adelaide be brave? It is a time for a reckoning.

This was a uniquely told story, one that is about violation and choices in the aftermath of horrific acts. It is about escape because there are many forms. Did Adelaide chose this meager existence as punishment or therapy? Some turn to their animal nature to protect what is dearest to their souls. Without giving the entire tale away, it is about taking back a part of yourself that was stolen long ago. It’s about a motherhood amidst ruins, of the self. It is a brutal tale but well written.

Publication Date: October 5th, 2021

Skyhorse Publishing

Arcade

Adelaide lives alone, in a cabin deep in the mountains. She is a hermit, almost entirely self-sufficient, her daughter long since grown up and left. One night she discovers a wild animal has torn through her vegetable patch. After she sets a bear trap to catch the animal, she discovers it is in fact a wild woman; naked, howling, covered in filth and accompanied by two wild and equally filthy children. Adelaide snatches the children from their mother and brings them inside, a decision which then sets the course of the entire narrative.

The pace of the story was excellent, giving that slow burn at the beginning that finds you hooked and you don't remember at what point it happened. There are just enough layers to the story to create intrigue and suspense, and we hear the voices of both Adelaide and the children as they struggle to understand each others' languages. There is not so much a twist as an unveiling of a decades-long secret of Adelaide's which introduces some unsavoury characters and binds her to the wild woman.

We never find out the wild woman's backstory (mainly because she doesn't speak a human language) but I didn't mind that as it's not what the story is about. It's an exploration of the concept of 'civilisation' and whether we are really better off living in it, and the idea that sometimes what we believe is best for people can end up being detrimental. The story also examined the idea of the Beast, how this can take different forms, and that the Beast isn't necessarily the one running around dirty and naked, howling at the moon.

What a wonderful surprise of a book, and a fantastic debut from Shan Leah.

Thank you for my early review copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I believe this book will be a huge bestseller.

There are some subjects that grab my attention immediately when it comes to books. And hermitized fiction is one of them. Any protagonist living off the land and away from the loud world and its rude inhabitants works for me. Usually. And so in that respect, among several others, this book worked very well for me.
But then the thing is I also like to emotionally engage with protagonists, conventional as that approach may be, I like them likeable and I can’t say I liked Adelaide very much. You’re supposed to, as a reader, I should think, but she just had this offputting selfrighteousness of the mothermentality (more on this in just a minute) that was…lamentable?
But ok, first things first…this is indeed a story of Adelaide, an older woman of indeterminate age who has decided to end her life. This life since the age of 20 has been spent in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the woods, in a small offgrid cabin, living mostly off the land. There doesn’t seem to be much to it but tending to the garden, watching nature and conversing with poultry. To each their own, right? Well, sure, but also we learn that Adelaide has a daughter, a product of rape, that she brought into this life and raised in that life, in that cabin, until the age of 16 when the kid said enough and bailed. And now this daughter serves as a sort of yearly supplier of essentials, though there is a town walking distance away. So the self sufficiency is there, but not in its entirety. Even Thoreau took his wash to his mother’s.
Despite this failed experiment at motherhood, through a series of bizarre circumstances Adelaide finds herself with two more kids, having taken them away from their mother. To be fair, wherein Adelaide has forgone some trappings of civilization, the kids’ mother has abandoned all of them, living like an animal in the woods and raising her kids accordingly. Adelaide decides she can do more for them, so she takes them in and begins to care for them, in the process offsetting the iffy balance with an evil (and super rapey) local farmer.
It stands to reason that like with many wild animals things are best be observed at a distance and not intervened with and despite Adelaide’s road south paving good intentions, her intervention is a disaster and ends in one. And this goes contrary to the book’s theme, which is meant to be Adelaide’s redemption. Second chances are good and great when they work, not when they only serve to highlight the original failure, no? It’s difficult to appreciate Adelaide as a person, a rescuer or as a redeemer, considering her actions. It’s difficult to know what’s right for feral children, in general.
In a way, it’s a story about two widely unsuitable mothers who end up imposing their life choices on their children. It’s a thing many parents do anyway, albeit usually more subtly and in more civilized circumstances. I didn’t care for this direction personally, but then again, I don’t love stories of motherhood, especially ones that present it as end all be all propositions.
The thing is just as a work of fiction (themes aside) this is actually quite good, especially for a debut. The author writes well, assuredly, her descriptions of characters and the world they inhabit are excellent. There’s even art here, oddly enough (doesn’t seem like a sort of book that would have it), in case the pictures aren’t vivid enough in your mind from words alone.
So the overall reading experience is soothing of a mixed bag, but the book is interesting, dynamic and quick enough of a read to merit checking out. Thanks Netgalley.