Reviews

Wildwood by Colin Meloy

efruitsnack's review

5.0

The writing is clever and captivating. While there were parallels to Narnia, Wildwood holds its own. I’m excited to read the rest of the series.

khaleesimod93's review

adventurous mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

I was completely drawn in by the cover. The illustrations through the story were absolutely stunning! It is what made the book enjoyable to me. I went into this book thinking it was a lighter, more tame novel about a child finding her brother. Overall, that's the type of book it was. It also had much darker themes. Themes I wasn't expecting with how cutesy the cover and the age of Prue and Curtis. The writing was captivating and simple. It's definitely perfect for the target audience, I believe. Now, the reason that it wasn't as highly rated for me was that it didn't keep my interest, and the darker themes were unexpected for a middle grade type novel. It's still a good story, and the illustrations are beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Gun violence

allisonreadsabook's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

ethan_libra's review

1.0

I just can't with this book. I read approx. 150 pages before I gave up trying to derive any enjoyment out of this book. This conclusion comes with some disappointment, as I haven't given up on any book I've started in years. However, it comes with a lot of relief that I don't have to trudge through this soul-sucker of a novel. I felt nothing while reading it, and found that, after 150 pages, no interesting events, characters, or settings had been introduced. The main characters feel like they could have been copy-pasted from completely different books, and the side characters provide nothing either. Specifically, the Dowager Governess feels like a blatant rip-off of the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia. Also, the fact that the inhabitants of the Wood are anthropomorphic animals is completely unnecessary to me. They act nothing like animals, they confuse the rules of the world, and they feel stuffed in to make the world more "imaginative". I couldn't grasp the setting despite how much time is spent describing it and despite the map in the back of the book. The hipster stuff in the beginning didn't actually bother me as much as it did other people, given how little it's actually in the book. Finally, my biggest issue lies in the horrendous pacing of the book, and how much it affected my reading experience. I guess the illustrations by Carson Ellis are pretty cool, but they don't make up for how traumatized I feel by this novel. I can't think of a single person or group I would recommend this to.

kt_bug55's review against another edition

2.0

I wanted so much to love this. I’ve wanted to read it for years! It was so boring to me. It always takes me awhile to get into a novel but this took me 10 hours to get into and even then I was ready for it to end. I sped up the audiobook to cattle auction speed so I could be done with it. I’m giving it one star because I can’t go lower plus one star for the beautiful illustrations that made me want to read it in the first place.

the_ghost_penguin_reader's review

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

typographic_whimsy's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

sailor_and_a_maiden's review

3.0

I've tried to start this book several times since it came out, but could never quite get into it. Finally I picked it up again since I read a Russian fairytale (The Magic Swan-Geese) with a similar premise to this novel and hoped I might find some parallels. While the presence of talking animals and the "woods magic" added a fairytale bent to the story, it otherwise didn't feel like a very enchanting read. The illustrations were most of what kept me going--lush woodland details sometimes paralleled in the writing with descriptions of birds and plants, or Prue's hipster Portland life. Unfortunately the main plot seemed to drag--for what seemed to be a middle-grade novel, it was a long book. Some of the battle scenes struck me as surprisingly bloody for middle-grade, but then I read similar things in Rick Riordan novels when I was in middle school and had no problem with it.

Spoiler

One thing that really brought down my rating was the very end. Curtis chose to stay in the Woods and live as a bandit, and no real motivation is given for this except for his bandit oath. It's not clear that he's particularly unhappy at home--he's even shown to be desperately homesick at points in the story. But by the end he's willing to let his parents and sisters believe that he's dead--no magical excuse to make them forget him or believe he's gone off to a special school. Prue runs into Curtis' family at the very end and it's clear they believe he's dead or kidnapped and never coming back. This whole bit struck me as out of character and darkened the tone of the whole story. With some kind of explanation it might have worked, but as-is it makes little sense.

bulu's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

chandraleereads's review against another edition

4.0

This was my Galentine’s book for my friend Laci! Overall I really enjoyed the book. It was whimsical, delightful, and at times a bit haunting. I definitely recommend it if you want to read something with adventure and a touch of magic. Thanks for getting me to read this book Laci, I will definitely be passing it to my niece so she can enjoy it too!!
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Trigger Warnings: The only trigger I can really think of is violence... it was surprisingly graphic (for a middle grade book) in a spot or two.