What Should Be Wild

Summary (from the publisher): In this darkly funny, striking debut, a highly unusual young woman must venture into the woods at the edge of her home to remove a curse that has plagued the women in her family for millennia—an utterly original novel with all the mesmerizing power of The Tiger’s Wife, The Snow Child, and Swamplandia!

Cursed. Maisie Cothay has never known the feel of human flesh: born with the power to kill or resurrect at her slightest touch, she has spent her childhood sequestered in her family’s manor at the edge of a mysterious forest. Maisie’s father, an anthropologist who sees her as more experiment than daughter, has warned Maisie not to venture into the wood. Locals talk of men disappearing within, emerging with addled minds and strange stories. What he does not tell Maisie is that for over a millennium her female ancestors have also vanished into the wood, never to emerge—for she is descended from a long line of cursed women.

But one day Maisie’s father disappears, and Maisie must venture beyond the walls of her carefully constructed life to find him. Away from her home and the wood for the very first time, she encounters a strange world filled with wonder and deception. Yet the farther she strays, the more the wood calls her home. For only there can Maisie finally reckon with her power and come to understand the wildest parts of herself.

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.

 

Maisie Cothay has spent her childhood hidden away on her family's manor, only knowing her father and her elderly hired caretaker. Because of how isolated she is, it takes her a long time to realize that not only is her childhood unique but Maisie herself has a one of a kind ability: she can kill or resurrect with touch. As a consequence, she has spent a life devoid of human contact but also must avoid touching plants and animals so as to avoid accidentally killing anything. When both of her protectors are suddenly gone for the first time, Maisie must venture out into the world and come to terms with her powers.

 

Interspersed with Maisie's story are the stories of her female ancestors, many of whom have vanished into the wood near their home over the preceding millennium. These women are stuck in an in-between world, not quite dead but not living either, stuck in a stagnant half life. In order for Maisie to live a full life, she must confront her family history and the secrets about her family and her own life hidden in the woods.

 

This is quite obviously a supernatural novel and unfortunately I wasn't quite able to suspend my disbelief to fully buy in to Maisie's tale. So many small details didn't quite click for me. Why is she able to touch her dog but no other living thing? Where exactly does her father work and why does Maisie call him Peter? If Maisie and her shadow double are the same, why do they each have a body and a separate conscious? How could they drain so much blood from her body and keep her alive? Why didn't she tell her father she loves him? Why did they let the dog tear away at the body like that?

 

My favorite parts of this book were the chapters detailing the history of the women stuck in the woods. Each of their tales were tragic in their own way but these stories gave each of the women a depth that I felt was lacking in most of the other main characters. I loved the tie in with Maisie's family history over so many centuries, but I didn't feel like the novel pulled the pieces together in a convincing or meaningful way. Ultimately, I found so many choices made by the characters difficult to understand and the relationship between Maisie and virtually every other character tenuous at best. In particular, the supposed connection between Maisie and Matthew was difficult to believe as was the final scene between Maisie and her father, as no real connection had been established between them previously. Dark and richly imaginative, this novel had an interesting premise and many promising elements but ultimately failed to conclude in convincing way.

 

Stars: 3