Title: The Wild Dark

Author: Katherine Silva

Release date: October 12, 2021

Huge thanks to Katherine for sending me a digital copy of this and the upcoming sequel, ‘The Wild Fall,’ which will be released on August 3rd, 2023. When Katherine reached out, I asked if I had to have read this before the sequel and she said it was a must, so I dove into book one, to prepare for book two.

Honestly, I’d seen this one promoted a lot and people had been raving about it, but it remained on my ‘to buy list’ for some time. I’ve got book two preordered now and will be snagging book one shortly as a thanks to her kindness.

What I liked: I went into this one fairly blind. I’d read the synopsis a while back, but I couldn’t completely remember what it was about. I knew that it involved a former cop and a sudden change in life as we know it, but other than that I didn’t re-read the synopsis beforehand, deciding to let the story take me where it wanted.

The novel follows Liz, former police officer who has isolated herself from the world following the death of her partner, Brody. As a snowstorm hits the cabin she’s at, she begins to see odd shadows in the trees and hears strange sounds.

From there, Silva does a wonderful job of creating a new type of apocalypse. Some people can see their dead loved ones. The woods begin to overtake everything and massive, blood-thirsty wolves prowl the trees. Those who can’t see their loved ones believe the others are infected, and the world’s infrastructure crumbles as nature overtakes the cities.

Liz is a damaged character, one who not only recently broke up with her long-time fiancée, but is also struggling with the death of her partner, a man she loved, and blames herself for his demise. This haunting lingers, this sorrow threatens to drag her down, but it also dictates her decisions and this makes for a great protagonist, someone who we want to root for and want to see succeed, all the while they’re making decisions that can be frustrating and head-scratching.

The ending was great. It was filled with an emotional explosion of events but also does a nice job of setting up where the sequel may very well go. It’s also a cathartic ending and taken as a singular novel, you could very well read this and consider it done and wrapped up.

What I didn’t like: The novel jumps back and forth between ‘Now’ and ‘Then.’ While it works really well to fill us in on how Liz got to where she is now and the various relationship dynamics at play between her, Josh and Brody, I found that as the novel went on, it worked to slow the pace and dampen the anxiety and tension that the ‘Now’ chapters were building. I think a lot of it could’ve been condensed and the later quarter would’ve been phenomenally paced if it was purely made up of ‘Now’ chapters.

Why you should buy this: Silva has created a really great character with Liz. You love her, you loathe her and you can’t not follow her story. The setting is fantastic and while I would’ve loved to learn more about the wolves, they worked so well to keep tension high, especially anytime the characters were outside or in the wilderness.

This was a fun take on the ‘end of the world’ trope and I’m excited to see where Silva goes in the sequel.

4/5