I spend a lot of time reading novels where the fish-out-of-water characters are often the types who often can’t wait to leave home, are glad they left home, or sometimes just resign themselves to the idea they’ve left home. Wake the Wild Creatures is the inverse of that–Talia is like a native plant or animal whose been uprooted from the soil of where she calls home and not only can’t thrive anywhere else but constantly feels the emotional distance and longing for the land she came from. That distance and longing is forged into determination and resolution over the course of this book, even as Talia’s childhood in the community she and her mother started is explored in retrospect. 

Wake the Wild Creatures is a coming of age novel that I would sort into the YA category I’ve seen called “Coming of Rage”: Books for the YA set with strong female protagonists under the age of 21 who are angry (or become angry), are unapologetic about it, and take action. Now, this isn’t a horror novel or even a thriller. It’s just one daughter’s search to understand the world around her, who her mother really is and the reasons for her actions, and her endeavors to return to the only place she knows she’ll call home. 4⭐️

Thanks to Little Brown for Young Readers and The NOVL for the gifted copy of this book. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Coming of Age/Magical Realism/YA Fiction