#A History of Wild Places

[thecreatureoftheshadows]

“I crave things I’ve forgotten how to get. An old life, maybe. That’s what it really is: a need for something I’ve lost long ago. A life that’s good and decent and void of the bone-breaking pain that lives inside me now.”

~ A History of Wild Places | Shes Ernshaw

#a history of wild places #shea ernshaw #life #relatable #random #books #bookworm #book excerpt #bookish #books and reading #book quotes #bookblr #thoughts #book girl

[mangotortoise]

I'm still thinking about the worst book I've read so far this year and about how it was head and shoulders with regards to how much it did not work for me and how much it sucked compared to the other books I've read this year that I've felt lukewarm about.

(Obviously this could change, I'm not done with The Power yet.)

Spoilers and rant under the cut.

It had an interesting premise: depressed, angsty guy who can read the memories stored in an object tracking an author who dipped off the grid after people read her Dark Children's Story and died. Like, this man is miserable and isolated, and then he stumbles into this village in the woods and the POV switches and he's functionally Gone.

And then you learn about this village in the woods that's effectively a Cult, cut off from the world because the Trees will kill you and its like...that's so fucking cool, ok, we have a guy with a magical power checks out that touching a tree can rot you from the inside out, but also the Cult leader definitely knows something (and at the very least is a smarmy fuckboy.)

And the prose flowed nicely (at least on audiobook...I've seen people complain about spelling and grammar issues.) It got a little overly descriptive and self-indulgent, and purple in a really exhausting way (especially for Bea but that made sense because how Bea interpreted the world would be fundamentally different because she was blind.)

But then it all came tumbling down in that last 20%: Bea wasn't really blind (fairly obvious), the Trees couldn't kill you lol the Cult leader was legit just hypnotizing everyone, Calla and Theo were in fact Maggie and the Depressed tracker who's name I forget, but that's ok that they were brainwashed because it's better to live in that self sufficient village in the woods because the real world is too noisy and dark and evil and loud. And don't worry guys, the Cult isn't evil anymore because Bea killed Levi and explained everything and Everyone Clapped.

Its an insult to the psychological thriller genre and I'm forever going to be angry that this mediocre novel is rated higher than The Night Strangers (Chris Bohjalian) and Unbury Carol (Josh Malerman) and Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) and pretty much everything written by Stephen Graham Jones. All of these people have written far more interesting novels with better prose and you're giving accolades to the mediocre book that doesn't understand its own genre. Cool.

#A History of Wild Places #Shea Ernshaw #Anti A History of Wild Places #< This is not a tag but it is now lol #Booklr #Bookish #Books #Psychological Thriller Books #Bad Books #Mag Tag #Mango Tag #Litblr #Rant

[theresnosafeharbor4myships]

Because love is madness and blindness and deception.

A History of Wild Places, by Shea Ernshaw

#quotes #book quotes #quotes about love #love quotes #quotes from books #a history of wild places #shea ernshaw #personal

[yoongivenn]

A History of Wild Places - Shea Earnshaw

A History of Wild Places – Shea Earnshaw

I crave things I’ve forgotten how to get. An old life, maybe. That’s what it really is: a need for something I’ve lost long ago. A life that’s good and decent and void of the bone-breaking pain that lives inside me now. I absolutely loved this one! This is my first Shea Ernshaw book and it has already made me want to read others from her. To begin with this absolutely gorgeous cover so creepy…

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#5 estrelas #a history of wild places #favoritos #livros #resenhas #review #reviews #shea earnshaw

[spookshowninjakitty]

A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw

When Travis is searching for Maggie St James, he stumbles upon Pastoral - an old commune thought to be gone - and disappears himself. When Theo, a long time inhabitant of pastoral stumbles on Travis' truck, he learns Pastoral isn't all that safe after all

A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw Fiction/Mystery/Magical Realism 354 Pages Published by Atria Books (7th December 2021) Purchase from | Booktopia | Book Depository | Fishpond AU* | Dymocks | Amazon AU | Amazon US | Amazon UK | My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Travis Wren has an unusual ability to find people. Able to touch an object and see visions of the owner, he uses this to help find the…

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#A History of Wild Places #amazing #Amazon #Book Depository #book rec #book recommendation #book recommendations #book recs #book review #Booktopia #Buy the book #dymocks #engrossing #enthralling #Fiction #Fishpond #hardback #hardcover #Magical Realism #Mystery #novel #on my bookshelf #Pastoral #read the book #reading #review #Shea Ernshaw #Suspense #thriller #Unique

[bookcoversonly]

Title: A History of Wild Places | Author: Shea Ernshaw | Publisher: Atria Books (2021)

#books #A History of Wild Places #Shea Ernshaw

[soul-wanderer]

I need someone to tell me that they, too, have read A History Of Wild Places and that their life has felt like it's been disintegrating afterwards

#books #booklr #A history of wild places #shea ernshaw #i feel like my dna has shifted or sth #what the heck #help

[vynpop]

A History of Wild Places

By Shea Ernshaw

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis:

"Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James--a well-known author of dark, macabre children's books--he's led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Known as Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. But soon after Travis stumbles upon it...he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis's abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not without the risk of bringing a disease--the rot--into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn't as safe as they believed--and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind."

Review:

What better place to escape than in the mind? It can concoct vivid dreams where we are capable of anything our heart desires. However, what are the consequences of remaining in our minds for too long? Where does reality begin to fade and our dream world begin? What happens when our dreams become nightmares?

Shea Ernshaw creates this slow build as we encounter each of the characters and their innermost thoughts. I will not lie to you, I was very impatient. I was turning page after page wondering when it was going to up the suspense. Well, not long after I had ranted and raved about how long this book was taking, it decided to pick up speed. I was desperately turning the pages trying to find out what was happening in Pastoral.

Out of all the characters within this book, Bee was my favorite. She was the main character in my opinion. Although she is blind, she is fearless. She challenges the very fibers of Pastoral and she cares deeply for those she loves. I would do anything for Bee.

Nonetheless, Shea Ernshaw drags the reader into the depths of their minds to the point where one would question themselves. Just how far one would go to leave the real world behind? How far would you go? What would you be willing to sacrifice?

#book blog #bookblr #books #reading #bookish #books and reading #bookworm #book review #book recommendations #book reccs #book reading #A History of Wild Places #Shea Ernshaw #fiction #thriller books #mystery books #booktok

[neutralparent]

i finished my book and now i dont know what to do with myself. it was a really fucking good book. how do i spend my time now.

#A History of Wild Places #my other book im reading is at work 💔 #i mean really i should get some sleep because i have to be up early as fuck #Shea Ernshaw

[alexmfrank]

A History of Wild Places

By: Shea Ernshaw Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Often hired by families as a last resort, he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books.With only one word to guide him, Travis sets out in search of a place long forgotten, a reclusive community called Pastoral. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore,…

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#A History of Wild Places #book review #fiction #reading #Shea Ernshaw #Supernatural #The Rot

[poisonedbun]

Perhaps we are like two old people who have lived together too long, a lifetime, a hundred years or more. The cobwebs of tiny mistruths, little papercut deceptions, rooted in our joints and slung between rib bones. We’ve built ourselves on these microscopic lies, so small we can’t recall what they were. But they’re there all the same, binding us to one another. But also ripping us apart.

- a history of wild places by Shea Ernshaw

#a history of wild places #shea ernshaw #favorite books #cottage academia

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw

Author: Shea ErnshawPublisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young ReadersReleased: November 29, 2022Received: Own (BOTM) Book Summary: Vega has spent her whole life keeping a secret from the world – a secret that has been scored into her flesh. She is the Last Astronomer and must find the Architect before it is too late. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the fate of humanity rests in her…

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#A History of Wild Places #A Wilderness of Stars #A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw #Book #Book Review #Books #Fantasy #Fantasy Novel #Fantasy review #Fiction #Literary #Literature #Review #Shea Ernshaw

[mangotortoise]

I'm not good about making a coherent list of Book Thots (TM) but I think I wanted to like Shea Earnshaw's A History of Wild Places more than I actually did.

Spoilers under the cut.

Also forgive me for not italicizing the title, it's annoying but I'm on mobile.

Travis' abilities felt neat, but out of place in the larger narrative and I'm still not sure what the point was. They would have fit in better if there had actually been a pox in the trees

I also listened to it on audio book and I'm biased because I liked Travis' narrator 1000x more than Theo's.

On the plus side, their characters read as dead and stiff and wooden because they were fucking brainwashed for most of the narrative. Not sure if that was the intent, but that's how it felt.

Not sure how to rate, somewhere between 2-3 / 5 I guess.

Idk, writing wasn't bad but it just didn't vibe with me ya feel?

#A History of Wild Places #Shea Ernshaw #Book Thots #I'm just rambling don't percieve me #Booklr #I guess

[canyourfavesurvivecastledracula]

I realize you don't like doing actual real people, but in honour of the date, what about Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BCE - 44 BCE) the Tumblr stabby boy?

You had me at "the Tumblr stabby boy" as if he didn't already get duper duper stabbed in real life also, as well as on the stage. But no, he's ours now.

So okay. We say Jonathan Harker ignores red flags, but like, a soothsayer bids Caesar beware the Ides of March, and our buddy Julius says "no 😌" Like the thing he's famous for (today at least) is ignoring warnings shouted at him by weirdos as he passes by. (By contrast when Jonathan is told to beware Castle Dracula - in much less clear terms, mind - his response is more on the order of "y tho?" at which point everyone suddenly stops being able to speak German. They are not the same).

The other main character trait he has, in the play at least, is arrogance. That's why they stab him all those times. The fear is that he's going to make himself King - Brutus says Caesar was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man. All through those early scenes, his advisors are advising him to maybe chill a bit, and he's just like "😎 haters gonna hate" about it - and then is genuinely surprised when they do. My guy...

Julius Caesar thinks he's All That, he thinks he's untouchable, he thinks he's a god. They may bond over stories of conquest but he's not going to take anyone's warning seriously or give Dracula the respect or deference he demands. And even if Dracula is baffled by his +7 shift ciphers (which he may be if he hasn't read the Dancing Men yet) it'll only make him angry. No matter his high opinion of himself, at the end of the day he bleeds like any other man, whether you're stabbing him 33 times on the senate floor or seeing if he really does have kisses enough for everyone.

Also apparently his horse had human toes instead of hooves, which is super freaky and I don't like it. It's not relevant in any way (or, in all likelihood, true) but I thought you should know.

Julius Caesar, the Tumblr stabby boy, at least as depicted by ol' Billy Shakes, can not survive Castle Dracula. And now we know where the Roman coins in Dracula's pile came from.

#julius caesar #shakespeare #classics #royalty #now as depicted in Asterix maybe we get a different outcome who knows #yeah Caesar used the same +7 shift cypher for everything and it worked because nobody could read in the first place #the history of cryptography is wild

[thesilicontribesman]

Cockersands Abbey and Landscape, Lancashire

#wild places #outdoors #cockersands abbey #Lancashire #nature #marshland #estuary #coastline #tidal #abbey #early religion #ancient sites #ancient living #crossing places #relic #stonework #archaeology #history

[aro-culture-is]

Aro-culture is trying to understand why society created the most ridiculous rituals and signs for romance and not finding a single answer/or that makes sense.

(No seriously, all the explanations I find are dumb. Send help)

.

#aro culture is #aro #aromantic #actually aro #actually aromantic #ask #mod axel #honestly all i got for u is that romance is a socially described category of emotion #and social categories are notoriously full of all sorts of cultural biases and assumptions and history that got lost to common knowledge #not to mention the human tendencies to create lil rituals that sometimes become big (ie knock on wood / slug bug) #so u end up with like. 'yeah u gotta not directly tell ppl that ur in romo with them immediately because...' #culturally it signals like. moving too fast or it's seen as embarrassing or you gotta do xyz things first #my sister advised me as a teen that in her experience and opinion - delivered like the words of a sage - if someone is bad at kissing #then they are bad at sex #(me [a kissing repulsed aro person who enjoys sex]: uhhh) #and honestly like. especially when viewed from the outside those things are fuckin wild #like... my mom came from a tiny backwoods type of place in [redacted] #and when i moved to [redacted] and one of the biggest cities in my state (though tbh not that big actually lol) #it caused all sorts of fun. she thinks it's exceptionally rude that not every single person on the street smiles and says hi #if there's not a crowd #she also gets really upset that service workers are less likely to make small talk #and both of those come from City Etiquette being more about like... not taking up ppl's time and attention and that being respectful #like smiling and saying hi to every stranger on the street is... honestly gonna be seen as a Huge Danger thing #and service workers do not have the *time* at most locations to chat with you - especially if it's busy - and it's seen as disrespectful to #both the workers and the people in line behind you to insist on it #but from her POV with Country Etiquette #this is equivalent to like. getting slapped in the face and told that you are specifically mad at her #and she gets legit anxious about it in a very 'this means i fucked up' way