Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: November 15, 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Contemporary
Five years ago, Nora Wilder disappeared. The older of her two daughters,
Zadie, should have seen it coming, because she can literally see things coming. But not even her psychic abilities were able to prevent their mother from vanishing one morning.
Zadie’s
estranged younger sister, Finn, can’t see into the future, but she has
an uncannily good memory, so good that she remembers not only her own
memories, but the echoes of memories other people have left behind. On
the afternoon of her graduation party, Finn is seized by an “echo” more
powerful than anything she’s experienced before: a woman singing a song
she recognizes, a song about a bird…
When Finn wakes up alone in an aviary with no idea of how she got there, she realizes who the memory belongs to: Nora.
Now,
it’s up to Finn to convince her sister that not only is their mom still
out there, but that she wants to be found. Against Zadie’s better
judgement, she and Finn hit the highway, using Finn’s echoes to retrace
Nora’s footsteps and uncover the answer to the question that has been
haunting them for years: Why did she leave?
But the more time
Finn spends in their mother’s past, the harder it is for her to return
to the present, to return to herself. As Zadie feels her sister start to
slip away, she will have to decide what lengths she is willing to go to
to find their mother, knowing that if she chooses wrong, she could lose
them both for good.
Ruth Emmie Lang's The Wilderwomen spins a complex tale of three women whose gifts set them apart from the world and each other. Their struggle to reconnect and solve the mystery of their mother's disappearance makes for a wild ride. Five years ago, Nora Wilder disappeared, leaving no traces behind. Nora had been increasingly having trance-like states where she wandered off and stared up at the birds in the sky, losing all time and memory of these events.
But she also tended to leave her kids behind which caused pain, especially for Zadie who was the oldest. As the older of her two daughters, Zadie, should have seen it coming, because she can literally see things coming. But not even her psychic abilities were able to prevent Nora from vanishing. She feels as though maybe she might have stopped Nora if Nora didn't make a huge mistake right before she left.
Without their mom to hold the family together, the sisters have drifted apart. Zadie’s estranged younger sister, Finn, was put into foster care and is being raised by foster parents who are good people who are eager to adopt her. She can’t see into the future, but she has an uncannily good memory, so good that she remembers not only her own memories, but the echoes of memories other people have left behind. On the afternoon of her graduation party, Finn is seized by an “echo” more powerful than anything she’s experienced before: a woman singing a song she recognizes, a song about a bird…
When Finn wakes up alone in an aviary with no idea of how she got there, she realizes who the memory belongs to: Nora. Instead of heading to the beach for vacation, Finn talks Zadie into a road trip following Nora's tracks guided by Finn's 'echoes' of Nora's memories with hopes of piecing together a path leading to their mother and discovering why she left five years ago. Against Zadie’s better judgement, and the fact that she's both pregnant, and recently separated from the babies daddy, she and Finn hit the highway, using Finn’s echoes to retrace Nora’s footsteps and uncover the answer to the question that has been haunting them for years:
Why did she leave? But the more time Finn spends in their mother’s past, the harder it is for her to return to the present, to return to herself. As Zadie feels her sister start to slip away, she will have to decide what lengths she is willing to go to to find their mother, knowing that if she chooses wrong, she could lose them both for good. Zadie is also up against her own failures. She pretty much ignored her abilities for years thinking that maybe she'd end up like Nora. Without following the past and finding out what their mother’s holding back, they can not fulfill their future dreams, and Zadie is likely to lose her sister like she lost her mother.
The journey also includes Finn, who was Zadie's ex at one point, and a few surprises along the way. Along the way, they met so many fascinating and likeable characters, many of whom had special abilities of their own like hearing the music of the stars in the sky, communicating with trees, or being able to paint someone’s future. This book has a tendency of going back in time to the months and days leading up to Nora's mysterious disappearance, and might give readers clues as to what really happened.
There
are heartwarming moments and the
ending wraps everything up nicely. It also has some surprises that
readers may not expect.
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