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This extraordinary, timely, and must-read novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nova Ren Suma explores freedom and rage as a young woman plots her way back to her hidden mountaintop home after her mother's arrest for murder.
Three years ago, Talia lived happily in the ruins of the Neves, a once-grand hotel in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains, with her mother Pola and their community of like-minded women. Some came to the Neves to escape cruel men, others to hide from the law, but all found safety and connection in their haven high above civilization, cloaked by a mysterious mist that kept intruders away. But as their numbers grew, complications followed, and everything came crashing down the night electric lights pierced the forest. Uniformed men arrested Pola, calling her a murderer and a fugitive, and Talia was taken away.
Now sixteen, Talia has been forced to live with family she barely knows and fit into a world scarred by misogyny, capitalism, disconnection from nature ... everything the women of the Neves stood against. She has one goal: to return to the Neves. But as Talia awaits a signal from her mother, questions arise. Who betrayed her community, and what is she avoiding about her own role in its collapse? Is it truly magic that keeps the hotel so hidden? And what does it mean to embrace being her mother's daughter? With the help of an unexpected ally, Talia must find her way to answers, face a mother who's often kept her at arm's length, and try to reach the refuge she lost—if the mist hasn't swallowed her path home.
Fierce and lyrical, unsettling and tender, Wake the Wild Creatures marks the long-awaited return of one of the most distinctive voices in young adult literature.
"Suma's fiercely feminist offering unfolds from Talia's somewhat alien-feeling perspective, her first-person narrative snaking along a nonlinear timeline to add context and resonance. Intersectionally diverse, insightfully rendered characters and their complex, continuously evolving relationships ground the tale, while a surreal setting and sensate prose impart an otherworldly air." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The prose is poetic and haunting, though the plot occasionally feels thin, relying heavily on Talia's introspection. However, her evolving relationship with Lake is particularly compelling, offering a nuanced exploration of what it means to believe women...Feminist and captivating." —Kirkus Reviews
"Wake the Wild Creatures is a ferocious expression of girlhood, of its seething potential, its most wild and secret places, from one of our greatest and most inimitably talented authors writing today. This is an urgent, important, and timely outing that must not be missed and Nova Ren Suma's particular brand of magic has earned a place alongside—and is perfect for fans of—the works of Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, and Kelly Link." ―Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and The Project
"Mesmerizing and fierce, vivid and dreamlike, Wake the Wild Creatures is Nova Ren Suma's finest novel yet. I was enraptured from the first page to the last. Rarely has a novel made me think so deeply and so much about the confines of our lives and the expansive possibilities that might await us should we choose to trust our intuition and our own power to decide." ―Nina LaCour, bestselling author of Watch Over Me and We Are Okay
This information about Wake the Wild Creatures was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves, which were both finalists for the Edgar Award. She also wrote Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone and co-edited the story & craft anthology FORESHADOW: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading & Writing YA. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from the Hudson Valley, she spent most of her adult life in New York City and now lives in Philadelphia. Find her online at novaren.com and @novaren.
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