The Wild Fall by Katherine Silva is a tale of survival in a world where the woods, wolves, and humans are all out for blood. Being forced to remain on high alert, our crew faces various terrors as they just try to live in this new normal.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a review for the second book in a series. Please proceed with caution if you haven’t yet read the first one as there will be slight spoilers for the first book.
Content Warnings:
Blood, child death, religious bigotry, death/death of a parent, gore, gun violence, kidnapping, mental illness, murder, suicide, and violence.
Let’s dive in!
My Thoughts on The Wild Fall by Katherine Silva –
Ten years after The Merging began, Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Raleigh, has been living with Hank and his daughter, Evie, and a small group of people. In this group, everyone has a role they play, but they all band together to try to help them all survive. One day, they realize they had gotten a bit too comfortable and that the woods are getting close.
The group is forced to flee. Luckily, they had heard of a town in Vermont that sounded promising. Once there, they find a new building to settle in and work hard to make it feel like home again.
Of course, the darkness isn’t far and it’s got its eyes on them… But what’s even worse is that this darkness holds more unknowns than before, making it even more eerie and dangerous.
I was SO excited to see that there was a bit of happiness at the start of this book. Boy, did our main characters deserve a break! But like the weather in New England, it wasn’t long until those sunny skies were crowded with storm clouds.
I loved that this book was set in two perspectives. Like the dual timeline in the previous book, this made it really difficult to put the book down. It was also neat that the author wrote many tense situations in a way that makes readers really sympathize with both characters as we were able to see things from both of their perspectives.
The cast of characters was amazing. I really enjoyed the way that they treated one another. No one was too afraid to speak their minds, but they also knew when to hold back and talk in private when appropriate. This gave me so much hope for them especially where this isn’t a dynamic I have seen in other apocalyptic worlds.
Per usual, Katherine has created a killer novel here. The plot was totally captivating, the characters sprang to life, the action was intense, and the gore and grief were absolutely brutal. There were a handful of scenes that haunted me to the point where I refused to look outside at night, afraid I would see a shadow lurking at the edge of our woods. There was also a scene that gave me a total jump scare!
When I hit the last page, I shouted out loud, “NOOOO, IT’S THE END!” and sighed. My husband chuckled at my grief over not being able to live in this book a bit longer. Logically I could sense things were winding down, but as I was reading an ebook, I couldn’t see how close to the end I was.
Guess I’m off to read another side story that Kathrine wrote about this world! 🙂
My Favorite Passages from The Wild Fall –
There were many more passages I highlighted, but they were too far into spoiler territory! So here are my three favorites without spoilers:
“Of course, I’m concerned. But it doesn’t mean I want to run headlong into danger just so I can know how close it is to me.”
Emptiness was its most defining feature. A plain of undulating sand, the husks of long-dead trees with naked branches puncturing spots here and there. Once-proud structures gathered to create something vaguely urban. Each one crumbled, the structures bleeding their bricks and stones out into the open roads. Windows leered, black and unoccupied. Everything was blasted with windswept ginger sand.
What Astor had said was like medication slowly dripping into an IV in my arm, deadening my thoughts.
My Final Thoughts on The Wild Fall –
This was such an amazing follow-up to The Wild Dark. I was so excited to dive right into this one after reading The Wild Dark and Hallowed Oblivion right back to back. I just didn’t want this one to end!
Filled with unsettling scenes mixed in with full-blown terror, this book had me on the edge of my seat, nervous to see what was to come.
This is a must-read for all horror and supernatural fans!
Related Reading:
The Wild Dark by Katherine Silva is a supernatural horror tale where the forest is overtaking the land, bringing darkness along with it. And within that darkness, there are more horrors than just the wolves that have been spotted…
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