This book is very creepy and atmospheric. It is a story about loss. It is beautifully written and very engaging. A great read

I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

A superbly written novel about having to start your life from scratch dealing with obstacles in the way. Also how you have huge responsibilities on your shoulders.
The descriptions in this are stunning, the author is very good at making you believe you’re there with the characters.
I would highly recommend this novel.

Easy to imagine yourself in this situation and so thankful you never were. A very short but quite dark story which I seemed to have read before I realised I was near rather end.
Not my favourite read I’m sorry to say but loved the description of the Scottish life.

Sarah Duguid's second novel, The Wilderness, was published July 21, 2022 by Tinder Press. This relatively short literary fiction is deliciously and unexpectedly creepy. The viewpoint shifts easily between Anna and the two teenage girls, Sasha and Isabella, but focuses mainly on Anna's perspective as her quiet, empty nester life is turned upside down by a long ago promise and a recent tragedy.

The Wilderness covers a lot of ground in a short amount of pages. Its characters are at times philosophical, at times sardonic, flawed and somewhat self-deprecating. The boundaries of family, marriage, grief, longing, and expectations are explored as Anna and her husband try to navigate a new normal with the two wild and enigmatic sisters. It turns sinister with the arrival of an old family friend, and from there, more dark events follow. The writing is exquisite and I am looking forward to reading the author's first book, as well as more from her in the future.
1w

Any phone call that comes late at night invariably heralds bad news, and for Anna and David, at home in London, the call informing them of a devastating accident will change their ordered lives forever.

Hurrying up to a remote island in Western Scotland to be with the now orphaned children of David's brother and his wife, and with two grieving teenage girls to look after, life for all of them is never going to be easy especially as Anna and David, now in their sixties with a grown up family of their own, have had to put their own lives on hold. Into this complicated mix comes Brendan, a rather odd friend of Anna and David's, who wants to help out with the situation but who merely makes things much more difficult for everyone.

The Wilderness is a starkly forbidding tale, and whilst beautifully descriptive of a bleak and sullen land it is brightened by the imaginative description of the coast where this odd mix of people are all living together. The sisters, Isabella and Sasha are themselves a study in grief, volatile, mercurial, lost and alone. They are in desperate need of love and understanding but what comes across is the story of fractured and disturbing relationships.

Accomplished, thought provoking and with a dark and sinister edginess, The Wilderness is a story which will stay with me for a long time.

This is undoubtedly a beautifully written book with descriptive, evocative prose. The house and setting sounded idyllic yet, at times, frustrating. Grief, loss and the grieving process were the central themes in the book and these were explored with insight and sensitivity. A strong theme was also womanhood, including motherhood and ageing, and loss of identity.

I really felt for Anna, being dragged away from her life and friends (and cat) in London to look after her grieving nieces in the middle of nowhere on a remote island. I took an immediate dislike to Anna and David's friend Brendan who became increasingly loathsome throughout. I never really understood why he was there and why he stayed so long, or why on earth the girls were left alone with him. It was quite an unsettling read and at times disturbing, especiallyas the story progressed. It was written largely from Anna's POV and this worked but I felt I would have liked to have known more about the girls and David. David's role in the story was generally passive and yet his actions had huge impacts on the family.

The story has left me with questions, which is fine, but in some ways I feel it may have worked better as a longer novel. It was well paced with the right amount of tension and kept me interested. The characters were well written but the standout feature for me was the quality of the descriptive prose and the scene setting. Many thanks to Anne Cater from Random Things tours and Netgalley for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest review

Very unlike the books I normally read, The Wilderness is not a thriller or a book in which things ‘happen’. It’s about what is and what was and what can no longer be. And how to move forward. It’s about grief and loss and finding oneself, not just for the children, but also for David and Anna and their friend Brendan.

I must say that I didn’t much like Brendan. His way of handling grief at times seemed inappropriate for such young girls, too hands-on and as they described him – creepy. Also too self-focussed – it should never have been about him. If he were their counsellor for real, his feelings would not have come into it.

But back to the story. Young teenagers, Isabella and Sasha, have tragically lost their parents, Peter and Rachel, in a car accident and are now orphans. Peter’s brother David and his wife Anna were named as the legal guardians of the girls in case of such an event, but neither ever expected it to happen. Anna is resentful – their two sons have grown up and left home and they have found a kind of freedom and independence of sorts. But Anna will cope, here in their lovely home in London. She always copes in her boring, housewifey way.

So it’s a shock when David decides to take a three month sabbatical and moves them up to the Scottish Highlands, to ease the girls into their new life, but staying put in their falling-down home on a remote island. It’s wet and freezing and Anna is constantly unhappy. And she misses her friend Avery and her cat.

Then Brendan arrives, having decided he can ‘fix’ them with his own unconventional version of psychotherapy. They will be born again. But he has an agenda and Anna is deeply suspicious.

It’s a very sad book at times, because nothing can change what has happened. Can there be a future for all of them and will it be a happy one?

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours and to NetGalley for an ARC..

I don't know what I expected after reading the blurb for this book, but whatever it was, it was NOT what I got.

This novel was highly original. Creepy and atmospheric yes, but deeply unsettling and bizarre as well.

The family friend Brendan, who came to stay with them in Scotland was a deeply disturbed man. He caused me as a reader to be as troubled as the two girls were... I expected the narrative to be from Anna's point of view, but most of the novel was not. The relationship between the girls and Brendan was one of suspicion, with the reader never knowing if it would develop into the highly unsavory. I expected to feel deep empathy for the girls, but I found them to be peculiar and unconventional. So much so that I wondered just what they were capable of...

The 'wilderness' of the title spoke to more than just the isolated setting on a Scottish island. It spoke to the wilderness of relationships that were increasingly un-navigational, perplex, and complicated.

The Brendan character brought an almost primal vibe to the novel. He was eccentric and deeply disturbed. The two girls, in throes of grief, were susceptible to his bizarre ideas and the resulting atmosphere quickly became toxic.

The ending of the novel brought home the idea of transience. How we are all here for such a short time, we are inconsequential. Everything returns to wilderness over time...

All in all, a memorable and disturbing read.

The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid is a well paced psychological novel.

Anna and David are suddenly thrust back in to parenthood when Davids brother and his wife tragically die. They have to move from London to a remote house in Scotland to care for the girls. To help them, Davids friend Brendan comes too, which causes more tension and suspicion in the isolated house.

The book is unsettling, tense and atmospheric. It is very descriptive, you feel all of the emotions and feelings and are transported to the isolation of the remote Scottish cottage.

I loved the description of the Scottish house and island, it is definitely somewhere I would like to stay (definitely not live in though!)

It is written mainly from Annas point of view which I enjoyed. I really felt sorry for her and you feel her panic at her new found situation and the isolation of her new life.

The characters all coming to terms with their grief is a profound theme to the book, and it really highlights the age old saying that time is a healer as well as forcing characters to reflect on their life and choices.

There becomes growing tension in the house between certain characters as well as some sinister turns, all of which I enjoyed reading.

I enjoyed the moderate pace of the book and the beautifully descriptive prose throughout.

Anna and David are an older London couple on the brink of retirement. Their lives are completely uprooted when David’s brother and his wife are killed and they become the guardians of their teenage nieces. They move to a run-down house with no running water on an isolated Scottish island. Anna struggles with living in this wild landscape and dealing with the grieving, sullen girls. Things feel claustrophobic and savage. An old university friend, Brendan, comes to visit. Instead of making things easier, his presence amplifies the unsettling and vaguely menacing atmosphere. Anna must examine where she is at and what she wants in life and her marriage.

The main characters descriptions of her situation, her emotions and her environment are tangible, and I could feel her sense of isolation. Not only is she miles away from her own family and friends but her husband also withdraws as she observes him come increasingly under the influence of Brendan, an old friend who has imposed himself upon them.

This is a book that sucks the reader into its splendid prose. It is elegantly written in a tight and lyrical manner, and the author has used her words carefully in creating a scenario which, to Anna, feels claustrophobic and intense. For her charges, Sasha and Isabella, the rugged landscape is the norm but in Brendan's presence it becomes feral and dangerous.

I was a little confused at first with all the characters, the book begins a little chaotically, however I felt like that was purposeful with the unexpected deaths and confusion that followed. It all fit with the plot.

The story settles into a rhythm. I love the relationship between David and Anna - it’s a real love, one that’s evolved over decades, even at the points she’s lying in bed hating him, even through their problems it feels realistic.
Sasha and Isabella - something seems so sinister and off about them, very complex children. It made me want to keep reading, to figure these characters out and see where everything was going.
Enter Brendan and my thoughts on who was sinister changed entirely- he made me so uncomfortable and I’m still not sure now on what he was trying to achieve, I don’t want to give too much away and I think it’s a book that we’ll all have a different thought on.

The writing is hugely atmospheric with the island and the mist and weather, the feeling of being cold and damp, exposed physically and metaphorically.

One thing that really resonated with me was
the outside judgement of a persons life path. What it is to be a mum, lose yourself, feel inadequate for being middle class - it’s only touched on at brief moments but it’s poignant and I took that away from the book.

This was a book that flowed, slow and steady like the tides on the island and I found myself caught up in it. It’s quite open ended, leaving the reader to imagine multiple scenarios. For me, there was something a little unnerving behind the words, and that left me with a vivid scenario in my head.

The Wilderness took me on an emotional and tense journey. The author painted the atmosphere brilliantly and I felt as if I was really there. They also did well with Anna, the main POV character. I could climb inside her head and feel everything she was feeling. The book was intense at times but in a good way, keeping me turning the pages and reading well into the night. I’m excited to read more from this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a chance to read and review this book.

This is a slender, intense book that explores grief and love, but with such a sharp attention to detail that I found it very difficult to put down.

Anna and David receive a call one evening which turns their cosy middle-class life and marriage upside down. Everything they thought they held dear gets held up to scrutiny during the course of the novel, including their love for one another.

They must travel to remote Scotland to take on the care of two orphaned sisters who, deep in the midst of their grief and anger, are sullen and resentful despite their need for love and reassurance. When David asks a close friend to help them build a relationship with the girls as they prepare to transition to a new life in London, the new arrival unsettles what fragile peace the girls have managed to discover since the death of their parents.

Away from the calming veneer of civilisation, Anna begins to question her role as a mother and a wife. Is her life now the product of choices she made of her free will, or has she somehow been short-changed, relegated to a life of service to her husband and her sons, rather than being able to craft her own existence?

Once in the wilderness of Scotland, in a broken house with no running water, surrounded by two men who have in turns betrayed and belittled her, Anna begins to see her life with a clarity she lacked before.

This is a book about love over time, about the role of women, and about grief. It is powerful and beautifully written - packing a huge punch for its diminutive size.

Anna and her husband David received the terrible news that his brother and wife have been killed. This is a novel about how your settled life can change overnight when the couple in their early 60s have to become guardians to their teenage nieces. They travel to an island off the west coast of Scotland, to the remote granite house, to its wild isolation in more ways than one. Later on their friend Brendan arrives who they’ve known since university and then everything changes.

The story is told principally from Anna‘s perspective which works extremely well. You feel her emotions, her feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness that no one respects what she does, that her London life has been uprooted. I become annoyed on her behalf as neither David or Brendan listen to her, yet she seems the voice of common sense.

There are some excellent descriptions of the house, the island and island life that are so evocative you could almost be there.

There are growing discordant notes with the girls and Brendan‘s behaviour, amplified by the threatening elements in the wild location and it takes a weird and potentially sinister, frightening and almost savagely feral direction which is counterbalance by Anna‘s reflections on life, marriage, age divides and so on. It’s very intense as it forces all of them to think about what they really want. The ending is very good with a sense of renewal.

Overall this is a very accomplished novel and I look forward to reading this authors work in future.

With thanks to a NetGalley and especially to Headline for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

A clever exploration of family and grief. Not only is this a very well-written book with wonderfully-interesting characters, but the suspense builds at just the right pace as the story unfolds.

A really good debut novel, with lots of twist and turns, absorbing and gripping, with great characters and a great physiological thriller storyline. Can't wait to read the next book by this author.

The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid

When Anna and David receive a phone call late one evening, their lives are upturned. Within minutes, they are travelling to the west coast of Scotland, preparing to care for two young sisters, tragically and suddenly orphaned.
A great first novel by this author.
I felt she perfectly captured the creeping terror of the situation . It had a dark and almost malevolent atmosphere to it.