I knew to expect a dark, dark tale going into The Wildelings, having read Bright Burning Things, a compelling, twisted tale of addiction and motherhood. The Wildelings has that same wicked, wild quality to it, where anyone could say just about anything at any moment.

The Wildelings is set mostly in Trinity, or “Wilde” as it’s called in the book, though in every conceivable way it’s Trinity College Dublin, from the Pav, to the Arts Block, the Lecky, schols and the campanile. I did wonder why Harding chose to rename it Wilde! It makes for a good title if nothing else.

Jessica and Linda are best friends from a young age, bound together by tragedy and abandonment in early childhood. Jessica sees herself as Linda’s saviour, and Linda is her shadow, always doing Jessica’s bidding but never in the spotlight. When they start their studies at Wilde and shy Linda meets outgoing, charismatic and cunning 4th Year Mark Whitman, trouble is on the horizon.

Mark is manipulative and controlling, and is not afraid to exploit any weakness he can find for his own personal gain. When he casts Jessica as the star in his remake of The Merchant of Venice, everything Jessica knows to be true begins to crumble with devastating consequences.

There is barely a likeable character among the bunch (Jessica’s boyfriend Jacques coming closest to being nice) but the darkness in the book does feel deliciously consumable for the most part. I flew through the novel and enjoyed it for what it is. Don’t expect to root for anyone, but fans of dark academia will enjoy it I think. I can see it being turned into a stage production, perhaps even by Lisa Harding herself. 4/5 ⭐️

* Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for the arc via Netgalley and to Cormac Kinsella (publicist) for the proof copy. The Wildelings was published 24 April 2025.

A dark academia set in Dublin in the 1990s. Jessica and Linda have been friends since their troubled childhoods, now 18, they are both come to Wilde University which is Trinity in everything but name. Jessica makes friends effortlessly, joins the drama soc and meets a boy. Later Linda too will find a boyfriend, final year student Mark who wields a dark influence over the friend group. Tension builds as the novel progresses, the book is told from the perspective of Jessica in present time to a therapist,

I like Harding's writing and I appreciated her writing style in this one however this book didn't fully work for me. I was never invested in the characters enough to really care where the story went although the last third of the book was the strongest. Maybe its fatigue of novels set in Trinity or maybe I just am not the target audience for this one but I did find the book dragged a bit in the middle and the 90s setting never fully felt realistic to me.

I can see how this book will appeal to many readers and I cannot fault the writing , it was just a little uneven a reading experience for me .

This is a masterpiece, it weaves the academia, friendship and the harsh downfalls of bad relationships and packs it up in a single novel for you.

Nostalgia and heart ache keep you reading and I didn’t want to stop until the end.

Cleverly designed, unlikeable characters make this is a very engrossing read, it will make you question choices in the book.

Absolute joy.

When a prima donna – selfish, self-absorbed to the point of cruelty, and damaged – is on the receiving end of hurts she has dished out without thought, the shock and pain necessarily involves guilt.
The dynamics are fascinating: jealousy and anger when a best friend is happy, jealousy and anger when a doting boyfriend casually befriends a glamorous fellow student; unnerving erotic responses to the best friend’s controlling boyfriend.
The energy and attitudes of students in 90s Dublin are visceral, as are the exchanges with the therapist and the flashbacks to a life that didn’t have to turn out the way it did.
It’s dark, it’s entertaining, emotional and evocative. I would have liked a little more momentum at the beginning, but enjoyed it overall.

Written as a book within a book as the protagonist, Jessica, relates her history to therapist, Dr Collins, The Wildelings follows Jessica and her best friend, Linda, from childhood through to the horrifying conclusion at college.

Jessica is the consummate actress, always on stage, always looking to see her effect on those around her. From the beginning Jessica is always number one in her own life and demands that she comes first in everyone else's. Her narcissistic behaviour colours her relationships with step-mother Sue, who stuck around when her father left and her best friend, Linda, who is a child who craves attention and will accept any even if its toxic.

Jessica's dominion over Linda continues up to college when Linda meets the charismatic Mark Whitman. He tears their relationship apart and Jessica spends her time trying desperately to get Linda's undivided attention any way she can. But Mark's methods of control and coercion are dangerous and as time goes on the chance of tragedy becomes all too real.

The Wildelings is quite a difficult novel to read simply because of the characters. Jessica sees herself as a star with Linda as her eternal cheerleader. She sees her friend as vulnerable and needy without recognising the same traits in herself. It is certainly difficult to read about the bullying behaviour but you quickly realise that Jessica is just as damaged as Linda. Mark is another matter because you've no clue whether anything he says us true and he uses people for his own amusement.

I found myself having to put the book down several times because of the casual cruelty. That said, it is a very powerful book and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys a strong but controversial story with powerful characters. I certainly won't forget Jessica, Linda or Sue any time soon.

I haven't read any previous novels by Lisa Harding but after Wildelings I would definitely read others. She's a very talented novelist who doesn't shy away from tough subjects.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

Lisa Harding’s Bright Burning Things (an outstanding novel!) cemented her as a must read author for me, and The Wildelings did not disappoint.

Set against the rich, sometimes stifling backdrop of an elite Dublin university reminiscent of Trinity, Harding weaves a story that’s as unsettling as it is beautifully rendered. We follow Jessica and Linda – two girls bound by years of friendship, albeit of the toxic variety and the unspoken understanding that only shared trauma and their status as outsiders can bring: an unhealthy co-dependency. But their bond is tested, warped, and eventually shattered when Mark, an older, enigmatic philosophy student, enters their world.

Jessica, sharp and suspicious, is wary from the start. Linda, ever loyal and desperate to be seen, is drawn in. That slow entanglement, that subtle shift in their dynamic, is immense for these young women - Linda has always been a follower, willing to lap up any crumbs of care Jessica provides. Jessica meanwhile clings to her illusion of control and superiority, seeing herself as the ‘number one’ in every aspect of her life. Will their fragile dynamic survive? Harding masterfully explores themes of power, manipulation, and how charismatic figures can exploit the vulnerabilities of those around them.

Told partly through Jessica’s sessions with a therapist and mostly in flashbacks, the narrative starts quietly. Jessica is an unlikeable, somewhat unreliable narrator – but that only adds depth. As Mark’s malevolent influence begins to tighten its grip, the tension escalates, and the story becomes almost impossible to look away from.

There’s a remarkable intensity to Harding’s writing, it is emotionally charged and utterly immersive. This story transcends mere friendship and betrayal; it’s a dramatic reckoning with guilt, the haunting weight of silence, and the long shadows cast by unspoken truths.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for the opportunity to read an advance copy via NetGalley in return for an, as always, honest review.

I could see how this might be classified as dark academia but to me it read more like a variation on a coming-of-age story centred on the dangerously unbalanced friendship between two women, originally childhood friends. In a series of therapy sessions, actress Jessica looks back at an experience that has shaped her life. She starts in the 1970s in suburban Dublin where she became fast friends with classmate Linda, then moves forward to their time together as students at the exclusive Wilde College in the early 1990s. Here Linda gradually shakes off her assigned role as Jessica's follower becoming a leading light in her own right. A transformation the possessive, insecure Jessica finds hard to handle. Their friendship is then threatened further by Linda’s relationship with Mark, a narcissistic, manipulative philosophy student and amateur theatre director. The three become part of a group Jessica dubs the Unholy Quintet, completed by friend Jonathan and Jessica’s boyfriend Jacques. The focus is on the complex interactions between group members and an increasingly toxic dynamic that leads to tragedy.

Irish author Lisa Harding is clearly building here on her background as actress and playwright, the novel’s packed with allusions to film, theatre and literature. Harding’s good on historical detail and scene setting, as well as the casual misogyny and racism pervading 90s Dublin, but her intricate plot was far too slow paced for my taste. A great deal of space is filled with the minutiae and psychology of the Unholy Quintet’s everyday dealings, and with Jessica’s growing awareness of her self-centredness and desire to dominate those around her. Overall, it’s a more than decent piece but it just didn’t quite work for me, partly because I never really felt invested enough in the characters.

2.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The Wildlings by Lisa Harding had all the ingredients I typically love—dual timelines, character-driven narratives, and a deep dive into toxic, complex relationships. I even appreciate a difficult or unlikeable main character.

But unfortunately, the pacing really dragged this one down for me. The slow build might have worked better if there had been more emotional payoff along the way, but most of the momentum doesn't kick in until the final 10% of the book. By then, I was already checked out.

There’s definitely something intriguing in the rawness and emotional tension of the characters, but I struggled to stay invested. I wanted to love this more than I did. A solid idea and strong themes—but it just took too long to get where it was going.

I found this book disappointing. The writing style is a bit clunky, and the characters never really ring true. Comparisons with The Secret History don't do this book any favours. It was quite hard work to finish it.

I loved dark academia so I was heavily invested in this book, it was full of secrets and guilt that kept me reading to find out the truth.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I quite enjoyed this but not as much as I enjoyed The Secret History which is, after all, a modern classic. The narrator is Jessica who is not very likeable, she is beautiful and clever but also vain, self absorbed, attention seeking, competitive and unkind. Having said that, I think a lot of her flaws come from insecurity and she has a certain vulnerability. Sue, her stepmother is a well drawn character and Jessica does not behave well towards poor Sue.

I felt that the description of Jessica's life and loves and experiences in the college was good but perhaps just a little too long. I would have liked to have found out more about her life between leaving college and seeing the therapist. We get tantalising throwaway lines about her husband and her career but I would have liked a bit more. I am not entirely clear about what brought her to therapy after so many years - at one point I wondered if she was in prison! She is in prison, actually, the prison of her past experiences with the arch manipulator Mark.

I wondered also what Mark's motives were and I am not quite clear about the allegations made against him and the recent play he wrote. I assume he became a famous and acclaimed playwright and has written a play about Jessica and their contemporaries and now Jessica wants to give her side of the story and I assume that he has been accused in a MeToo way but I would have preferred this to have been spelled out more.

I have always enjoyed reading Madame Bovary and the author has some interesting views on Emma being the product of the male gaze, something I had not thought of.

Some reviewers have said the book is more like a YA book and I do see what they mean, I think it is the lack of other viewpoints. There is quite a lot of sex in the book and it didn't ring true to me - all these easily achieved orgasms - but of course that might say more about me than about the book lol.

wow this was a sucker punch. it was so real and so heartbreaking at times it felt almost too much. because you can see these girls and how they came about. you can picture the hows and the whys from a past that held nothing and noone that was there for them. but it comes with so much darkness. it comes with so much desperate angst. all the way through i was thinking "run run" to many different moments or characters. and some of us have also witnessed these characters. some are just dark. and some are dark for explainable but never ok reasons. but noone comes out well on the end of these people. but sometimes the ending can be different if not played out via evil. which to me one of our characters Mark was just a pure and simple horrible human being with only wrong intentions.
i could see these two girls as they grew up. Jessica and Linda were lost and so found each other. and when that much insecurity revolved and creates a bond in friendship it can be both wonderful but also developed into something darker. if the balance isnt their and if the people concerned are to damaged it can be a breeding ground for a toxic tangle between the two. and this is what clearly plays out. because often there is a weaker one, or someone that is happy to let the other lead. and again, this is what we see happen. and Jessica is all too happy to lead...or should i say control.
so when the pair finally grow up and flee to university it seems all is going to finally be well. but sadly "wherever you go, there you are." because Linda is still yearning for that love. and Jessica is suddenly in a much wider world with much wider character who might be competition for her crown. and what happens when the pair meet new people, enter Mark who clearly saw his perfect victim in Linda. this is not only awful for Linda because shes now being controlled by someone cruel but also for Jessica because she has stolen the person who gave her all the attention and adoration she wants.
its not long before things get really dark and after one ending event things are never the same again.
we are then learning about who Jessica is now. how the weight of that time is still on her shoulders decades later and her life is just nosediving. so she goes to see a therapist to try and resolve both her past and present problems. it is here we see via flashback exactly what went on.
i love how this book made me think. about sooooo many things particularly what it means to be a victim and what makes a person be wrong or do wrong. sometimes it is just evil and sometimes there is more to it... can you ever be innocent or will you always then be complicit and "bad"
i thoroughly enjoyed this book. bravo for deep, disturbing but brilliant thinker of a book. it had me in knots in all the emotional gut wrenching way i love from a book. and made me over think and re-think and question my own thinking the whole way through. fab.

The Wildelings by Lisa Harding is a dark, electrifying dive into obsession and control, set against the vibrant backdrop of 1990s Dublin. Following Jessica and Linda, lifelong friends from broken homes, the novel traces their turbulent bond as they navigate the elite Wilde College. Harding’s vivid, poetic prose captures the raw intensity of female friendship, fractured by the manipulative influence of a charismatic philosophy student, Mark. Blending dark academia with psychological drama, the story explores trauma, guilt, and betrayal with unflinching honesty. While the pacing occasionally stumbles and some characters lack depth, the gripping narrative and emotional resonance make it a compulsive read. Ideal for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

Best friends in the 80s and 90s Ireland, until university takes a toll on their relationship. New partners and lifestyles change things quickly. Dark and realistic.

Linda and Jessica are no strangers to broken homes but found a bond with each other all through childhood and adolescence. Now 18, they attend Wilde, a Dublin university where their paths diverge: Jessica thrives while Linda’s on the outskirts. When Linda meets a charismatic philosophy student and begins dating, Jessica should be happy for her friend. However, it’s clear Mark has a hold not just over his girlfriend but their group of friends. Flash forward to the present, and Jessica prepares to face all that happened many years ago.

The Wildelings tells the story of Jessica as she attends an elite University in Dublin, starting as one of the rising stars of the place. Alongside her is her childhood friend, Linda – both of them have had troubled pasts and a slightly toxic friendship, with Linda very much in Jessica’s shadow. All that begins to change when Linda starts seeing Mark, a manipulative character who impacts all their lives.

It’s an interesting story with a hugely unlikeable main character, but that seems to be part of the point. Some of the book takes place in the modern day and involves Jessica in therapy sessions going over her experiences. It’s clear in these that she feels tremendous guilt over her relationships with her stepmother, Sue, and with Linda and that her guilt may be exaggerating her own bad behaviour in the past. The University parts are told as she is writing them as a story and she states that not everything will be exact and even comments near the end that she knows many people will have a problem with how unlikeable the main character is so it all becomes a bit meta.

That’s a very fine line to balance though and, for me personally, it wasn’t 100% successful. In the end, I found pretty much every character to be irritating and there wasn’t enough depth to them to genuinely care about what was happening. Everything is very much based around Jessica and other people only really matter in how they affect her but that takes away some of the interest as we don’t really know how anyone else feels or why they behave as they do or where they come from or what they feel inside and it all feels a little flat. Making the main character the only one to have any inner life while also making her very unlikeable is certainly an interesting choice but it makes it hard to enjoy the read as such. None of that is to say it’s badly written, because it absolutely isn’t, it just wasn’t quite for me. 3.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

A raw gutpunch of a novel. What is it to be human, to be female, It will take a little but once this one captures you, it will not let you go.

3.5

I really enjoyed the dual timeline of this book. We have present day Jessica discussing her past with a therapist, and it is clear something monumental happened to her during her time at the elite Wilde College. I think this book portrays friendships, especially female friendships, incredibly well. It also touches on dysfunctional families. The biggest theme I found was power and control. Both Jessica and Mark have the need to control Linda but ultimately, Mark's influence stretches farther. The interactions between the characters were my favourite part of this book, it is definitely a character driven novel.
It isn't comparable to The Secret History, despite marketing it this way. I think this will create negative comments from people expecting a new version of TSH, this is a great book in it's own right and I think people should understand that going into it.

The wildelings by Lisa Harding

I had never heard of Lisa Harding before or knew of this book coming out but once I read the description I knew I was going to love it and once I received it, I read it straight away and absolutely adored it from the very beginning.

The main character Jessica is very easy to dislike but yet I still find myself relating to her and feeling bad for her depending on the situation. Her side kick, Lisa, was always happy to stand back and let Jess bask in the sunlight whilst supporting from the sidelines and Jess enjoyed the attention too. Once they start college and Lisa begins to date a boy named Mark, things soon change and her grip on Lisa starts to falter.

Mark did not deserve Lisa. Let’s get that straight out of the way, just because Jessica didn’t deserve her it doesn’t mean that Mark did. I hated him so much, in fact I think I somehow hated yet loved every character in this book (which is how you know it’s a good one), he did encourage Lisa to spread her wings a bit but it was all under his supervision and what he thought was right.

I can relate to Jessica when it comes to slowly loosing your childhood friend to a relationship that is very obviously not going to last and reading about her trying to make Lisa see sense and failing was also painfully relatable too. In fact I think pretty much every reader would at some point see a part of themselves in Jess and that’s a major reason why I love this book so much, it’s really raw with how humans can feel and kind of calls you out a bit.

Throw a group of troubled students into a book and you’ve got be hooked for life, I loved everything about this book and I will definitely be buying a physical copy when it’s released on April 24th (I think). Jessica is my new favourite unreliable narrator and the book as a whole was a really brilliant way to get back into the academia type setting I haven’t read about in so long.

I wanted to like The Wildelings - the premise had promise, and I’m always up for a dark academia novel - but unfortunately, this one fell completely flat. The writing is clunky, the characters feel like cardboard cutouts of better books, and the plot trudges along with all the subtlety of a soap opera. It’s the kind of novel that desperately wants to be brooding and intellectual but never rises above melodrama.

The comparison to The Secret History is not only misleading but frankly insulting to Donna Tartt. Where The Secret History is masterfully written, atmospheric, and deeply psychological, The Wildelings is unoriginal and simplistic, lacking the depth or sophistication to justify the comparison. In fact, it would have been better marketed as YA - there’s a shallowness to the characters and their relationships that makes it hard to take them seriously as university students. I don't know who the person who said this author is "the new Donna Tartt" is but they must either be very stupid or have been paid a lot of money to say that.

Ultimately, while the idea behind The Wildelings had potential, the execution left a lot to be desired. If you’re looking for a gripping dark academia novel, I’d recommend skipping this one and revisiting The Secret History instead.