Review – The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang

Posted December 13, 2022 by Carole in Reviews / 6 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review – The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie LangThe Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang
Narrator: Anna Caputo
Published by Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press on November 15, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Magical Realism
Length: 10 hours 31 minutes
Format: Audiobook, Hardcover
Source: Publisher, Purchased
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four-stars

Ohioana Book Award finalist Ruth Emmie Lang returns with a new cast of ordinary characters with extraordinary abilities.

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.

I really enjoyed this book! I liked the author’s first book, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, when I read it several years and I was eager to read more of her work. I am happy to report that this book was just as good as her first. Once I started reading this book, I found it incredibly hard to set aside.

Zadie and Finn’s mom, Nora, disappeared years ago and nobody knows what happened to her. Finn was young enough to be placed with a family but Zadie was left to fend for herself. The sisters have a trip planned shortly after Finn’s graduation but their plans change when Finn convinces her sister to spend the time searching for their mother instead of heading to the beach. Like Zadie and Finn, I wondered what had really happened to Nora years earlier.

As much as I enjoyed going on this journey with Zadie and Finn, I worried about them during their quest to find their mother. They do encounter some interesting characters during their travels which I thought added a lot to the story. Each of the sisters has a special ability that added just the right amount of magic to the story. I loved watching Zadie and Finn grow closer and grow as individuals over the course of the book.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Anna Caputo did a fantastic job with the story. I believe that this was my first experience with her narration and I was impressed. I thought that her voice was very pleasant and worked well for the story. I am certain that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a very well-done story filled with likable and interesting characters. I was very satisfied with how everything turned out and cannot wait to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from St. Martin’s press and purchased a copy of the audiobook.

6 responses to “Review – The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang