What Should Be Wild: A Novel

Julia Fine

May 2018 · HarperCollins

About this ebook

“Delightful and darkly magical. . . . [A] beautiful modern myth, a coming-of-age story for a girl with a worrisome power over life and death. I loved it.” —Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times–bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry

Cursed. Maisie Cothay has never known the feel of human flesh: born with the power to kill or resurrect at her slightest touch, she has spent her childhood sequestered in her family’s manor at the edge of a mysterious forest. Maisie’s father, an anthropologist who sees her as more experiment than daughter, has warned Maisie not to venture into the wood. Locals talk of men disappearing within, emerging with addled minds and strange stories. What he does not tell Maisie is that for over a millennium her female ancestors have also vanished into the wood, never to emerge—for she is descended from a long line of cursed women.

But one day Maisie’s father disappears, and Maisie must venture beyond the walls of her carefully constructed life to find him. Away from her home and the wood for the very first time, she encounters a strange world filled with wonder and deception. Yet the farther she strays, the more the wood calls her home. For only there can Maisie finally reckon with her power and come to understand the wildest parts of herself.

“An intricately contrived feminist fantasy [that] explores the urges of the body, the nature of desire and the power of the spirit.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A surreally feministic tale. . . . Enchanting, menacing and darkly humorous, it explores women’s power and powerlessness throughout the ages.” —Family Circle

“A modern fairy tale . . . Fine’s story is a barely restrained, careful musing on female desire, loneliness and hereditary inheritances.” —Washington Post

Ratings and reviews

Born with a curse that many women in her family have: Maisie Cothay cannot touch or be touched, for she holds the power of life and death in her hands. Without a mother, her anthropologist father has died and been reborn multiple times before she had control of her power, as he carefully watches, documents and contains her in the large manor house at the edge of the forest. Now sixteen, Maisie has questions – lots of questions, many centered around the forest that must never be entered, where her mother is, and now, just why her father has disappeared. If you’ve ever read the ORIGINAL Grimm tales – Fine’s use of detailed and not, suspense, language and description all bring the feel of a cost yet to be paid – probably in horrible ways, all wrapped in, or perhaps soft-focused in a slightly menacing foggy overlay that heightens senses and keeps your head on a swivel. Fine’s ability to draw readers into the story as Maisie learns of the women in her family as she searches for the “why” she was cursed: a lovely series of insets that mix myth, legend and personal history of the struggles, challenges and lives of her foremothers. Slowly but surely, Maisie comes to discover the why, how to live with the isolation and loneliness, and the dangers in the wood. Unlike anything I’ve read before, the plotting, the concept and the intention come through very clearly, weaving together myth, magic and the usual teenage angst aided by the isolation, questions about family, the mystery surrounding her father’s disappearance and further questions about love, life and moving forward, Maisie is a wonderfully rich and nuanced character, and that ability to present a character, flaws and all – show clearly in both present and past – from her father’s remove to the ‘scientific’ as he studies (more so than parents) her, the true genesis for the curse and just why the woods were more of a ‘container’ for her foremothers, and just what that means. Even after a slower start as the myth and background is laid, the story quickly becomes a page turner as tension, answers and more questions surface in near every page. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

What Should Be Wild had me hooked from the start! The first few paragraphs alone show you the quality of the author's writing. Julie Fine's narrative pacing is brilliant, painting a vivid, satisfying picture that draws you into her world while leaving enough questions to keep the momentum of the story. What Should Be Wild tells the story of Maisie, a teenage girl with the strange ability to give and take life with a touch. Raised by her father in the her mother's remote ancestral home, Maisie's loneliness and confusion is palpable and her desire to see what else the world offers feels universal, even to those of us without magical curses. While the heart of the story belongs to Maisie, the book takes time to explore the stories of her maternal ancestors, women who are each cursed in their own way. These women's stories add depth to Maisie's with their painful depictions of women's souls battling the societal expectations that could destroy them. I couldn't put it down, I would highly recommend this book for lovers of realist fantasy, feminist fairytales, specific yet universally relevant coming-of-age stories, or just great books.

About the author

Julia Fine is the author of the critically acclaimed debut What Should Be Wild, which was short-listed for both the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel and the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction. She teaches writing in Chicago, Illinois where she lives with her husband and children.