Hey friends! Long time no talk. For real, its been AGES. I’ve read a ton of books in the past eight months. Time sort of just got ahead of me, and I graduated! Finishing my thesis took up a large amount of my time earlier in the year, as well as a personal life issue that came along that was hard for me to deal with. Overall, I feel like it’s time to get back into the reviewing scene! So, without further ado, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE WILDWOOD TRILOGY.
So I can remember seeing Wildwood in bookstores since my freshmen year at college, aka the fall of 2012. I remember exactly where I was when I saw it, and exactly where on the shelf it was. It stuck with me that much. I remember seeing the first book and thinking “oh hey, that cover is gorgeous” but for five years I didn’t pick it up. Why? Pretty much just because I’m forgetful and always found myself wanting other books just a little bit more.
Time goes on and I totally forget about Wildwood. Then this summer comes around, and I’m listening to The Decemberists basically 24/7 because, I mean, HELLO. Have you listened to them at all??? It’s self explanatory. But this proved to be a problem for me, because I just couldn’t get into any books. Because I was so in love with Colin Meloy’s storytelling and the sound of the music, nothing could compare. Then I asked all my lovely followers over on Instagram if they knew of any books that felt the same way that the album Picaresque sounded. And the ever amazing Morgan Nikola-Wren (whose books you should totally check out) kindly reminded me that Wildwood exists! I checked on amazon, and what would you know. Each book was only $5! There was literally no reason NOT to buy them. Three days later, I was diving into the books.
The books follow the story of Prue and Curtis, two children from Portland, as they enter into a strange place they learn is called Wildwood and begin to see that all isn’t right there. There are three books and each one focuses on a season that can be expressed into a theme. Wildwood: autumn, the fall and decline. Under Wildwood: winter, everything is bad and hopeless. Wildwood Imperium: spring, regrown and hope.
So let’s see each book one by one.
Title: Wildwood
Author: Colin Meloy
Length: 560 Pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Publication Date: August 30th, 2011
Synopsis:
Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. That is, until her brother is abducted by a murder of crows and taken to the Impassible Wilderness, a dense, tangled forest on the edge of Portland. No one’s ever gone in–or at least returned to tell of it
So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassible Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval–a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.
Ok let me start off by saying that I absolutely loved this book. So so so so so very much. The only reason it didn’t score a solid 5 stars was because it lacked, I felt, the signature darkness that Colin Meloy is so well known for in his songs. While things did get messed up, they didn’t get “young man marries widow, bankrupts her, peaces out, becomes a pirate, and get hunted down by widow’s son who spent 15 years as a beggar after his mom died and then worked in a friary before setting out on a revenge sceme that gets him and the pirate eaten by a whale” messed up, like you get from one of my personal favs, The Mariner’s Revenge Song. Also like the entirety of The Hazards of Love. ANYWAY, things weren’t that messed up. But they did get pretty dark.
The one thing you should know about this book is that it is mainly set up for the other two. There’s a lot of world building and exploring the Wood and setting things in motion for the following books. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can get slow at parts. But I loved the writing so much that it didn’t bother me at all. I actually read this monster of a book in 2 days, because I just couldn’t put it down.
Since this is a middle grade read, there are also illustrations! They were done by Colin Meloy’s wife, Carson Ellis. Now the funny thing is that I knew who she was before I knew who Colin Meloy was, because I went to art school and had heard her name be thrown around. I fucking love her and have for years. Her illustrations are perfectly suited for middle grade books, as you can tell by the cover. Which like honestly its such a selling point. I loved the full color plates but also the black ink spot illustrations were always a delight as well.
My favorite part of Wildwood is that Prue and Curtis felt like real children. They were funny and sarcastic and got to be children and friends!!!! I’m so endlessly happy that they formed such a good bond through the book. They start off with Prue telling Curtis to leave her alone and let her rescue her brother alone, but through their different ordeals they grow closer together and their friendship by the end is just so heartwarming! How they develop as the books go on is lovely as well. Overall, I think my favorite moment in the book is when Prue and Curtis are reunited. There’s this absolutely adorable spot illustration of them hugging and it’s just like !!!!! SO CUTE. Give me all the happiness.
Needless to say, I was so glad I had the other books just waiting for me to read, because I jumped right into Under Wildwood!
Title: Under Wildwood
Author: Colin Meloy
Length: 559 Pages
Rating: 5 stars
Publication Date: September 25th, 2012
Synopsis:
Ever since Prue McKeel returned home from the Impassable Wilderness after rescuing her brother from the malevolent Dowager Governess, life has been pretty dull. School holds no interest for her, and her new science teacher keeps getting on her case about her dismal test scores and daydreaming in class. Her mind is constantly returning to the verdant groves and sky-tall trees of Wildwood, where her friend Curtis still remains as a bandit-in-training.
But all is not well in that world. Dark assassins with mysterious motives conspire to settle the scores of an unknown client. A titan of industry employs inmates from his orphanage to work his machine shop, all the while obsessing over the exploitation of the Impassable Wilderness. And, in what will be their greatest challenge yet, Prue and Curtis are thrown together again to save themselves and the lives of their friends, and to bring unity to a divided country. But in order to do that, they must go under Wildwood.
Second verse, same as the first, little bit LOUDER AND A WHOLE LOT WORSE (for the characters).
Ok y’all. Imma just come out and say right now, this was my fav. I loved it SO MUCH. Know how I was saying I liked Wildwood but thought it could be darker? Well Under Wildwood D E L I V E R E D. I mean just take one look at the cover and you know shit’s gunna be real. We went from white purity to dark mystery. Carson Ellis, you goddess. So simple yet so brilliant.
In this book we meet a whole cast of new characters! We start off right off the bat with some serious messed up shit: Curtis never returned to Portland and has been declare missing/kidnapped, his parents are worried af and decide to go to Turkey (???? solid decisions) to look for him, dropping their two other children off at an ORPHANAGE for the time being that is actually a factory violating some serious child labor laws. If that’s not messed up enough for you, shit. gets. real. later on.
But not to worry! Old characters return as well. Iphigenia! The Bandits! Septimus! It’s great. I loved getting to know the characters and seeing everything interweave with what had been set up by the first book. Under Wildwood has a bit more of a plot than Wildwood did, you can really see what things are building up to which I did like more. With the first book, it did seem to wander in places but, as I said, that was more about setting up the world and the events to come. Under Wildwood was about things coming together and realizing how fucked everyone is.
I mean guys for real there were some seriously dark moments. The relationship between Curtis and Prue becomes very strained after the Bandits go missing and Curtis wants to find them, while Prue becomes obsessed with her mission from the Counsel Tree to find the Makers. They come to a head near the end of the book and honestly it’s such a heart wrenching scene. Curtis storms off to return to the Wood, leaving Prue alone in the middle of a garbage dump. Where, of course, she is attacked again and almost dies.
My favorite part of this book was how it began and ended, the way Colin Meloy describes what is happening. I’m not sure exactly what about it that took my breath away, but I loved it so much. From the last chapter:
Listen.
The snow has stopped; the rain has begun.
Listen.
Through the checkerboard neighborhoods of his former world, the boy is walking away. He can hear the lowing of the train in the distance. The blackness of the night hides him. He is a stranger to the world. He is still wearing the outfit he wore at the beginning of his journey. The rat remains perched on his shoulder, his snout pointed ever outward, a sentinel on the bow of a storm-plowing ship. The boy is intent on one thing: to find his adopted family, the one to whom he’d given his oath, his vow. He silently curses himself for having disregarded that vow for so long. He will make it right, he swears. The trees loom far on the horizon, over the river and through the sleeping city. This is where he means to return.
…
Listen.
Far off, beneath a shanty roof made of discarded sheet metal, a bear is stroking a small campfire and warming the quiet body of a young girl. She is awake and staring at the flames. The rain is falling on the metal of the roof; it’s falling on the heap of garbage beyond their vestibule. The girl is thinking of all that she must do; she is wondering at how impossible it all seems. She is wondering about her parents, about her brother. She is wondering about the words the plants spoke to her; how she was able to speak to them so clearly in return. But most of all, she is wondering about the iron-and-brass chassis of a mechanical boy who lives in state, a mausoleum his home, far away in a very different land. They have much work to do, the girl and the bear. But she is confident that their actions are correct. The tree has decreed it.
Listen.
Looming over the city landscape, the burning building, the forgotten trash heap, and the abandoned square is an expanse of deep green, of sky-tall trees and vast carpets of moss and fern. Inside, a world is alive.
Honest to GOD this chapter is everything I wanted from these books. So beautiful and enchanting and stunning to read. The consistent command over language and the variety of words that Colin Meloy uses across all his writing (song or prose) is so incredible and honestly very inspiring. It makes my descriptions look like a 5th grader wrote them.
The end of this book left me grappling to find out how everything is going to get fixed. Knowing Colin Meloy’s songwriting (but not really his writing), I wasn’t so sure it would be. I read Under Wildwood in a single day (YES all near-600 pages. one day. no joke.) and the next day I jumped right into Wildwood Imperium.
Title: Wildwood Imperium
Author: Colin Meloy
Length: 592 Pages
Rating: 5 stars
Publication Date: February 3rd, 2015
Synopsis:
A young girl’s midnight seance awakens a long-slumbering malevolent spirit…
A band of runaway orphans allies with an underground collective of saboteurs and plans a daring rescue of their friends imprisoned in the belly of an industrial wasteland…
Two old friends draw closer to their goal of bringing together a pair of exiled toy makers in order to reanimate a mechanical boy prince…
As the fate of Wildwood hangs in the balance.
The third book in the Wildwood Chronicles is a rich, moving, and dazzling story, by turns funny and profound. Both Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis are at the height of their gifts with Wildwood Imperium.
I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about Wildwood Imperium. Of course it was utterly amazing but there were parts that, as an active reader, made me pause for a second. The first was the addition of yet another cast of characters with their own story for us to follow along with. We have Prue, the orphans, Mr. Wigman and Desdamona, and a new character named Zita.
Now don’t get me wrong, all of these point of views are important for the arc of the story and the completion of the book and series overall, there were just things that felt superfluous to me. Namely Zita’s story line. Her story is so important because what she does at the beginning of the book sets up everything to come, but I don’t think we needed so much of her. We first see her summoning the Verdant Empress (lmao guess who ACTUALLY answers the summoning on yeah it’s not the Dowager Governess at all nope good job Zita), and then we follow her along as she goes on a quest to get these 3 things from across Wildwood. And just like…. it didn’t add anything. It was just her mucking about with shit she didn’t understand and literally screwing the entire Wood over because she wanted to play witch. Not knocking her motives because they’re pretty cool, I just think that there could have been less of her story so we could focus on other more important story lines.
LIKE CURTIS. Who isn’t in the first 380 pages. The entire time I was wondering where the hell Curtis was, and wishing he would come back. Now his return is really heartwarming as he comes back in and reunites with his sisters, but still. I wish he had been in the story more.
There’s also the whole thing with the three trees of the Wood that confused me the most. Perhaps it was just because I was so excited to get to the end and find out what happened, but I didn’t fully understand what was happening with them. I get that they’re tied to the life force of the Wood and keeps everything magical and that Alexandra knocking them down while in ivy form was a Very Not Good Thing. From what I understand they keep the Periphery Blind working and thus humans out, and if all of them are knocked down then the Ivy is free to consume the entire world. But what I really don’t understand is where the new tree came from? I get that the little boy Elder Mystic like… sacrificed himself to become it? And that Prue did as well at the end? But I don’t feel like it was explained fully. There was a lot about this book that left me wanting more answers, and I’m not sure if that was intentional and Colin Meloy has plans for a second series where he explores the world further? literally NOT COMPLAINING if that’s the plan, but for now it’s a giant question mark in my mind.
Another thing I was upset we never learned was why Curtis and his sisters can cross the Blind! There was a big things about it and we learned in the first book why Prue can, but we didn’t get why Curtis could. Again, maybe he has plans for further explanation but like… I would have liked to have learned that.
Don’t get me wrong, Wildwood Imperium was incredible and so fucking good. It’s just easier to talk about the things that weren’t so great than just screaming THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD over and over and over again. Which, y’know, I’ve basically been doing over on my instagram for the past month.
Overall, these books have quickly become close to my heart. I’ve had a really rough past couple months, and Colin Meloy has really helped me feel better through the casual magic of everything he produces. Wildwood was exactly what I needed at the time it came to me, and I’m so grateful for that. These books will continue to be held near my heart and I cannot wait to see what else comes from him. A new Decemberists album is headed our way and he has a new book coming out at the end of October that I am 700% ordering. I’m sure everything will be unbelievably good.
The Wildwood Trilogy is magic. Pure and simple, it’s magic. I fully believe that there is magic in the woods and wilderness, and Colin Meloy captures everything whimsical I want to believe in. I’m recommending this to everyone I can. Don’t be deterred by the Middle Grade genre like I was back in 2012 when I first saw Wildwood on a shelf. These are unlike any book I’ve read.
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