Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

This book is not for everyone. Adam has it all. Good job, home, family, etc. But then the economy crashed, so did Adam. We then witness his decline. Not able to handle losing his job, he does things that has him end up on the streets. He finds himself in an underground homeless shelter. This is his life now. There were some times in the book where you have to let your imagination run wild, but overall, this book was good. I enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Well, that certainly took a crazy turn! An adult Lord of the Flies....this will sneak up on you and you won’t be able to look away. Well-written enough to keep the reader in rated, despite some implausibility. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this exciting read.

Finally a decent read after days of duds. I’ve enjoyed Liam Brown’s Broadcast, so now I’m reading more of his work, apparently in reverse chronological order. Quality was expected, but Wild Life surprised me, which is awesome in itself. It’s a story of a man who has what might be traditionally considered a perfect life(great job, family, two kids, all the material possessions for comfort), but when he gets laid off as a casualty of the market crash, he really derails. Gambling, cocaine, drinking…soon it becomes impossible to maintain the outward semblance of normality and he leaves his life, just walks out and ends up in something of an extreme camp in a local abandoned park. Governed by a former military man with very present military discipline, it’s a place where men who failed at their original lives, be it due to addiction, trauma or otherwise, come for a second chance. And here you might think (and I did for a minute) this might be one of those uplifting redemption stories where the main character will rediscover real values and goes back to lead life with more meaning and joy. But no. And Kudos to Brown for going so much further and so much darker with this story. The camp turns into a nightmare, a viscerally terrifying place. Turns out when you take the men out of civilization, you also take the civilization out of men. When all the governing rules are self made and life is conducted in a delicately balanced microcosm, one offset can prove to be lethal, setting the entire place crashing down. Soon it becomes a struggle to merely survive and although the protagonist isn’t really what one might call a likeable man and is definitely and almost solely responsible for destroying his life not once but twice, his choices being what they are and were, a gambler, a liar and a cheat to boot, and yet (again credit to author) you do end up carrying about him and wanting him to come through, no matter the odds. If I had to puzzle out the moral here, it’s probably something about following the beat of your own drum within reason, figuring out what really matters and making your life just about that. The protagonist’s main fault is that for most of his life he followed a clearly outlined path of a Western materialistic based society and then he followed a path of something like a clean living cult, never really taking the time to pause and evaluate. And boy, does Liam Brown make him pay for it. So it’s a great message and even if you’re not really into messages, it’s just a good story, well written, dark, compelling. Basically a one sitting read, dynamic as it is. Thanks Netgalley.