Have you ever been at a point in your life where you wish you could go off the grid? Escape into nature and set up a new life away from the troubles behind you?

In We Went to the Woods, a former doctoral student named Mack moves back to her home in Ithaca following an ill-advised and scandalous move on a reality show that ultimately gets her kicked out of grad school.

When she leaves her parents’ home to follow a group of four, young, attractive strangers establishing a commune in upstate New York, Mack finds herself in another anthropological experiment. On a piece of farmland owned by one of their families, the five set up a small commune of cabins for sleeping, a main cabin for cooking, and a water source. As they settle into their new lives, things go well at first and their narrative is peppered with small moments of freedom as they embrace their departure from society. But over time, their interpersonal dynamics complicate and things begin to become tense as they interact with the much more established commune nearby.

This book is fraught with political and social tensions. A group of very privileged, white people set off to leave society behind, in a story that seems to mock the sort of social elitism of a group such as these people. Though their arguments center around pesticides and environmental concerns, the true question raised by this book is why people choose to leave their lives, rather than what they hoped to build. This group seemed ill-prepared to actually adapt to this way of living. Though they draw from the past, they also seem to lack the forethought to not fall into the same pattern of failure as groups who came before them.

An interesting book that may not appeal to many readers, but brings up interesting questions about why these sorts of communal living arrangements succeed or fail, and why someone may choose to leave their life behind, as well as to return to it. The characters are at once deep thinkers and incredibly shallow, preferring to showcase their political beliefs while ignoring any sort of emotions or feelings related to one another or themselves.

Thank you to Random House for my copy. Opinions are my own.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I wanted to really love this book. I love the idea of living off grid and making a homestead. It started off so strong, and then got a little cultish for my taste. Throughout the whole book I kept going back and forth between absolutly loving the story to being bored.

We went into the woods is a character study of five individuals who start a commune-type living situation in New England. While I found parts of the book compelling, especially the nods to actual historic utopian societies, overall this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me. None of the characters were able to pull me in. The narrative felt a bit forced at times, like how millennial can we make this be? A la the avocado toast article. It was definitely different than many books I pick up, so for that I’m grateful. I always like to challenge myself with new reads. Thanks to netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this story having never read anything from the author before but found myself immediately captured by their words. The imagery was so encapsulating and I could feel myself being pulled more and more into the book, Would recommend!

Very slow build up of a character driven thriller. College aged students escape the world and create a commune that quickly becomes dystopian. I wanted to like it based on the premise, but it was too slow moving to really grab me.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy.

This book wasn't really for me. I thought it would be something that it wasn't. I was looking for a drama, but this is more a of a prepper's diary. It's pretty slow.

This one dragged on for me. Although it gives a unique view on a utopian society, it was too slow with little action.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this book. I think in the end I'll say it just wasn't for me. It's not a terrible book, but a subject matter I personally didn't find interesting. There were some moments of intrigue and suspense that fell flat, leaving me trying to figure out the point. If you're interested in communal living and romanticize living off-grid, this may be for you. Thank you to the publisher Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Modern-day commune story that goes horribly wrong. Five millennials try to live off the grid as they believe that it's the best possible solution that the world is in right now. Each story has choppy dialogue but the plot was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for my advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much for this ARC!

While reading lots of reviews and articles about this title, it was unfortunately not for me.

Caite Dolan-Leach’s novel “We Went to the Woods” could be a contemporary retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” if the book’s 20-something-year-old unreliable narrator, Mack Johnston, were both the documentarian Nick Carraway and the tragic hero Jay Gatsby, remaking her entire being in the name of love — or at least attraction.

Beau, Louisa, Chloe and Jack are Mack’s “Daisy Buchanan,” her green lights guiding her to radically give up the excess and modern comforts of reliable internet, television, electricity, flushable toilets, supermarkets and money — luring her into the woods of Hector, N.Y., where the five of them start their own utopian commune, a “Homestead” where they try to live by their romantic ideals, growing their own non-genetically modified food, quoting Henry David Thoreau and living off the land.
The goal of the experiment is to plant enough food in the spring that they’d make it through the winter; to survive in their cabins in the wilderness; to live off the grid; to lower their carbon footprint; to not fall back into the safety nets provided by their parents (although their parents would welcome them back in a heartbeat); to do the impossible (if not improbable); and to prove that they could.

Mack, of course, has another reason for running away from her previous life in New York City; her hometown in Lansing, N.Y.; and her doctorate degree in anthropology. This reason is also why she shortened her name from Mackenzie to Mack; and why she enlisted to grow tomatoes and to drink unlabeled wine in the Homestead with her fellow white, educated and privileged 20-something-year-old companions.

She’s running away to her “Hakuna Matata,” a place without hate mail — where she could endless debate whether slimy or crunchy bugs are better; or how civilization will eventually end. In the meantime, she researches (she’s an anthropologist): Why did past utopian societies fail and how can they make sure their Homestead succeeds.

“We Went to the Woods” is a fascinating look into the promise and pitfalls of utopian societies. Their Homestead combusts. Gatsby was killed. But what endures was great.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of “We Went to the Woods” by Caite Dolan-Leach from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

This book wasn’t for me. It was very character driven bass slow moving. It may be for some people but it’s more of a character study and I like my books a little more fast paced

This was my second from this author. If I am being honest, the first wasn’t my favorite - so this was an attempt at a redemption for me. It left me with mixed feelings.

There were times that it felt like it was dragging on and on. Those moments were followed by sections that sucked me in. Towards the end, I finally got hooked because it felt like it was building into something... only to fizzle.

It was okay.. not my favorite, but certainly not my least favorite.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The excerpt had me intrigued about this making of a modern day commune. A group of young twenty-somethings escape the real-world to live off the grid, grow their own food and to find their purpose in life.

Unfortunately, I found the story to be too long and drawn out and the characters were difficult to understand. I found there was way too much existential discussion between all the characters but with no movement at all. There were times when I felt like the story was beginning to go somewhere only to have it retreat back into stagnancy. While I can appreciate the odd dynamic of characters, there just never seemed an end to the constant unease and tension. I would have liked to see them grow internally or come to some conclusions but what I was left with was a ton of unanswered questions by the end and it never felt resolved.

Beautifully written, however maybe just not my cup of tea.

Five twenty-somethings decide to live off the grid. While this is something I would never do, I enjoy reading about people who do. I spent the entire book waiting for character and plot development. There were hints of horrible secrets, but their reveal even fell flat. This was not for me, but I knower that have loved it.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A full review will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the early copy.

I could not connect with the writing style and decided to put it down.

When Mack moves back home to upstate New York after an embarrassing reality TV stint, she meets Louisa, Jack, Beau, and Chloe. The five of them decide to move out to Louisa's family's farm to live off the land and protest capitalism.

While there are some interesting aspects of this story, I didn't think a lot actually happened. This was a slow read without any reward.

This is one of those books that I wonder why I thought I would enjoy it, and why did I request it? I am clearly not the intended target market, disliked Thoreau and transcendentalists when I read them in high school and don't understand the appeal of a commune. I couldn't slog through the writing, didn't connect with the characters and found the plot tedious. Having said all of that, I go back to the first part of my comments - I am clearly not from the intended market and all the rest probably follows from that. I am sure there are a lot of people for whom this would be a great read. Just not me.

Thanks to Net Gallery, the author and publisher for providing me a copy of the book to read and review.