I really appreciate Shea Ernshaw's writing, and although this ended up not being my cup of tea plot-wise/story-wise, I still believe she is a very talented writer. Unfortunately, this is not the only book I have read this year (!), let alone in my lifetime, set in a creepy small village cut off from the outside world. I have seen this classified as a thriller, and also classified as magical realism, but although there is a feeling of creepiness and unease that carries throughout the story and although some of the characters have sort of special abilities, I almost think this fell short of being solidly in either genre. While this was not my favorite, I do think there are aspects of this story and the excellent writing that others will enjoy.

Wow what a freaking book 🥰thank you thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for the advanced copy of @sheaernshaw book out December 7th!
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Summary: Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend.

Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it… he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease—rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts: this book blew me away. It reminded me a little of The Village movie which I loved! A fabulous book with creepy setting and a cult, what more could you ask for ! Wonderful characters and such a fabulous mystery with an ending I didn’t see coming. Add it to your @bookofthemonth box or run to your nearest book store December 7th! Dark and twisty, one of the best books I’ve read in a minute and might make my top ten books of the year!😻

Shea Ernshaw’s world is cinematically planned with lush, vivid descriptions of setting and place. A History of Wild Places begins with Travis Wren, a finder of missing persons, being enlisted to find writer Maggie St. James who has been missing for 5 years. Travis’s unusual perceptive gift is Maggie’s parents’ last hope of locating their daughter who seems to have disappeared deep into the Northern California woods. Just before he sets out on his hunt for Maggie, Mrs. St. James mentions the name of a hidden community to Travis where she believes Maggie may have strayed: Pastoral. But as Travis sinks deeper and deeper into the woods in search of Maggie and Pastoral, he finds that things may not be exactly what they seem.
The story is split into multiple sections, in the second part we are introduced to three villagers in Pastoral: Theo, married to Calla, and Bee, younger sister of Calla. Each character’s perspective helps tell the story of Pastoral and how it came to be. Ernshaw beautifully engages the reader with her writing, weaving a story of community, loss, family, faith, and deception. Her writing is so engaging that I felt that I was part of the town of Pastoral and could actually envision living there. At times I wished I had a map to show me the exact layout of Pastoral so that I could follow the story even more closely.
The two narratives of “Before” and “After” Pastoral characters eventually become intertwined through carefully developed storylines told from the memories of Theo, Calla, and Bee.
What A History of Wild Places does so well is build the environment of Pastoral to the point of place and memory becoming part of one another. Is Pastoral a Promised Land? Or is it the construct of a Jim Jones or David Koresh type leader? Who was Maggie St. James and how or why did she travel to Pastoral? I was so engrossed in the story and world of Pastoral and it’s magical existence, yet kept waiting for the veil to drop, to see what was behind that perfect existence. While reading, I came to a few conclusions as to the turn of the plot early, but because the storytelling was THAT good, I didn’t mind. I just kept waiting to find out what happens next? and could not stop reading. I would recommend A History of Wild Places to just about anyone that wants to be taken into a fictional world where magic and reality are blurred, but just enough to keep you guessing as to what is real and what is not. Thank you to Atria and NetGalley to an ARC of this book. It was a wonderful departure from my normal reads and I look forward to reading more from Shea Ernshaw in the future.

This was a very atmospheric slow burn mystery that I enjoyed. It was much slower paced than I had expected, and it isn’t until the second half of the book that the mystery really starts to take shape. It’s beautifully written and very vivid, but at times overly done and in ways that didn’t fully resonate with me. If you are a fan of poetic lyrical writing, you will absolutely love it. I really enjoyed the dark tone of the storyline, but did find it to be fairly predictable from the mystery aspect. Some of the reveals didn’t seem to fully impact the plot, I wish more had been done to expand upon them and tie them in at the end. I think there will be a lot of people who love this if you approach it as more of a very slow pace literary fiction with a touch of mystery and magical realism.

Thank you to @AtriaBooks and @NetGalley for this eARC. A History of Wild Places will be out on December 7!

First off the cover is very cool! The story is imaginative and well written. The only draw back is the suspense is a little long winded!
Travis Wren is a private investigator who can also read objects that he holds and see images of the people they belonged to. Travis is hired by family to find author Maggie St. James. The road ends with him in Pastoral a hidden valley in the forest where no one comes or goes.

Theo and Calla, and Calla’s blind sister Bee, all who live in the community of Pastoral. The town is cut off to the outside world as they believe the trees have Elm rot and is deadly if the cross the border into the forest. They believe they have lived in Pastoral their entire lives. Theo begins going past the border each night. He starts finding clues to the outside world and other lives.
The reader is stuck in Pastoral for quite some time anticipating a climax to the story.
The reveal of the character's lives is interesting and satisfying whereas the ending is not. The author tried to hard to save the story and it didn't all come together as expected.

Overall, I liked it but didn’t love it enough to give it more than 4 stars.. The central plot is a little weak with the tree rot theory, but the characters save the interest level and it is a little less creepy and mystical than expected. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

A HISTORY OF WILD PLACES is exactly what my quarantine reading life needed. Atmospheric? Check.
Compulsively Readable? Double Check.
Eerily Unique? All the Checks.

It’s best to go into this story blind, but here’s what you need to know. Travis Wren has a rare gift of finding missing people from cases that have long grown cold. His search for Maggie St. James takes him off the grid to the dense woods of Northern California where the unexpected awaits.

There is no doubt that Shea Ernshaw can write. The first few chapters had me utterly engrossed in the story and the strong sense of place was incredible. Early on, there was an abrupt POV change that threw me for a loop and it took me a bit to get immersed in the story again.

Ultimately, attempting to get a hold of what in the world was happening is part of what makes this novel so binge-worthy. I never felt like my feet were on solid ground, and I loved it. There was a sci-fi/magical realism aspect (which is normally a deterrent for me), but it was rooted enough in reality that it worked well here.

RATING: 4.5/5 (rounded up)
PUB DATE: December 7, 2021

A big thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for a complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alright ya’ll, I am thoroughly conflicted writing this review. On one hand it was one of my most anticipated upcoming releases and I think the story is imaginative and well written. On the other hand it takes us forever to get where we need to go, and I found myself counting pages one too many times.

Travis Wren is a private investigator. Not that he wants to be but his uncanny ability to ‘read’ objects and see what their previous owners were doing in the past, is a pretty convenient skill when searching for people. During the first part of the story, we follow Travis as he searches for author Maggie St. James. She’s been gone for over five years and the trail has gone cold. At the pleads of Maggie’s father, Travis sets out to find Maggie. During his search, Travis disappears as well.

Enter husband and wife Theo and Calla, and Calla’s blind sister Bee, all who live in the community of Pastoral. They have lived in Pastoral their entire lives, never venturing further than the town boarder. The town boarder, which is the line where ‘Rot’ a sickness that spreads through the trees is known to inhabit. Traveling past the boarder moves sickness, but it also means that small town is completely cutoff from the outside world, if there even is an outside world anymore. But Theo and Bee both long to see what lays beyond the boarder, for good or bad. As they start to question what may really be beyond, they start to uncover secrets in the community that have them questioning their entire lives.

Sounds great right? A bit of mystery, a bit of dystopian, completely in my wheelhouse. Combine that with Ernshaw’s knack for writing unsettling and creepy atmospheres and for most people this will be a winner. It probably would have been a five star read for me as well, except this story seems long and at under 400 pages that’s not a good this. We end up in Pastoral with Calla, Theo, and Bee, pretty early in the story, and while their story is interesting it was too much of a slow burn for me.

Maybe I’ve read to many mystery/thrillers but I also guessed the big reveal a bit early on. While that’s not always a turn off for me, in this case the crescendo to that reveal didn’t deliver for me either. I did like one of the twists at the end but it ultimately wasn’t a big enough save for the story.

I was hoping for a bit more mystical/magical eeriness but somewhere along the way Ernshaw took a step back from her usual mysticism. It might have been an effort to make this story more ‘adult’, as this is her debut into adult fiction., but then I would have hoped she leaned harder into the ‘Cult’ premise. Either way, this was enjoyable, I don’t regret reading this, but would have liked a strong finish.

Overall, I liked it but didn’t love it enough to want a physical copy. The central plot is amazing but the execution could have used a bit of work. I’d probably still recommend this one for those that enjoy a slow burn mystery, maybe rent this one from the library.


A History of Wild Places comes out December 7, 2021. Huge thank you to Atria Books for my copy in exchange for my honest review. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.

I read this in one sitting! Shea Ernshaw is one of my favorite authors and her plot twists are amazing. She definitely got me with this one! Mysterious and captivating this book will make you question everyone. I loved it and can’t wait to get my physical copy!

This is a beautifully written dark fairy tale. Travis Wren goes searching for a missing woman, Maggie St. James, and winds up becoming lost himself.
Theo, his wife Calla and Calla's sister Bee, live together in an old farm house in the village of Pastoral. A place that doesn't really exist on any map. It's a hidden primitive community lost in a deep woods. This story switches between the POV of Calla, Bee and Theo as they begin to question what they know of their community and its leader Levi. Especially after a baby is born prematurely in the village. She is in need of modern medicine in order to save her life, but no one is allowed to leave Pastoral. There is a sickness waiting to infect anyone who crosses the safe borders and to go in search of medical help is a death sentence. This is an intricately woven tale with a twist that I never saw coming.
Thank you to netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to enjoy this amazing e-ARC.

Ok, this may be one of the best covers I've seen this year! The Rorschach inkblot mixed with trees perfectly matches the eerie feel of the novel. I had to pair it with a throwback photo of one of my favorite wild places: the NC mountains. Thank you to Atria Books for providing my ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Genre: fiction, mystery
Pub date: Dec 7th (also a rumored BOTM December pick)
In one sentence (from publisher): A richly atmospheric adult debut following three residents of a secluded, seemingly peaceful commune as they investigate the disappearances of two outsiders.

This book hooked me, plain and simple. It starts with Travis' perspective as he searches for the mysterious commune Pastoral and the author who disappeared there, Maggie St. James. We also get the perspectives of three longtime residents of Pastoral as they struggle with the rot, a mysterious illness threatening their way of life. Ernshaw's prose is beautifully poetic and dreamlike, and I felt completely immersed in this world. I think this book is being published at the perfect time - the onset of winter, when we all curl up inside and travel through books. I read this one in two sittings, and I did not want the experience to end.

If you liked books like Once There Were Wolves, These Silent Woods, What Comes After, and When the Stars Go Dark, I think you'd enjoy this one! It's not a pulse-pounding thriller, but the story really captivated me. 4.5 stars!

CONTENT WARNING: infidelity, death, drug use, suicide, mention of death of a parent, grief, mention of cancer, confinement, murder, blood, violence

I didn’t realize that this was Ernshaw’s debut adult book, but after falling in love with her writing in The Wicked Deep, I knew I wanted to read this. This story retained the dark, eerie, and atmospheric aura that I remembered from reading one of her other books, and the style wasn’t far off from her YA book, either. It kind of reminded me a little of Small Favors by Erin A. Craig.

The story itself was deliciously dark and creepy. In the beginning, we’re introduced to Travis, a man who has an unusual talent for touching objects and being able to read them — being able to pick up an afterimage, as he calls it, of the person who it belonged to. He uses that to track people who have gone missing. And despite his life being a total mess, he’s roped into tracking down a woman who has gone missing five years earlier. She’s a writer of dark books for children that don’t seem to be suitable for children at all, and there’s suspicions that maybe she doesn’t want to be found. But he still tracks her to the border of a place that many don’t believe exists. And then … his story stops.

Next it picks up with three other characters — Theo, Calla, and Bee, a trio that form a family unit within the borders of Pastoral. It’s an insulated community deep in the woods, and almost immediately there’s a sense that something isn’t quite right. Each of the three hold secrets, and the chapters shift between their POVs. I loved getting to see things through their eyes, and discovering not only their world, but also understanding the secrets they keep and why.

The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and it felt like I was completely submerged in their world. I was drawn into this completely different, simpler way of life, but there was also an undercurrent of tension, fear, and almost paranoia that pervaded, and got worse as the story went on. There’s something clearly wrong within Pastoral, forcing the residents to close their borders. No one can get in or out, and the safety of the community takes precedence above all.

It was a tense read, although I did figure out the big twist before it was revealed. Even so, the writing kept me hooked and enjoying the story. The characters were so well-created that I couldn’t stop reading, and found myself putting off other things that I had to do in order to finish the book. There were plenty of surprises throughout the read, and I loved seeing how the characters related to each other. By the end of the story, I could understand the lure of a community set apart from the world, like Pastoral. I’m definitely looking forward to more of Ernshaw’s work.

Shea Ernshaw knows how to create an atmosphere for a truly creepy book. She truly makes the reader feel as if you are in a tiny community in the middle of some dark, encroaching forest with a horrible disease that could threaten their entire way of life.

Travis Wren is a detective of sorts. He possesses an unusual ability to trace a person by touching a single object that belonged to them, seeing where they have been and what they have done until he hopefully finds them. The parents of Maggie St. James, a writer of macabre children's books, hire Travis to find their daughter who went missing five years ago. He follows her to a place thought to be a legend, Pastoral. And just like Maggie, Travis goes missing.

Years later, Theo discovers an abandoned truck past the borders of Pastoral while on guard duty. No one is supposed to come in or out of Pastoral, so why is there a truck at their gates with the owner no where to be found and no knowledge of an outsider arriving? Theo unravels the truth as he butts heads with his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, over the many secrets they have kept from each other.

I enjoyed this book because I love a good atmospheric, creepy mystery/thriller. It is a very slow burn of a novel so it does give you a chance to figure out the ending before its conclusion, if you wish to do so (I know I try and figure out what direction an author is taking). The author creates a truly insular community that feels cut off from the rest of society, with the hanging notion that appearances can be deceiving. There's not much more I can say without giving away too much.

This story really hit for me. First of all, I've lived in Oregon and I am aware of two current, active communes in the mountains. So, the possibility of something like this story playing out is weirdly real.

This deals with a lot of BIG concepts and forces you to ask questions in the best way. Can you love someone, romantically or otherwise, without knowing who they or even you, are? How long can you watch something wrong go on before you decide it's not right anymore? Above all, how to survive in a world that never ceases its chaos?

What made this book an absolute treasure, though, is the methodical plot that doesn't really give up any solid answers, but seems to just build more and more questions until the suspense is holding you captive. The slow, eerie manner in which the story unfolds places it in a category I'd love to call "Horror-Mystery." By the time you're really feeling claustrophobic and paranoid, things start making more sense and honestly, that just adds to the mounting dread.

This played out like a movie in my mind. It was so visceral and easy to see. It's not a "quick" read, but one you should savor. The way everything ended was just...kind of natural and amazing. If you love psychological horror, I recommend everyone go get lost in these woods...

This quietly disturbing novel immerses the reader in a growing atmosphere of dread, keenly shaped by contrast with its forested bucolic setting. Two individuals disappear into the woods, searching for a community that established itself in the 1970s, living off the grid and isolated from the rest of society. After these brief introductory sections, we jump some years into the future and get to know several members of this community. What happens over the course of the book is a gradual unveiling of the lies, paranoia, and measures of control that have steered the settlement off the rails. Ernshaw, generally known as a writer of YA fantasy, has proved that she is capable of stellar writing for adults, masterfully crafting a setting that almost feels like a character in itself, and engaging deeply with themes of community, trust, and memory. The fact that the final revelations seem somewhat unlikely doesn't detract at all from the intrigue of the plot and the pleasure of reading well-crafted prose.

Wow, what a phenomenal book! I had no idea where it was going, but I definitely didn’t anticipate things panning out they way that they had.

The story begins with Travis Wren who has a talent for locating missing people, and when the family of author Maggie St. James hires him to find her, he is led to a reclusive community called Pastoral. The people there believe there is a sickness in the trees surrounding their community, and if they go beyond the borders, they too will get sick. It isn’t until years later that Theo, a member of Pastoral, finds Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border. From there, secrets unravel and Travis, Calla, and Bee begin to discover that Pastoral is not as perfect or safe as it seems.

This truly was a remarkable and mind-boggling story. The lengths that these people went to keep their community secluded and “safe” were a bit over-the-top and I almost felt like the residents were far too gullible. But that’s what happens when you’re cut off from the rest of the world and can only be influenced by what remains in your own little bubble. The ending was quite surprising, but I loved how well the author kept the truth hidden and only let a few details out at a time. Definitely helped with the suspense factor!

Highly recommend!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4342139292

Thank you so much for approving me! I have loved Shea's YA novels and her adult debut did not disappoint! Beautifully lyrical and haunting prose. I could envision exactly what it was like to walk through Pastoral. The plot was excellent and the mystery unraveled so sweetly!

A History of Wild Places is the first adult novel by Shea Ernshaw, whose YA work transcends above the tedium of predictable plots many YA novels fall into. Her latest follows those same rules.

It takes place in Pastoral, a village that reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's, The Village. A quaint place where people patch their clothes, where hand-me-downs have been handed down for generations and life moves at a slow and deliberate pace. Truth be told, I found myself wanting to move there...if not for the creepy trees oozing disease that can kill and the pervading sense of fear every village member displayed.

A simple comparison might be 'The Village' meets 'Get Out.' There is more going on within the pages of this novel, and the beauty of Ernshaw's storytelling delivers a melodic, eerie folktale. At times I felt the pacing was slow. Did it end up working for the building dread she was painting? Sure.

I am in love with the way Shea Ernshaw writes. If her writing were to be illustrated by a single image, I would refer to the stunning cinematic moment when Elizabeth Bennet (Kiera Knightley in Pride and Prejudice, 2005) stands at the edge of a cliff overlooking the rambling countryside. The wind whips her dress back in dramatic fashion and she stares into the great beautiful beyond with a sense of wonder and longing. Ernshaw’s novels stir up in me a desiderium, an ardent longing for something unknown.

A History of Wild Places delivers the same vivid earthiness, the magical, intangible something that transports readers as her previous works. I'd highly recommend this book to her adult readers, especially if you are fond of mysteries involving cults.

This book was beautiful, haunting, and is going to stick with me for a long, long time. This is just one of those books that will be so hard to forget because of how emotive and beautiful (sorry, I know I'm using this word twice) it was. I only have amazing things to say.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for sending me an advanced copy!

A new unsettling Shea Ernshaw horror novel that’s a lot like Midsommar? I requested this galley SO fast. This is one of the most enticing book synopsis’ I’ve ever read, so I went into this expecting something terrifying and gruesome. Not that this was a bad book by any means, but this book wasn’t quite what I was expecting and I was a bit disappointed by what I got.

The book starts by setting the scene perfectly. A small husk of a town with nothing but a firehouse and run down gas station, complete with creepy fluorescent lights and apocalyptic emptiness. The book starts perfectly, immediately making you feel unsettled and lonely as if you were the one in this vacant town. What is it about small, scarcely populated, rundown towns that make you feel so uncomfortable and lonely? Add that with a missing author who writes children’s books so grisly and disturbing that literary journals quip that they “wouldn’t read this to a serial killer let alone a child”, and you’ve instantly got my attention. There is biiiiiig cult energy instantly as soon as you hit part two of the book, and from then on, the rest of it takes place in Pastoral from the POV of some of the inhabitants who suspect something is just not right about their safe little community.

I can’t really disclose what exactly went wrong without going into spoiler territory but I will say, if you think that there is a supernatural explanation to all this, you will be disappointed like I was. I really did assume this would have some sort of supernatural element such as a curse, some sort of spell gone wrong, evil spirits holding the town hostage, I dunno just SOMETHING scary and unsettling that ups the scares and the stakes regarding this secretive little community. This doesn’t mean that a book has to have supernatural elements to be scary. This book just didn’t live up to previous books I’ve read about cults. I have read absolute TERRIFYING books about cults that had me truly fearing the characters. A History of Wild Places didn’t measure up plot wise compared to these, and when I found out what the big reveal was, that was the biggest disappointment. It’s the most unoriginal, commonly done route the author could’ve possible taken.

I still battled between 3 and 4 stars regardless because unoriginality and disappointment aside, Shea Ernshaw really is a talented writer and I’m still a fan. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t great. In the end, I settled with 3 stars. GREAT concept, but it wasn’t developed well enough with a strong enough plot.

I was really looking forward to this book, and I did not dislike it. But I found that Shea's writing for adult novels is very different from her YA novels. I found this a lot more literary than I was expecting. Literary fiction is 99% of a "no" from me.

That all being said, the writing was stunning. Such vivid descriptions that I could definitely imagine exactly what was happening. I did get lost in the descriptions a lot, but that was probably more of a me problem because like I said I do not enjoy overly descript writing.

The cult aspect was wonderful, and I did find myself on the edge of my seat throughout the second half of the book, not knowing where it was going to go. It just me a long, long time to get there.

If you are into literary fiction and thrillers, I definitely recommend this book for you.