A History of Wild Places follows a man with a special gift to locate missing people. But what happens when this man himself goes missing while trying to find a missing person? A husband and wife duo in a cultish community hidden deep in the woods begin to uncover secrets connecting their community and the disappearance of both the man and the woman he was trying to locate.

Ernshaw creates a dark world filled with hidden secrets. A dark, mythical children's tale that may be built on truth. And when the truth of the mystery is revealed, you won't see it coming.

While I had a hard time getting going with this book, once I was sucked in, I throughly enjoyed the wild ride! This is a beautiful, gripping tale. I actually just bought this book for myself because it meant that much to me. Again, Shea Ernshaw writes lively, relatable, and yet quirky characters all wrapped up in mysteriously intriguing settings that will whisk you away on adventures that will leave you hungover as you await any future work by her! Job well done.

This book was creepy, dark, haunting, and cult-ish; what more could you ask for! I loved the "fairy tale for adults" feel and I honestly can't wait for HBO to make this into a miniseries already. The dual timelines were perfect and came together beautifully.

I loved this first adult novel from Shea Ernshaw. It has just the right amount of mystery and endearment mixed with fear and a touch of the paranormal (but not the vampire and werewolf kind). It's ethereal and rich, bridging good desires with the corrupt and how that plays out in a community. There's a bit of post-apocalyptic vibes with the commune.

I loved the book within a book, which is not really the best way to describe it, but how Ernshaw used Maggie St. James' stories to frame the larger story. There were a few unexpected turns and some guesses that turned out right. All in all, it's beauitfully written and immersive.

Best book. Love the book. Love the author. MUST READ ASAP!!!

This book is amazing. I have been waiting for it for MONTHS as Erin is one of my favorite authors. I adored this book to another level. I can not even put into words how much I love it and how I think every person should be reading it as well!

This was my first read by Shea Ernshaw so I went in without expectation. The cover didn't give anything away (although in hindsight I can see it now), and I really wasn't sure what was to come.

What followed was a mystery read with a number of unexpected twists and turns. The ending was satisfactory but not as exciting as I'd anticipated, however, I really enjoyed the overall story and the development of the three main characters, Theo, Calla, and Bee.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for a copy of the ARC in return for my honest review.

Really struggled to get through this book! Initially the premise was very promising, but then it took a left turn with a complete setting and narration reset. I stuck with it, and was ultimately super disappointed. The entire plot of "A History of Wild Places" was built on red herrings, but then at the end instead of any of those details coming through to reward the attentive reader, the ultimate explanation was "magic".

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own!

This was definitely an engrossing novel. It was eerie, haunting, and atmospheric. Travis can find anyone, and is now looking for missing children's author Maggie St. James. He is lead to Pastoral, a reclusive commune. People live here for a simple way of life, no contact with the outside world. Then Travis also goes missing.

Theo, who is a lifelong member of this commune, finds Travis's truck one day, on the border of the community. Him, his wife, and sister start to unravel secrets they keep, and start to think this community is possibly not as safe as they think! Strange things are happening in Pastoral.

I thought this book was so well written and I was pulled in from page one. The second half of the book moves fast, and the twists one after another. I did not predict the ending, and I was flipping the pages fast. This was my first book by the author and I will definitely be reading more by her.

Phew. I was absolutely enthralled by this book. The setting, the characters, the eerie foreboding writing....I was totally here for it. And this book lands especially hard while you're in quarantine with your toddler and watching child by child test positive at daycare. Like 😳😬😷

Highly recommend. Man, it's going to be hard picking my monthly favorite. January is coming in HOT.

I LOVED this book! I've read all of Ernshaw's books and this by far is my favorite which means something considering I also LOVED The Wicked Deep.

As someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest I was mesmerized by Earnshaw's imagery. The woods, the small town... it all came together so well and made me think about all of the similar places I've driven through and now I wonder what's on the other side of those trees.

Though I was able to figure out what was going on fairly early in the story, Ernshaw's writing kept me glued to the pages until the very last word. The ending was exactly what I wanted and the Epilogue sealed the story with perfection.

With everything going on in our world, sometimes a place like Pastoral sounds tempting. A place of nature where technology can't be found and instead you spend your days building, creating, growing and nurturing. A place where books are treasured, family and friends are cherished and community is a place of refuge.

I want to thank Ms. Ernshaw for creating a story that is so touching and tempting that I can't wait to read it over and over.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I thought that this was an interesting story. It opens with Travis who is searching for an author named Maggie St. James who disappeared several years ago. The rest of the story follows three different perspectives, Theo, Calla, and Bee who live in Pastoral, secluded from the rest of the world.

Not everything is as it seems in Pastoral, and strange things are happening everywhere. The story is haunting, and the last half of the novel is quite chilling.

I wasn't able to become entirely absorbed into the story, and while I was surprised by the plot twists, it didn't blow me away.

WOW, how to even explain this book. It is like waking up from a dream....you know what you saw and what you do but you really struggle in how you can tell others about it.
Travis, how to even start telling you about him and his other worldly gifts that the police trust so much they look to him for help often. This time it is to find a long-missing children's author. But why are we just starting to look for her now??
As I read, I could definitely tell what could be cut out to make it to the big screen. But as a reader, I in turn appreciated the all-encompassing world being built around Travis and his mission.
This is my first novel by Shea Ernshaw and look forward to seeing/reading if this is their style or a one-off great idea. .

I have read from this author before and really enjoyed their YA titles, I knew that this adult novel would be more darker and more twisty when I requested the ARC, and wow did it deliver. This book gives off total M. Night Shyamalan vibes (mainly The Village but, also the overall creepiness of his other works). It is a very insular mystery about a missing woman, the man hired to find her, and a settlement in the woods that know one knows exists. The very beginning of this story hooks you, and then it does a total 180. You are suddenly following new people, you have no idea what they have to do with Travis and Maggie but you have to keep reading to find out WTF is going on. I did not see the twist of this book coming from a mile away. Literally shocked.

My only qualm with this book is it takes so long to get to the twist and then once you are there, everything happens so fast and you are left reeling from all these reveals that it's a bit much. I wish things were spaced out a little bit more. I will continue to read everything that this author writes, I love the way they tell stories. Highly recommend!

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was wild. There were times I almost out this book down, trying to figure out where the story was going. I felt there was a lot of unnecessary internal dialog that didn’t really progress the story much. But man let me tell you I am HERE for some cult action, hypnosis, brainwashing weirdo shit. This was a fun read. I didn’t see the twist coming till the very very end. The pacing was a little off to me but over all I enjoyed reading this book.

This story is a beautiful, haunting piece of prose. Highly reminiscent of M. Night Shaymalan's 'The Village' with a touch of Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery', and stopping just short of falling off into 'The Wicker Man' territory, this tale centers around a small community hidden deep in the forest. once a hippie commune but now something much darker.

Writer Maggie St. James has been missing for five years. Her parents hire Travis Wren - a man with the supernatural ability to touch objects and see the memories of the people who owned them, a skill he uses to help find missing people. Just before he leaves to look for Maggie, Maggie's mother gives him one word to help him in his search: Pastoral.

Travis follows the shadowy afterimages of Maggie's last days before she went missing, to a crumbling barn, beyond the last sign of civilization, down narrowing roads into the woods, but what he finds there will change his life.

Within the hidden community of Pastoral, people go about their simple lives more or less content in their isolation. In a farmhouse at the far reaches of the community, near the fence that marks the separation of Pastoral from the forest beyond, live Theo and his wife, Calla, along with Calla's sister, Bee. But all is not well within the minds of these three. Uneasiness sits like a rock in their guts, a feeling of something not right, something missing. Of something more.

Enigmatic community leader Levi reminds the people of Pastoral weekly of the danger beyond their borders: a disease known simply as 'rot', which spills from the trees and infects anyone who ventures past the fence, which turns a person's blood to black sludge.

What is really happening in Pastoral? What does it have to do with Travis and Maggie? And after all these years....where ARE Travis and Maggie?

Author Shea Ernshaw spins this story like a dark, brooding fairy tale, a slow burn of folk horror that hooks the reader and draws you in, hypnotizes you with its mystery and its creeping fear, and refuses to let you go until the very end... if even then.

Wow. Shea Ernshaw wrote such a magical book about a cult in the middle of a forest, a man who can see afterimages of people when he touches an object they have touched, and a children's book author who goes missing.

This book kept me on my toes guessing, and I still didn't guess correctly what happened to them. My jaw dropped when I read what happened, and I was so surprised! Once I got to that part, I could NOT put the rest of the book down. I do like how she made it all tie together, and it's not something I often, if ever, see in books. Highly recommend this!

The blurb on this one and the cover attracted me to this book. It sounded like an interesting thriller/mystery. However, after finishing this book, it felt like the author had a number of ideas that didn't quite mesh in the end.

We start off with Travis Wren, a sad and lonely guy who has a knack for finding people by seeing flashes of their past by touching objects that belonged to them. He has been hired to find well known author of creepy children's fairy tale books Maggie St. James who disappeared five years earlier. Travis follows her trail to a reclusive community/commune called Pastoral deep in the woods. Travis then disappears as well.

The rest of the book is divided between POV chapters for Theo, his wife Calla, and Calla's blind sister Bee who live in Pastoral. There is no leaving the boundaries of the town as there is "rot" in the woods that can spread disease to the surrounding trees and the residents of the town. Something feels off. Theo is one of the people assigned with watching the entrance of the town and his curiosity has been getting the better of him. One night, he crosses the border of out of town and finds a truck at the bottom of the hill that belonged to Travis. Theo is not sure what to do with this secret. It turns out that Calla and Bee have been keeping some secrets of their own.

It feels like an interesting X-Files setup with Travis's ability and then Bee's ability for super hearing/sensing that includes heartbeats nearby. The town is creepy as you can sense something is wrong here. For me, it didn't take long to figure out the what and why of the situation (there are a lot of clues) but the how is held until near the end and it felt like a stretch. Overall, this isn't a bad book at all--just one that I didn't find lived up to its full potential.

I honestly don’t know how to review this without spoiling it so I will apologize in advance for how vague this will be. I highly recommend going into this one as blind as possible and just enjoy the ride. I absolutely loved this twisty chilling read about a mysterious commune that is surrounded by a forest. This is one of the most atmospheric and unsettling books that I’ve read in a while that had such a unique plot to it. It was creepy, bizarre, and that ending just…wow. It caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting it. This was such a riveting story with so many twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. I could not put this one down.

I know this one won’t be for everyone. You only have to see the reviews on Goodreads to see this one is a polarizing book. You are either going to hate it or love it. I love it. LOVE IT! I really think the people that don’t go into this one with certain expectations of what the story would be and that ruined it for them. Please go into this one as blind as possible. Let yourself get immersed in the characters and plot and have fun trying to guess what is really happening. Trust me it will keep you guessing. I know I’ll be thinking about this one for a while. I am hoping I’ll get to add it to my re-read list for 2022.

This mark Ernshaw's debut for adults and it's just my kind of story! It opens up with an author who has been missing for two years and the man with a special knack for finding people to be put on her trail. But he goes missing, too! The book then shifts perspectives to three people in the cultish community of Pastoral, tucked away deep in the wild woods of California. Soon it becomes clear that Pastoral holds clues about what happened to both Maggie the author and Travis the investigator.

It's a really well-written book - I love Ernshaw's phrasing and word choices. The excerpts from Maggie's books makes for a nice addition as well - and while the Pastoral plot line may not come as a total shock to some readers, the storyline itself still holds plenty of other surprising turns. The middle section, pacing-wise, does lag a bit from the very strong opening. But it does pick back up towards the end. It's an engaging read from stat to finish and I especially appreciated the epilogue. I think it would make for a lively discussion starter, so I am not surprised that it was selected as a Book of the Month Club option. I am looking forward to reading more from Ernshaw in the future!

This book was interesting! I unfortunately read it while I was sick with covid, so don't remember too much about it!, I just know that I liked it.