I felt these characters and their struggles so deeply. How their families tried to be supportive in the midst of their own falling apart. The magic and wonder in Danny and Neefs relationship felt so real, so much like first love. The story unwound slowly enough for the reader to see them each trying to grow up, grow beyond the life filled with things that would hold them back, trying to hold onto each other while changing. I loved the dialogue, the prose contained truths that hit home. Beautiful and raw and real. I was more than invested and felt the ending a fitting and right one.

Our neighborhood pub or café makes me think of this book where everyone seems to know each other but they don’t really. Locals go there all the time to find a place in life that is familiar. But to step into another person’s path doesn’t seem to be allowed. Secrets stay hidden.

This is a well-developed story with two teenagers: Jen trying to find her way with her best friend, Danny, who tries to protect her. Not everyone in life is blessed with wonderful parents and Jen and Danny are doing the best they can, living on the edge at times while hanging out at the pub.

Jen is smart and loves to write but has a wild side and that gets her in trouble. Danny is a pleaser and he enjoys sharing his knowledge of trees and plants. They may think they’re on a life plan but sometimes obstacles get in the way.

It could be read in a day or two as the writing is smooth with relatively short chapters and a handful of characters. However, right away, you notice that there are no quotes and timelines.

This family drama may remind you of someone you know. It’s that kind of story that includes those feeling like they don’t belong making it hard to socialize. There’s also a bit of prejudice and addiction that surfaces. This would make an interesting conversation about relationships and hardships in life.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of June 4, 2024.

I wasn’t too big a fan of this one, unfortunately. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher of this book for gifting me this arc.

Wild Ground, by Emily Usher, is a brutally honest story, packed with triggers. Neef and Danny live in a difficult world and Usher does a great job making them realistic characters that the reader will care about. Because of the darkness of the story, I considered putting the book down a few times, but hope kept me reading. It's a sad story, that will probably be with me for a while. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

This book is sad, heavy and dark. Not to say that it's not a good story, because it is. But it tells a turbulent, hopeless story that left me feeling unsatisfied. The ending was way too open ended for the pain the characters suffer. It would have been nice to have some sort of resolution, one way or the other. I also had a hard time being motivated to pick up the book and read it. It was just not something that made me want to rush back to it.

The story is told from alternating timelines, which aren't immediately made clear, so it was sometimes confusing and jarring. I didn't mind the stylistic choice to not use quotation marks that many others complained about.

The more I think about the ending the more annoyed I am. Talking about new beginnings but not giving any hint of whether or not that's even possible is frustrating and I hate it. I wanted more for the characters than I actually got.

Overall, the book was fine. 2 1/2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of this book.

Truthfully, I don't often get overly emotional when reading anymore. I do feel things (too much most of the time) but my body tends to fight back when I need and want to cry. My body lost the fight today and tears were shed.

Wild Ground absolutely gutted me and I really did not see that coming. The characters were developed so well, I could feel their pain and their joy. I felt (most times short-lived) happiness for some characters and (almost constant) disgust for others. Really, I felt all the emotions while reading.

I had no problem following dialogue, even with the lack of quotation marks. I have mixed feelings about the ending but even that doesn't take away from how much I liked this.

THis book is brutally honest and desperately sad. It's well written, but I can't get past the sorrow I have for Neef and Danny living the lives they did. The ending is a relief to know that they strarightened their lives out and found a way to become more than they expected at such a young age.

This is a tough one to digest. Bleak, joyless, but yet so relevant. There is mental illness, drug addiction, racism, classism (is that a word? it should be!!) Neef and Danny and those around them have so much to deal with, and the hits just keep coming. I'm glad I read it for certain, but I'm going to need a happy Disney mind cleanse to get back into a safe mind space.

Let me begin by saying thank you to NetGalley and Penguin publishingfor the advanced copy.

This is the first unedited book I’ve read- the lack of quotations for conversations was hard to let go of.
This book will be loved by so many. It’s impactful, honest, heartbreaking, etc. Personally, the reason I didn’t love it is because I simply don’t love this genre- what’s supposed to be an emotional and impactful drama. I generally read books that keep me dying to know what happens next- thrillers, dark romance, etc. I will sometimes go for a book such a Wild Ground, and I find myself reading not to know what happened, but to finish.
I am not a great judge of books like this because of that. I despised Hello Beautiful, and it was one of the most popular and highly rated books of the year.
This book also has my number one least favourite thing in a book- an open ended ending.
I like everything to be clear- doesn’t have to be happy, just a clear resolution.
I also wish we saw the FMC become more empowered as the story went on. I wish she had let a certain character know exactly what he had done wrong and how awful what he did to her was (not the MMC). I don’t care how guilty someone felt, when you do things to someone like he did over and over, I have no empathy for you. Forgiveness is valuable, but we don’t see that either. I understand the intent and reasoning I guess, but there were many many ways this could have been done differently.
I think this book would have been more inspiring if Neef finally stood up for herself, instead of being a “meek mouse” as another character put it.
The more I think about it, the more I see the lack of character development. We see these characters spend many years together, only for them to combust, yet we don’t see either of the main characters repair the trauma and heartbreak and begin to grow and become stronger. I think the way the relationship played out is very realistic, especially for such young people with so much responsibility. What I really wish was that Neef had told Danny certain things (no spoilers) because I can’t stop wondering how that could have changed the course of their relationship.
I also really really disliked how ignorant Neef was to the blatant racism that was experienced by Danny and his father. She often equated her experiences to his, which is obviously so far from reality. What bothered me more is that we never saw growth from her surrounding this. It was always “I don’t get why the police would target you?” Throughout the whole book.
What I did appreciate was that Neef had quite the sense of self awareness in the past parts. The narration was honest as to her behaviour patterns, fear of being alone, etc.
The relationship between Danny and his Grandmother showed only resentment, when they both obviously loved each other very much. Certain things would have had much more of an impact had we seen moments of love instead of annoyance between them.
I loved Danny, he was clearly lost and alone and vulnerable. He seemed so gentle and vulnerable.
I also LOVED the chosen family Ali and Fi. They were such great supporting characters.
I don’t want to analyze this too much because the book wasn’t bad. I don’t know how much will change through editing, but as I said at the beginning, many will love this book.

This was a good but difficult read. The characters are intriguing and the writing is appropriate, but it has every single trigger. Definitely an original novel.

I could not get into this one… perhaps it is my age. Well written for younger readers, but not for people over 35 imho. Might make an interesting movie if done well.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for this book.

I really enjoyed this book. The author did a great job with the characters and storyline

She addressed the issues of poverty, addiction, racism. I thought it was address in a way that wove these issues in a creative way into the story.

I felt thete could have been more details and the book could have been a bit longer, but overall it was a good read.

Recommend.

oh wow what an emotional novel. everything about this books feels like perfection. it read with such a compelling tone and i found myself not wanting to put it down, without spoiling, i think this is a book everyone should pick up for a beautiful romance story as well as something deeper

The format of this book takes a little getting used to, but once I got familiar with no quotation marks, I finished the last half of this book in one sitting. Poverty, racism, young love, all through the eyes of a girl growing up with an addict mother and a very unstable home.

Jen (or Neef, for half the book), is not a lovable main, but she also isn’t disliked. She’s adrift, born to an adrift mother, and this is her story of grounding. And what Usher does so well is tell the story from a young girl’s perspective. There were times I wondered if this book was a memoir - the writing is so raw, so blunt, so perfect for a 14 year old girl.

I left this book in a puddle of my tears - I loved Denz in the end and I understand why he did what he did to protect his son. I wanted so much for Neef and Danny, but in the way first loves go, we don’t always get to stay with the one that knows us best. The character arc Jen/Neef went through was so remarkably done it left me sleepless!

This book is not for the faint of heart - there’s rape, drugs, abandonment, but there’s also a sweet love story and the hope of chosen family.

The characters in this dark romance are flawed, damaged, and without strong morals and engage in behaviors that are considered unacceptable or criminal. However the author does an exceptional job adding depth and nuance to this story, as well as creating emotional connections between the reader and the characters. Some of the conflicting emotions touched upon in this book are love and hate, desire and repulsion, loyalty and betrayal. The author also does an excellent job weaving in past trauma or psychological challenges, such as guilt, shame, or fear. My one complaint would be this book was very long however I did get the ARC and it was unedited. I don't generally read YA books however I think this would be considered one. I enjoyed the book and after a lot of negative emotions that I felt throughout the book from the complex characters, at the end I was left feeling a sense of peace and hope. Overall I really enjoyed this love story. It was edgy, different and the connection between the two characters was powerful.

Wild Ground is a slow-burn coming-of-age story about a girl named Neef and her relationship with Danny. I found this very slow but kept turning the pages to see what had happened. The characters were well-written but unlikable. I tried to get into Neef but could find nothing likable about the character. However, I was rooting for her and hoped she would end up with Danny. The dialect was new to me so I did a lot of inferring what they meant. Overall I think this is a good story and look forward to seeing what this author comes up with next.

I found this tender coming of age story to be a bit slow in character and world building and it never quite caught fire to keep me interested. I felt a bit disconnected as if the author was detached from the storytelling. The dialect, while appropriate, never quite felt necessary in some parts and served to pull me out of the story. I ended up not completing this novel as it simply could not hold my engagement, even though I remained hopeful it would. I would support this author in continuing her path of finding her authentic voice and to pursue a more spontaneous style of writing which may enliven the writing. While beautiful in parts, the whole did not satisfy.

I really tried to get into the book. I made it to 20%.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

I absolutely love this book! The intricate characters kept me involved in the story. The book was very unsettling, which is not a bad thing. I llok forward to reading more from this author.

3.5 stars rounded up. This book made me feel so unsettled I don’t know if I loved it or hated it any maybe that’s the point. Neef is hard to like at almost every turn but I found myself continually rooting for her to get it together. Danny, while slightly less developed was a super interesting character and I wish I got more of his inner thoughts. This book is gritty and sad and made my heart pretty heavy. Overall I think this is a pretty great debut novel.
I wish the ending closed the loop all together and I realllllly wish quotations were used for speaking parts as it could be hard to follow at times.
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted arc