In The Wildelings, Lisa Harding delivers a tense, emotionally rich novel about friendship, power, and the vulnerability of young adulthood. Best friends Jessica and Linda, shaped by difficult pasts, begin anew at Wilde University in Dublin. But when Linda falls under the sway of Mark, an older, magnetic philosophy student, their once-solid bond begins to unravel.

Harding masterfully explores how charisma and control can infect a group dynamic, especially when identity and belonging are still in flux. Jessica's descent into suspicion and isolation is both haunting and heartbreaking, as secrets multiply and loyalty is tested.

Harding’s prose is sharp and lyrical, balancing psychological insight with an almost dreamlike intensity. The novel captures the unsettling truth that even the deepest friendships can fracture under the weight of influence, need, and desire.

Thank you to Net Galley and HarperVia for the ARC. I really liked this set of unlikeable characters and was intrigued to see where the story would go. The first half is much stronger than the second half which ends up going by quite slowly till the climax at the very end. It wasn't bad, its just that for the heavy topics discussed I thought there would be more depth to the discussion of the themes.

This is a solid 3.0 read, at least for me.

Jessica and Linda are best friends - from childhood to their first year at university. Jessica has always been the lead - the lead actress, the lead friend, the stronger of the two girls. Linda's home life is volatile so most of her time is spent at Jessica's home, where she lives with her step-mother Sue.

Once the girls arrive at school, they soon start to grow apart as Jessica because even more self-involved and only focuses on her acting and her French boyfriend. Linda is pushed to the side, and eventually meets Mark, an older student who Jessica hates on site.

Mark has power over Linda; while he does help her grow independent of Jessica, he also speaks for her, orders for her, and dresses her. He has the power of a cult leader. The power play between Jessica and Mark builds to an explosive end the night of the university's end-of-semester party. It's a night of drugs, sex, alcohol, and a final battle for Linda's love.
---
I understand what Lisa Harding was doing, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. Jessica was a TOTAL bitch from page one. Jesus - she's a mean girl in grammar school and it continues to her self-involved attitude. Her shallow desires are frankly, pathetic. AND maybe that's the point.

Toxic female friendships are so complicated and they are written about extensively. This is a good example, but the vague time period, odd music references, and focus on sex seemed to move the plot away from the goal of showing these two young women growing up and growing away from each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was simply stunning. Beautifully written, incredibly authentic, and just all-around fantastic. It's literary dark academia and young women COA, which are two of my favorite things so to be fair, I had a feeling I'd love this. Elements of The Secret History, The Great Gatsby, A Separate Peace all intertwine with an exceptional narrative voice. I saw a lot of people saying Jessica was unlikable, which I don't get AT ALL. She was totally real. Flawed, of course, but what teenage girl isn't? I saw myself in her and, early on, there were parts that felt a bit too personal! I adored this book. I am going to seek out more by the author as well, because her writing is just incredible. I rarely find books this honest (brutally so).

Only giving this a 3 for the style of writing. I loved it. It didn’t feel repetitive. But I would give the story 2 stars as it came off just a bit annoying with weird relationship dynamics

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Via for the opportunity to read and review The Wildelings by Lisa Haring. All opinions are my own.

A group of friends at a prestigious college in Dublin with Linda and Jessica having grown up together. Their childhoods were not easy, and they were ready to start afresh at 18 in their first year of college. Immediately you can kind of tell there is something off about the relationship between Linda and Jessica. Upon meeting others that complete their circle of friends enters Mark who has an interest in Linda. Unfortunately, Jessica doesn't like Mark and feels he might not be the best choice for Linda. As time wears on Mark completely changes the dynamics of this friend group through manipulations, social experimentations, and his philosophical ideas.

I was initially intrigued with The Wildelings due to it being tagged Dark Academia and its comparison to The Secret History which is on my shelf waiting to be read. This was certainly dark and had academia vibes throughout. I did not like any characters in this book, which was probably the author's intention. Jessica was self-absorbed and mostly worried about her stake in everyone else's relationships. Mark was just toxic and unlikeable. Like a puppet master watching the show. It took me about 2 weeks to finish this book. All the "good stuff" happens in the last half of the book. Once I reached about 70% I was able to coast more quickly through the book, because I found it the most interesting time. I am very sure many readers will enjoy this, especially those that love character driven books. I just felt it was a little slow. The Wildelings will be released April 15th and can be purchased at all major book retailers. Happy readin

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for the advanced reader copy.

I love a dark academia novel, so I was excited to jump into the story of best friends Linda and Jessica, but from the first page, it was unclear to me how these two characters became friends, let alone best friends. Jessica is noting but hostile and insulting of Linda. In some ways this felt like the beginning of an abusive relationship. I couldn't keep reading.

I was unable to finish this and thus will not be posting a full review. I wasn't engaged and this book just wasn't for me. Thank you for the opportunity.

It's been Jessica and Linda against the world since the first day of school—Jessica leading the way, and Linda pulled in her wake. Jessica is a big fish in a small pond, and that's just the way she likes it. At university, though, things change: Jessica's big-fish status is challenged. She has the upper hand sometimes—but not always. Linda is pulling away from Jessica, becoming less reliant on her and less willing to put up with her. But it's Linda's boyfriend Mark, and the play he has cast Jessica in, that will turn them all upside-down.

I read this largely based on the strength of Harding's "Cloud Girls", which I read a couple of years ago. Harding doesn't shy away from difficult topics—"Cloud Girls" explores sex trafficking and child abuse, and "The Wildelings" gets into manipulation and toxic relationships.

What works really well for me: Jessica is not a particularly sympathetic character. One of the things she struggles so much with throughout the book is that the people around her do not react to her low-key bullying in the way that she expects them to; Wilde is a bigger pond than she's used to, and although she does fine, she doesn't soar in the way she would have expected.

"He looked [...] way cooler than when we had first met. It stung that I was not the reason for this transformation." (loc. 3472*)

This does not make Jessica likable, but it does make her interesting, and that's a huge plus point for me. There are all these human flaws in Jessica that she can see but not quite stop herself from charging forward with anyway—her jealousy, her selfishness, her unkindness. She's gotten away with it because she's attractive and confident, I suppose, and because nobody has called her out on it...until now. And gosh, she does not understand how poorly equipped she is to be called on it.

This takes place mostly in the 90s, a time Jessica describes as "back then, it was thrilling to be a number on a list, ranked by your body parts" (loc. 473). There's a lot in her story that she doesn't understand until later (i.e., not until the parts of the story that take place much later), and parts of the book make for a masterful take on self-blame and shame. Because: Jessica does have some things coming—again, she's a complex character—but not the things that happen to her.

What doesn't work for me as well: although the majority of the book takes place in the 90s, it's structured around flashbacks (or the things Jessica is writing) when she is much older and in therapy. The processing-it-all-through-conversations-with-a-therapist trope (can I call this a trope?) has never worked well for me. There's an extent to which it does make a lot of sense here—the therapist is able to offer Jessica compassion when she has none for herself, and to reassign some guilt and blame after scenes in which Jessica does not come off well. But as engaging (and sometimes hard to read) as I found the Wilde sections to be, I was thrown out of that every time we came back to the present (or present-ish) day.

So something of a mixed bag for me, but more good than bad. Save this one when you're in the mood for something pretty intense. I'm looking forward to whatever Harding comes up with next.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

I was impressed by the depth of thought that went into creating these characters. Jessica, Linda and Mark all feel like real people with rich inner lives. However, their personalities and poor choices, especially in the case, of Jessica, made them difficult to enjoy fully. Nonetheless, I found this book compulsively readable and hard to put down. The framing device of Jessica talking to her therapist was helpful, and actually sounded like a believable therapist for once. I suppose I personally am just growing tired of stories centered around campus dramas and petty revenge, but nothing about this stood out as particularly notable despite my overall enjoyment of the story.

I am probably an outlier on this one, but it didn't do it for me. The story was not strong enough to overcome my extreme annoyance with Jessica through most of the book - difficult to take a ride alongside a character like that in a character-driven story even when it serves a purpose. Thanks to Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review, book publishes April 15.

4.75/5

I thoroughly was obsessed with this. I could not put it down. All of the characters were flawed, but also so dimentional. I think I need to immediately sit down and reread it because my brain has still not fully wrapped around what I read.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

fine discussion of campus drama, identity, understanding yourself.... but the framing device of the therapist sorta draws you out again and again. 3 stars. tysm for the arc.

This story focuses on Jessica and Linda who have a very unbalanced friendship. Jessica is used to Linda living in her shadow and when she starts to distance herself from her (heavily influenced by her new boyfriend, Mark), Jessica starts to unravel.

I could not put down this book for 2 days and just when I thought that the events were leading me to a disappointing end, the author surprised me. This is the first novel I read by this author and it won't be my last.

I especially loved the setting for this one since it coincided with my college years, so a lot of the events and the music being referenced was familiar to me.

Really loved this one!

For fans of dark academia and contemporary Irish lit. I struggled with the unlikeability of the main character, Jessica, and the frame narrative of telling the story to a therapist. But the writing was effective - it was so difficult to read about how Jessica treated Linda - and how Linda continued in their friendship.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an advanced copy!

The bonds of peers, coming of age, defying neglect and hanging on - the past clings to the present and infects the future until the truth can finally come out. Tight story that will resonate with many, in part, and intrigue until the end.

I love a dark academia novel as much as the next girl, so when I saw the description for Lisa Harding's The Wildelings I sprinted for a copy. However, the story itself ending up falling flat for me, and as I write this review a month after concluding my read, I'm struggling to remember many details.

This was a 2.5 stars for me, but I think I am just not the right audience for this one as I tend to have difficulties with unlikable characters. I for the life of me cannot ignore their unlikable enough to enjoy the story from an unbiased perspective, if I hate the main character the book generally leaves a bad taste in my mouth and this is certainly the case with this one. The writing itself was decent I don’t have many other complaints aside from that, it was a little slow to start but otherwise I think this would be a good book for people that enjoy the unlikable character trope that just not me unfortunately.

I love a good dark academia-inspired thriller, and this one has a lot of elements that I typically enjoy - strange, cult-like friend groups, toxic friendships, and a dark romance. My issues with it predominantly stemmed from a truly obnoxious POV character, and the strange pacing - a fundamental twist is not revealed until the very last few pages, and it just doesn't land. Ultimately, this was more of a frustrating than satisfying experience, but I'd recommend it to people who enjoy unlikable heroines and dark academia all the same.

3.5 stars rounded up, but really 3.5 stars. I end up giving a lot of books 4 stars, but there’s a pretty wide space between my 3.5 star books and my just-missed-out-on-five-star books (because something has to really wow me to get five stars.) Ah, the vagaries of the GR system, long may she wave. I wish that my reviews would quit disappearing though.

But I digress.

Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s (I may be making those dates up, but they are close) in Dublin Jessica and Linda were best friends and had been since the first day of school.

OK, wait. I know we are talking Dublin, but was there ever a time when the names “Jessica” and “Linda” were popular at the same time?

Anyway, both girls were from broken homes and Jessica, the wilder, more brazen one had always seem to their survival. She assumed it would always be that way.

Now the girls are 18 and are at Wilde, an elite University in Dublin. Jessica is the queen of the first year girls and falls in love quickly. Then she and Linda meet Mark, a few years older, who is very charismatic and has some odd ideas. And it seems like his influence extends to all their other friends too, with some not so great results for most of them.

Years later Jessica still has guilt about what happened at Wilde and Mark reappears, wanting to tell his story.

Oh, I love a good campus intrigue novel with loads of angst and this one delivers. Well drawn characters. Really enjoyed this. The more I think about it, the more I think this book deserves those 4 stars, for its great portrayal of college, relationships, real life vampires and the awful things we can do to each other.