An intriguing, unusual story about animals talking, a religion growing up around this situation, and a family bound up in this for generations. Amanda Leduc’s gorgeous prose takes us through time, starting in 1901/1903, when Josiah is sent away by his father with missionaries, who travel to Siberia. Josiah has always been able to understand animals’ speech , and has been punished for years by his father for this ability.

The missionaries are unpleasant, and Josiah is mostly unhappy, till one day a pair of hyenas arrive and spirit him away, moments before a terrific cataclysm.

Eventually returning to his small town, Josiah starts his own religion that involves the hyenas, the idea of animals speaking, and supposed faith-based healing.

Josiah’s niece meets the hyenas, and is the next link on the chain of this family and its life changing interactions with animals. The author propels us forwards in time several times to meet different members of this family, and each time asks us to think about the way humans view the other animals we share the planet with, and how we resolve our animalness with out humanity.

This was weird, dark, but also hopeful. I liked the way the author kept the chapters short, the pace quick, and used different ways to tell the story: straight prose, research paper, interviews, and reports.

I was immediately drawn in at the start, and alternated between puzzled, curious, sad, angry, joyful and amused all the way to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada (Adult) for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This is my favourite book of 2025 so far. Absolutely LOVED the multiple timelines and POVs, the various structural choices, the disability rep, everything.

This novel is very hard to talk about as it truly felt like a fever dream for most of the time. It explores so man philosophical and moral themes, and was truly too smart for me. I did enjoy myself in this parable like story, and I always love a book that explores a cult. I think the character work in this one was so interesting and I really grew to love and relate to them. I truly loved the exploration of what it means to be human and what it means to be an animal and are they one in the same or different in the traditional and nontraditional lense. I think the author is so smart and I am very interested to read more by them.

Thank you Net Galley and Penguin Randomhouse Canada for the advance copy of Wild Life.
This was a weird and “wild” book.
It did not totally work for me, but I kept reading.
Right from the start, talking hyenas who walked on two feet, communicating with humans, prophets, a lot going on.
I am sure there are lots of messages, particularly how humans treat animals, zoo keeping, the loss of habitats and the inevitable interactions between humans and animals.
However, this was a bit too out there for me.