I'd never read this author before but I'd heard such good things that I decided to try her adult debut. I really enjoyed the first half of the book and the atmospheric, folkloric setting, but the second half lost me and felt like a totally different book. I think if the synopsis had sold me first on selkie vampires, I would have had different expectations going in as paranormal romance is not my favorite genre (except maybe Omegaverse and I have very picky standards with the rest of it, I am kind of burnt out on vampires.)

The first half of the book is set in the town called Mistaken, which is protected by magical stones and beings called the Benevolence that keep the settlement safe from monsters known as Bright-Eyeds. But this also keeps the settlers imprisoned within the town. To keep up birth rates, young people are married off in a ritual known as the Hunt.

I found the part set in the town to be really interesting as someone with a keen interest in cults. The town felt very cultlike and the Hunt felt a lot like state sanctioned rape "for the good of the town," very Handmaid's Tale.

Greer is a 27-year-old who seems naive and immature, but that is understandable given the culture. However a childish spat with her best friend at the beginning left me with that impression and it was hard to shake. Her main problem as a character for me was that she didn't have much agency. I liked how she had strange gifts, made maps and dreamed of traveling, which seemed at odds with her sweetheart's more humble dreams.

She's all set to marry her childhood sweetheart, Ellis, a love interest I found kind of bland and forgettable, at the next Hunt, despite her father's objections. But Ellis offers himself up as a sacrifice to the wilderness and Greer plunges in after him, changing her life forever and everything she thought she knew.

While the first half was slow paced, the second half was Greer wandering around the wildnerness getting attacked and mooning over two men. Not even the love triangle could save this for me though. Her other love interest was a person who had guarded her mother and her from the time she was a baby. Creepy, gross, and he was also bland as a love interest. There was a lot of yearning with no chemistry.

So ultimately this didn't really work for me, but paranormal romance fans may find more to like here. Erin A. Craig fans will likely love this.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

this is a gripping tale of love, freedom, and survival set in a secluded village surrounded by deadly creatures and a mysterious curse. Greer Mackenzie, a mapmaker, is determined to rescue her beloved Ellis after he vanishes beyond the town’s protective barriers, leading her on a perilous journey through treacherous wilderness. As she battles both monsters and the dark truths of her town's origins, Greer embarks on a brave quest to reclaim her love and her future.

This story was unique, enthralling, exciting and left me wanting more in the end. That being said, I loved it… I just wish things had gone a bit differently so there could be a sequel. Maybe there still could be? This is so worth a read… it was mysterious, romantic at times and different than anything else I have read. I devoured it! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this as an arc.

A Land So Wide draws to mind the stories of pioneers, if they had been victim to supernatural forces rather than the dangers of the wild. A blend of romance, mystery, and horror, the story is brief but engaging. I felt as if I could see the characters and the setting. Knowing that Erin Craig sometimes kills her darlings made me wary that at any time she might kill off Ellis, who I adored as a character. I did find the "big twist" about Greer to be somewhat predictable, but not in a bad way. As I read, the idea of a village so cut off and trapped made me shiver, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, waiting for something bad to happen. I was pleasantly surprised that my favorites make it through, though not exactly safe and sound.

Eerie and compelling, A Land So Wide follows Greer Mackenzie in her life as a citizen of Mistaken, a town kept safe from monsters by keeping everyone within its limits each night, with grave consequences for those outside the border as night falls.

I really enjoyed this novel, with the dark and twisty folktale vibe and Greer’s journey. Secrets and mystery abound throughout and while I figured out some surprises, others kept me guessing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been staring at my phone for 5 minutes trying to find words to describe A Land So Wide. All I can say it’s a must read on September 9th!!

Erin Craig did it again, with her first adult fiction book has my mind blown away! I was on the edge of my seat wanting to keep reading more and before I knew it I was at “the end.”

Erin A. Craig has quickly become one of my automatic buy-the-book authors. I often find myself craving eerie, unsettling, and haunting reads—and she’s the one I reach for during those moods. I already own and adore her debut novel, so when I saw her newest release on NetGalley and was approved to review it, I was thrilled. A sincere thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was immediately intrigued by the premise and especially the setting: a tiny town in the bleak Canadian wilderness, surrounded by massive trees and reliant on the mysterious “Benevolence” for survival? Sold. The atmosphere was incredibly immersive, particularly in the first half of the book, which focuses on Mistaken—the town—and its customs, its people, and our introduction to Greer and Ellis. But around the 40% mark, Craig expertly shifts the story’s scale. The small, quiet town unravels into something much more vast, strange, and sinister, pulling both the reader and the protagonist into a darker mystery.

That said, I did struggle with the protagonist, Greer. Though she’s twenty-seven, she often read much younger—still living at home, afraid of her father, and navigating a romance that felt more like a teenage first love than a grown adult relationship. Her handling of conflict and her wide-eyed belief that love could magically fix everything made it hard to fully believe her age. I understand that grief and trauma can cause arrested development, especially under a controlling parent, but her character could have used more depth and maturity. Personally, I would have also liked to see her end up with someone else.

One element I really appreciated was how Craig blended supernatural horror and Mythology with very real threats—harsh cold, dangerous terrain, wolves, and even men. These grounded elements added tension and realism to the story in unexpected ways.

Overall, I’m giving this a 4/5. While I had a few personal nitpicks, once I got into the story, I devoured it. Erin A. Craig continues to deliver atmospheric, haunting tales, and I’m so grateful I got to read this one early.

I was thrilled to be approved for this ARC, because I was incredibly excited for the premise and especially the setting--a tiny town in the bleak Canadian wilderness, surrounded by enormous trees that bleed red and wholly dependent on the goodwill of some vague Benevolence for survival? Sold. The setting really was excellent and enjoyable to read about, particularly in the first half of the book that takes place in Mistaken rather than in the wilderness outside of it, but the execution of the premise and the characters unfortunately didn't work for me, as much as I was hoping they would.

A Land So Wide is the author's adult debut, and throughout the book I frequently found myself wondering why that choice was made. Not only would this book have worked just fine as a YA (there was one brief sex dream scene that could easily have been removed, and no other adult content), but I really think that the characterizations and dialogue would have worked better that way, I felt from very early on that our protagonist Greer felt significantly younger than her stated age of 27 to me—she’s still living at home, acting like a frightened child around her father, and her romance also reads very much like a high school first love situation that hasn’t really blossomed into an adult relationship yet. In particular, I felt like the “had to wait extra seven years to get married” aspect was really glossed over, as was Greer having to live in a tension-filled house with her abusive father for that long—in real life, that would be absolutely torturous to go through, and Greer's reactions just didn't feel true to that. Having her be a younger YA protagonist would have actually made the emotional stakes of the story match her reaction more closely--as is, she comes off emotionally disconnected from Ellis and incredibly timid, not at all like a woman who's really ready to set out on a journey in pursuit of the life she wants for herself.

As I mentioned earlier, the setting in the first half of the book is much stronger, and I think the pacing also suffered significantly once we followed Greer past the Warding Stones and into the wilderness outside Mistaken's borders. While I expected the story to really take off at this point, instead we kept getting lengthy descriptions of Greer's thought processes beat-for-beat, including her misinterpreting things, reacting to what she thought had happened, and then correcting herself and reacting to what actually happened. I was frustrated every time this happened--I think it was meant to disorient the reader, the way that the woods can disorient you, but it also had the effect of slowing the plot to a crawl and making Greer seem less intelligent than we're told she is (and again, much younger). That said, I did really like in this section of the book that the monsters that have terrorized Mistaken and other settlements aren’t the only source of danger--Greer faces just as much peril from things like the cold, running water, wolves, men, and other real-life dangerous aspects of the woods, which was unexpected and helped ground the story more.

Beyond the pacing issue, the first and second halves of the book also felt really disjointed, almost like entirely separate stories—we get so much set-up about Mistaken, its people, and the way life works there, and very little of it ends up mattering or paying off. Similarly, Greer's characterization doesn't really "stick" throughout the story--she doesn’t seem to miss her friend or grieve any part of her old life, she doesn’t continue making maps or rely on that mapmaking background to help her in her journey in more than a superficial way. Especially when I compared what we knew about Mistaken to the very little detail we get about the rest of the world (except that it’s incredibly dangerous and lonely in comparison), I found myself thinking that while I understand why Greer would want to leave Mistaken, I wasn't convinced that she really wanted to go anywhere else. Unfortunately, this also had the effect of making the world feel very small and limited, which was not what I wanted from a book about a tiny town in an endless wilderness. I don't think it helped that her relationship with Ellis seemed so underdeveloped--as Greer encountered more obstacles in her journey, I just found myself thinking that I didn't buy that she actually loved him enough to do this, or that they were clear enough on the life they wanted together that it made sense for her to risk her life for it. (And Ellis wasn't the only character whose bond with Greer felt underdeveloped--I felt similarly about her friend at home, her father, and the new characters were who introduced after she leaves Mistaken.)

I won't say too much about the direction the plot takes towards the end of the book, except to saw that I did consistently see the plots twists coming and unfortunately felt like the way the storyline wrapped up was overly contrived and didn't feel especially "earned." While there were several moments where it felt like Greer was really in danger, they were always resolved too quickly and far too easily for my taste, with little emotional resonance as a result (even in moments that felt like they were meant to be emotional climaxes of the book). Overall, the main thing that the book had going for it was that the general idea/vibes/setting were so compelling that I really wanted this book to be more enjoyable to me than it was. While I do think that counts for something, the plot and characters unfortunately didn't live up to the potential I thought this book had.

Erin A. Craig has quickly become one of my favourite authors. I often find myself craving an eerie, unsettling, haunting book, and she is the author I gravitate toward the most during these periods. The downside is that I have already read and reread all of her previous novels, so imagine my excitement when I discovered that her new novel was on NetGalley and that I had been approved to review it. A very heartfelt thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed A Land So Wide. I had read a few reviews from readers who felt the first half was strong but thought the second half fell flat. Personally, I had the opposite experience. I felt the book had a slow start, introducing us to the protagonist Greer, to Ellis, and to their town and traditions. But after the 40 percent mark, Erin A. Craig expands this quiet little town into something much larger and more haunting, completely upending everything we thought we (and the protagonist) knew.

I think the plot is perfectly crafted, even if it is a little tamer and not quite as creepy as her previous young adult novels. Her writing, as always, is exquisite, though I did find the first two chapters a bit strange in tone. Perhaps she was feeling slightly hesitant about building a new world or writing her first adult novel. Whatever the reason, after those initial chapters, her signature style returns in full force, flowing naturally from page to page.

However, there is one element that I did not love and feel I have to mention. Greer, the protagonist, is twenty-seven years old, but she often does not act her age. At times, she comes across as immature and overly naïve, especially in how she handles conflict with her best friend and in her belief that simply loving Ellis, and (maybe) being loved in return, will solve all their problems. Her character could have used a bit more refinement in this regard.

Overall, I must say that Erin A. Craig has a rare gift for crafting stories that are both haunting and breathtakingly beautiful. Her writing feels like stepping into a dark fairytale: lyrical, eerie, and utterly unforgettable. There’s a quiet kind of magic in the way she captures the unsettling and makes it exquisite, and I know I’ll return to her stories again and again.

A Land So Wide is a captivating read that will appeal to fans of gothic fantasy and folklore-inspired tales. Its rich setting and emotional depth make it a noteworthy addition to Craig's body of work.

This honestly would have been a five star read if the setting, vibes, etc. would have stayed the same throughout the whole book. The first half was soooo good! It was eerie and I loved the folklore, setting, and weird characters within this small town.

The second half is where it began to lose me. I’m not going to go into the specifics because of spoilers, but it started to drag a bit. The ending didn’t feel as satisfying as other Erin A. Craig books either.

Erin A. Craig is still an auto-buy author for me, but this did end up being my least favorite book out of everything she has written.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pantheon for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3/5 ⭐️

2.5 stars rounded up

I am not exactly sure what to say about this book. The first 50% felt so unique and fun and intriguing. I loved that we had a mature couple and the unique world building was very fun!! I loved the creepy dangerous atmosphere and then we got to the 50% mark and the 2nd half felt like an entirely different book.

Now I love a good journey in a story, and I love role reversals, but what I didn't love was the random love triangle thrown in and suddenly she was an heiress to this kingdom of monsters. It just felt so out of place and not convincing at all...I did not care for Finn and that way that he just died??? I question his purpose just the same as the main character. Also his love and lust for her coming from a promise her mom made him??? Not super into it...

Then the ending came and went so insignificantly just as Finn. I stopped and thought "Oh that's all. A screamed indused mine collapse? Did no one check to see if anyone survived?" Very confusing. There was so much I liked and so much I didn't like so that is why I'm giving a lower rating.. It was fine but yeah just didn't go where I wanted it to...

Another excellent interpretation of folklore by Erin Craig! Loved the use of Scottish folk legends and I felt the story flowed so well. A great mix of horror and mystery. The Village meets Let the Right One In in the best way!

The synopsis of this book had me HOOKED, I simply had to get my hands on an ARC. In theory, I should EAT this eerie, haunting, mysterious, occult story right up. But alas, I fear it fell flat.

Greer Mackenzie has always dreamed of life outside the borders of her seemingly cursed village; Mistaken. A village protected by stones that violently pull you into the town's borders before sunset. All she’s known is her village, the redcaps, the warding stones, The Benevolence, and The Bright Eyeds. The warding stones symbolize protection, peace, and a truce between the inhabitants of Mistaken and The Benvolence. But something has disrupted the peace, and the Warding Stones are moving, and with them, the Bright Eyeds are slowly closing in. On the day Greer is to become engaged to her longtime love Ellis, as she waits for him earnestly so that he may find her and they may FINALLY be together, Greer sees something impossible. She watches Ellis cross the border after sunset, and something’s stalking him. Greer must find a way to escape the hold of the Warding Stones, cross the border of Mistaken, and find Ellis before it’s too late. She must gain the favor of The Benevolence and venture into uncharted territory, without the protection of the warding stones.

This book had my undivided attention for the first 60% of the story. It was beautifully atmospheric with the creeping redcap trees and the ever-lurking doom of Mistaken. Gothically occult and immersive, with haunting Scottish folklore woven into the fibers of this story. I felt that I was a villager stuck with Greer in Mistaken, too nervous to stray too far without my newfound friends. I watched in horror as the consequences of the warding stones moving played out before my eyes. My skin crawled at the descriptions of the bodily horrors done by the Bright Eyeds. I held my breath as I watched with Greer as Ellis crossed the border.

So what happened with the last 40%?? I’m not sure. The story started moving quickly, too quickly. As if we were trying to wrap things up and tie it up with a pretty bow. I felt completely disconnected from the story and the characters. Things happened that should have made me feel sad and heartbroken, and instead, I felt nothing. The last 40% read so much like YA, which in and of itself is not bad, but when the first 60% read like adult fiction, something is wrong. The first 60% read beautifully, in detail, hauntingly thrilling, and gory. The last 40% was flat, rushed, and lacked dimension on both characters and the world-building. I was a bit disappointed but may still give this author another try :)

thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

A solid 4/5 stars. Erin is incredibly talented as a writer and while it was good, it slightly missed the mark for me. Loved the atmospheric setting and prose though.

Thank you for NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This book follows Greer, a 27-year-old woman, who ventures into the woods to save the man she's about to marry.

The atmosphere in this book is so impeccable. It took a long time for Greer to start her journey, but I didn't mind it because I just loved reading this book even when nothing was happening yet. I highlighted so many passages in this that I just loved.

I wish the pacing of the book was a little better, I wanted the story to breathe a little bit at the end.

This will definitely be a book that I'll think about and a book that I'll reread. The atmosphere and the writing were so beautiful and magical.

This book would be good for readers who love The Bear and The Nightingale.

As others have said, the first have of this book is great – the isolated town, the mysterious stones, the weird backstory and the love story of Greer and Ellis. The scenery and the woods are wonderful, the mapmaking and the desire for adventure while knowing you can never leave is heartbreaking. But the second half was not as engaging. When it’s just Greer on her own and the only other character is a fairly nice blood sucking creature, the intensity didn’t ramp up for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this DRC.
#ALandSoWide #NetGalley

Erin A. Craig is an auto-buy author for me as I have loved all of her work that I've read so far. I was so excited and grateful to receive an ARC for A Land So Wide. Similar to Small Favors, this story takes place in a small, isolated village but that's pretty much where the similarities end. This story takes place in the town of Mistaken which sits protected behind magical Warding Stones to keep dangerous creatures out. The main character, Greer, is 27 and hoping to very soon marry her love, Ellis. When the Warding Stones move in the night and then her lover disappears past the stones, she is determined to go after him. This story is captivating with more history given bit by bit as the main story unfolds. Often while reading, I can guess what the outcome is going to be in the story, but at no point did I know what was going to happen next while reading A Land So Wide, to the point where I wasn't even sure what to hope for or who to root for at some points. And believe me, I've had my heart ripped out by Erin A. Crag before! So I knew to expect the unexpected. And yet I was still up in the middle of the night, unable to put this down, on the edge of my seat. This story is marvelous and I could have read a whole series about Greer but also adored the ending.
Anyone new to Erin A. Craig, if you like the works of Ava Reid or Rebecca Ross, this book gives a lot of the same vibes. And of course, all of Erin A. Craig's other works are fabulous as well.

I want to start by saying that while I didn't personally LOVE this book, I did still enjoy the writing. As per usual, Erin Craig's prose is haunting in the best possible way.

A Land So Wide has a unique setting that made me really feel like I was a part of the scenery. The Canadian wilderness is so vast and untamed and I really felt she captured that perfectly.

I loved that Greer was in her late 20s, and I wanted so badly to root for her but unfortunately I just didn't feel much of a connection. It very much felt like I was reading a book and not actually living the story with her. I felt that some of the issues should have been obvious to her but time and time again she didn't see something coming that I would consider almost common sense. That's not to say that she didn't have her moments or bravery and courage because she had that in spades.

My main issue with the book was that while I loved the concept, the book was so short and there was so much world building that I felt by the time I was no longer getting blasted with information and the story could finally start, it was almost over.

While I may not recommend this book to everyone I know the way I do Craig's other works, I would recommend if you enjoy scenic writing, nature horror and world building.

I really wanted to love this one, especially since the foreword promised rich Scottish folklore, but truth be told, A Land So Wide has been my most disappointing read of 2025 (so far). Not only did it feel like a two- or three-book project that faltered and was condensed down, resulting in wildly uneven pacing and a jarringly quick resolution, but it was, at least to me, clearly a YA novel.

I adore YA and still read lots of it at my big age of 34. A Land So Wide makes sense if Greer, our protagonist, is a teenager. I would have had empathy for her struggles with identity, cheered for her rebellion against her father and the societal expectations, and believed in her love story. Unfortunately, Greer is supposed to be an entire 27 human years old. In the book's time period, she wouldn’t just be a spinster, she’d be a thornback (no shade, so am I) and yet she is an object of desire to the young men in her town, is treated like and refered to as a young girl by adults, and consistently makes the the kinds of decisions you’d expect from someone without a fully-formed frontal lobe.

Let me say again: there is nothing wrong with YA literature. If A Land So Wide has been marketed as such, I would have given it a higher rating. Also, there were things that worked here: I was riveted by the concept and drawn in by the strangeness of the setting and the cult-y vibes of the townsfolk, but this is not a novel about adults for adults.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.