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A Woman in the Wild
A Woman in the Wild is a revealing and memorable portrait of a woman boldly facing her demons in pursuit of a meaningful life.
A psychologist in crisis leaves her established practice in the city for an open-ended retreat in the mountains at the Institute for Healing and Transformation. Feeling lost, betrayed, and stricken by guilt not to have saved her daughter from sexual abuse, she hopes to find a new path to ease her pain and uncertainties.
Soon after her arrival, a “wild” man who roamed the forest with a bear is brought to the institute. When the man is given to her care, she performs a suspenseful balancing as she seeks to heal him as well as herself.
Hiking and meditating each day, she initiates an inner journey that shakes her free from the familiar. As the months pass, she engages her guilt and sorrow, confronts her failures, weighs the limits of therapy and self-forgiveness, and seeks to unleash the healing powers of the unconscious and of love.
Readers will find this an absorbing and dramatic novel of abuse, resilience, and the quest for transformation.
A psychologist in crisis leaves her established practice in the city for an open-ended retreat in the mountains at the Institute for Healing and Transformation. Feeling lost, betrayed, and stricken by guilt not to have saved her daughter from sexual abuse, she hopes to find a new path to ease her pain and uncertainties.
Soon after her arrival, a “wild” man who roamed the forest with a bear is brought to the institute. When the man is given to her care, she performs a suspenseful balancing as she seeks to heal him as well as herself.
Hiking and meditating each day, she initiates an inner journey that shakes her free from the familiar. As the months pass, she engages her guilt and sorrow, confronts her failures, weighs the limits of therapy and self-forgiveness, and seeks to unleash the healing powers of the unconscious and of love.
Readers will find this an absorbing and dramatic novel of abuse, resilience, and the quest for transformation.
- GenresLiterary Fiction
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 6, 2025
95 people are currently reading
1313 people want to read
About the author
Tad Crawford
86 books80 followersMy new novel, A Woman in the Wild, has just been published by Arcade Publishing (distributed by Simon & Schuster).
The novel tells of Thea, a psychologist in crisis who leaves her established practice in the city for an open-ended retreat in the mountains at the Institute for Healing and Transformation. Feeling lost, betrayed, and stricken by guilt not to have saved her daughter from sexual abuse, she hopes to find a new path to ease her pain and uncertainties. Soon after her arrival, a “wild” man who roamed the forest with a bear is brought to the institute. When the man is given to her care, she performs a suspenseful balancing as she seeks to heal him as well as herself. Hiking and meditating each day, she initiates an inner journey that shakes her free from the familiar. As the months pass, she engages her guilt and sorrow, confronts her failures, weighs the limits of therapy and self-forgiveness, and seeks to unleash the healing powers of the unconscious and of love.
I'm happy to do book clubs and library talks about the novel.
The novel tells of Thea, a psychologist in crisis who leaves her established practice in the city for an open-ended retreat in the mountains at the Institute for Healing and Transformation. Feeling lost, betrayed, and stricken by guilt not to have saved her daughter from sexual abuse, she hopes to find a new path to ease her pain and uncertainties. Soon after her arrival, a “wild” man who roamed the forest with a bear is brought to the institute. When the man is given to her care, she performs a suspenseful balancing as she seeks to heal him as well as herself. Hiking and meditating each day, she initiates an inner journey that shakes her free from the familiar. As the months pass, she engages her guilt and sorrow, confronts her failures, weighs the limits of therapy and self-forgiveness, and seeks to unleash the healing powers of the unconscious and of love.
I'm happy to do book clubs and library talks about the novel.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 16, 2025
I won this book in one of the giveaways here on goodreads. Honestly, it was a hard read for me to get into. I did not enjoy the way the lead female character was portrayed and lack of character development.
January 6, 2026
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I had never heard of this book before but after reading the blurb I was intrigued. The book covers may difficult themes and really pulled at my heartstrings a few times. I found myself really getting into the story and having to find out how it would end.
I would rate the book 3.5 stars but I’m rounding up to 4 because it definitely made me think about a few things. My only complaint is that I felt like I didn’t get the closure I wanted for the characters and the ending just kind of fell flat for me.
Thank you so much to the publisher for a copy of this book.
I had never heard of this book before but after reading the blurb I was intrigued. The book covers may difficult themes and really pulled at my heartstrings a few times. I found myself really getting into the story and having to find out how it would end.
I would rate the book 3.5 stars but I’m rounding up to 4 because it definitely made me think about a few things. My only complaint is that I felt like I didn’t get the closure I wanted for the characters and the ending just kind of fell flat for me.
Thank you so much to the publisher for a copy of this book.
June 28, 2025
Freeing tale
A deep look into family drama, pain and love. Set in a calming setting for characters to evolve and settle their regrets or pain.
A deep look into family drama, pain and love. Set in a calming setting for characters to evolve and settle their regrets or pain.
August 18, 2025
2.5 Stars
The novel follows Thea, a woman processing her pain after failing to protect her daughter and struggling to accept that her daughter no longer wants her in her life. Much of the book takes place inside Thea’s head. The narration is heavy on inner dialogue, often circling around the same emotions, fears, and reflections. While this could have been powerful, it left the pacing feeling stagnant. A lot is said, but not much is actually said.
Conversations are sparse and lack depth. Most dialogue consists of simple questions with simple answers, and when Thea is faced with a deeper question, she often dodges it by retreating into her journal. Even her journaling rarely reveals much. Characters are written as though they are enlightened guides, but their words do not carry any weight or lead to growth.
The prose is extremely descriptive. Sometimes it is beautiful, but often it is overly detailed. Every object, no matter how small or ordinary, is given extended description, which slowed the story without adding much. By page 85, I found myself still waiting for the plot to move forward.
The relationship between Thea and the administrator was especially unsettling to me in how it was portrayed. It added to my sense that the characters lacked genuine depth or believable motivations.
The most significant turn in the book comes when Thea encounters the Wild Man, a mysterious figure brought to the institute where she is staying for her healing retreat. She feels an immediate connection to him and longs to heal him, and through this, combined with hiking and meditation, she begins to face her guilt and grief more directly.
Despite this development, the overall story still felt hollow. The themes are important ones: family trauma, love, loss, and the attempt to move forward. But I found the delivery bland and the characters flat. The message seems to be that healing can be found through connection with others, time in nature, and self-acceptance, but for me, the emotional impact did not land.
The novel follows Thea, a woman processing her pain after failing to protect her daughter and struggling to accept that her daughter no longer wants her in her life. Much of the book takes place inside Thea’s head. The narration is heavy on inner dialogue, often circling around the same emotions, fears, and reflections. While this could have been powerful, it left the pacing feeling stagnant. A lot is said, but not much is actually said.
Conversations are sparse and lack depth. Most dialogue consists of simple questions with simple answers, and when Thea is faced with a deeper question, she often dodges it by retreating into her journal. Even her journaling rarely reveals much. Characters are written as though they are enlightened guides, but their words do not carry any weight or lead to growth.
The prose is extremely descriptive. Sometimes it is beautiful, but often it is overly detailed. Every object, no matter how small or ordinary, is given extended description, which slowed the story without adding much. By page 85, I found myself still waiting for the plot to move forward.
The relationship between Thea and the administrator was especially unsettling to me in how it was portrayed. It added to my sense that the characters lacked genuine depth or believable motivations.
The most significant turn in the book comes when Thea encounters the Wild Man, a mysterious figure brought to the institute where she is staying for her healing retreat. She feels an immediate connection to him and longs to heal him, and through this, combined with hiking and meditation, she begins to face her guilt and grief more directly.
Despite this development, the overall story still felt hollow. The themes are important ones: family trauma, love, loss, and the attempt to move forward. But I found the delivery bland and the characters flat. The message seems to be that healing can be found through connection with others, time in nature, and self-acceptance, but for me, the emotional impact did not land.
September 10, 2025
I haven’t really read a book like this before. It was so internal, a true woman vs self story, that allowed the reader to follow the main character, Thea, on an emotional journey of self discovery, healing, and forgiveness.
I was invested in her, and the surrounding characters.
I was invested in her, and the surrounding characters.
January 27, 2026
Thea Firth covers a lot of ground in Tad Crawford’s “A Woman in the Wild,” most of it within her own head. The grief-stricken protagonist of Mr. Crawford’s sensitive story has found herself hunkered down at a bucolic institute “for Healing and Transformation” deep in an unnamed forest. Accompanied by two staff members of vastly different ages and histories, Thea sets her sights on reintegrating a man returned from the wilderness (after, tellingly, nine months) back into society as she understands it. This “wild man,” Crawford writes, was “an aberration, an intrusion into the smooth working of the organism that is the institute.” Left mute and quasi-paralytic, the wild man is a synecdoche for the nature realm upon which the denizens of the institute project their fears and desires, all while Thea wonders, “could he really have shed millennia of human culture and development to return to this wild state?” Suffused with echoes of Mann’s The Magic Mountain and DeLillo’s The Body Artist (with not a few deft nods to Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s classic of psychological horror, “The Yellow Wallpaper”), Crawford’s novel succeeds as an examination of souls laid bare in nature, wrestling with their origins and the fates that glue them together.
“We are always at war with ourselves,” observes Andreas, the head of the institute and one of Thea’s sources of psychological guidance. The novel itself reflects this ongoing battle: Thea and her companions are ceaselessly threatened by the dark machinations of their unconscious minds. The spirt of Freud’s most enduring idea is indeed alive and well in Crawfordland, embodied by the silent “wild man” at the book’s center, a conduit between society and nature, light and dark, the conscious mind and its vast, uncanny undergirding. As she helps to “cure” the wild man and reflects on a shocking legacy of abuse in her own life and in the life of her peer, the enigmatic Mortiz, Thea begins to trace the outlines of a buried universal grief which unites all human beings. This universality, Crawford argues, is not easily accessible, Thea wondering “who could escape his own her own point of view?” Solipsism then, is in the novel’s crosshairs, Thea searching for not only a “dialogue of creation” but relief from what history has delivered to her via succor from the Other. Soon, the entire notion of a reliable “cure” is called into question.
If all of this sounds quite heavy, one needn’t fear. Crawford’s touch is light, even when his subject matter veers into the vile (there are not only references to sexual abuse but to historical devastation like the Holocaust). Disturbing subject matter is often balanced with breathtaking descriptions of nature. Soul-crushing trauma is likewise offset by glimpses of souls in harmony. Particularly stirring is an interlude in which Andreas describes to Thea how his soul intertwined with the freed soul of an older lover.
Readers eager to meditate on the shifting palimpsest of the mind and spirit need look no further than this majestic entry into nature writing/philosophy. Even if Crawford does not provide simple answers, the mere chance to explore some of our most enduring existential questions with such an adept guide at the helm is well worth the price of admission.
“We are always at war with ourselves,” observes Andreas, the head of the institute and one of Thea’s sources of psychological guidance. The novel itself reflects this ongoing battle: Thea and her companions are ceaselessly threatened by the dark machinations of their unconscious minds. The spirt of Freud’s most enduring idea is indeed alive and well in Crawfordland, embodied by the silent “wild man” at the book’s center, a conduit between society and nature, light and dark, the conscious mind and its vast, uncanny undergirding. As she helps to “cure” the wild man and reflects on a shocking legacy of abuse in her own life and in the life of her peer, the enigmatic Mortiz, Thea begins to trace the outlines of a buried universal grief which unites all human beings. This universality, Crawford argues, is not easily accessible, Thea wondering “who could escape his own her own point of view?” Solipsism then, is in the novel’s crosshairs, Thea searching for not only a “dialogue of creation” but relief from what history has delivered to her via succor from the Other. Soon, the entire notion of a reliable “cure” is called into question.
If all of this sounds quite heavy, one needn’t fear. Crawford’s touch is light, even when his subject matter veers into the vile (there are not only references to sexual abuse but to historical devastation like the Holocaust). Disturbing subject matter is often balanced with breathtaking descriptions of nature. Soul-crushing trauma is likewise offset by glimpses of souls in harmony. Particularly stirring is an interlude in which Andreas describes to Thea how his soul intertwined with the freed soul of an older lover.
Readers eager to meditate on the shifting palimpsest of the mind and spirit need look no further than this majestic entry into nature writing/philosophy. Even if Crawford does not provide simple answers, the mere chance to explore some of our most enduring existential questions with such an adept guide at the helm is well worth the price of admission.
October 30, 2025
Tad Crawford’s A Woman in the Wild is a story of lives torn apart by guilt, betrayal, and devastating loss. At its center is Thea, a woman burdened by the unbearable guilt of not protecting her daughter from abuse. Thea’s journey is a blend of wilderness, meditation, confession, and the painstaking process of owning those buried truths.
Crawford’s writing shines most in his portrayal of nature. The wilderness is not a mere setting but a living, breathing force, shaping the characters’ inner and outer struggles. Nature becomes a participant in Thea’s transformation, guiding her toward understanding and, eventually, a fragile kind of peace.
This is not a light or easy read. Crawford does not shy away from subjects like abuse, guilt, regret, and loss, and the emotional weight of these themes lingers long after the final page. The character-driven narrative unfolds largely through introspection rather than dialogue, which can make the pacing feel heavy. Thea’s conversations with Andreas and Moritz are philosophical and spiritual. Those conversations present interesting ideology, and they created more questions than answers.
At times, the emotional journey of self-discovery, healing, and forgiveness is disturbing and difficult to witness—but it is also what makes the novel compelling. A Woman in the Wild is an interesting and thoughtful exploration of trauma and renewal, though its intensity and slow rhythm may not appeal to every reader. For those willing to sit with its discomfort and open-ended resolution, Crawford offers a powerful reminder that even in the darkest moments, there remains hope for renewal.
3.5 stars
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. For more reading recommendations, visit Book Junkie Reviews at
www.abookjunkiereviews.wordpress.com
Crawford’s writing shines most in his portrayal of nature. The wilderness is not a mere setting but a living, breathing force, shaping the characters’ inner and outer struggles. Nature becomes a participant in Thea’s transformation, guiding her toward understanding and, eventually, a fragile kind of peace.
This is not a light or easy read. Crawford does not shy away from subjects like abuse, guilt, regret, and loss, and the emotional weight of these themes lingers long after the final page. The character-driven narrative unfolds largely through introspection rather than dialogue, which can make the pacing feel heavy. Thea’s conversations with Andreas and Moritz are philosophical and spiritual. Those conversations present interesting ideology, and they created more questions than answers.
At times, the emotional journey of self-discovery, healing, and forgiveness is disturbing and difficult to witness—but it is also what makes the novel compelling. A Woman in the Wild is an interesting and thoughtful exploration of trauma and renewal, though its intensity and slow rhythm may not appeal to every reader. For those willing to sit with its discomfort and open-ended resolution, Crawford offers a powerful reminder that even in the darkest moments, there remains hope for renewal.
3.5 stars
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. For more reading recommendations, visit Book Junkie Reviews at
www.abookjunkiereviews.wordpress.com
September 21, 2025
n A Woman in the Wild, Tad Crawford swept me into the story of a psychologist who retreats to a mountain institute after her life is torn apart by guilt, betrayal, and devastating loss. She is carrying the unbearable weight of not protecting her daughter from abuse, and in her search for healing she finds herself responsible for a man who has been living in the forest with a bear. Watching her journey unfold felt both intimate and cinematic, a mix of wilderness walks, raw confessions, and the hard work of facing truths she had tried to bury. What struck me most was how the natural setting is not just a backdrop but an active force for transformation, almost like a character in its own right.
I will say this is not a light or easy read. Crawford does not shy away from abuse, guilt, sexual trauma, regret, or failure, and the weight of those themes lingers throughout the story. But instead of feeling exploitative, they are handled with real care and honesty, and that made me appreciate the journey even more. What I loved was the healing aspect, especially how nature played such a central role in it. The mountains, the quiet, and even the supporting characters felt alive and important to the process. This is a very character-driven novel, and I found myself caring about everyone involved. It left me believing that even in the heaviest of circumstances, there is a path toward renewal, and sometimes that path winds right through the wild.
I will say this is not a light or easy read. Crawford does not shy away from abuse, guilt, sexual trauma, regret, or failure, and the weight of those themes lingers throughout the story. But instead of feeling exploitative, they are handled with real care and honesty, and that made me appreciate the journey even more. What I loved was the healing aspect, especially how nature played such a central role in it. The mountains, the quiet, and even the supporting characters felt alive and important to the process. This is a very character-driven novel, and I found myself caring about everyone involved. It left me believing that even in the heaviest of circumstances, there is a path toward renewal, and sometimes that path winds right through the wild.
October 27, 2025
Thank you to Bobi Media and Arcade Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book! All thoughts/opinions are honest and my own.
This book was not what I expected. The synopsis is that a woman named Thea, who is a psychologist, leaves her own practice for a retreat at an institute for healing and transformation to confront her own demons. Not long after she arrives, a mysterious “wild” man who was living in the forest, with a bear, is brought in. When the man is given to Thea’s care, she is challenged with the task of healing him, as well as herself. She embarks on an inner journey that requires her to confront her failures, guilt, and personal desires.
While the premise of this book was intriguing, it fell a little flat. There were many themes and important topics touched on in the story, such as abuse, trauma, and growth, but were not explored to their full capacity. There is an entire background dynamic with Thea and her daughter that I would’ve liked to see resolved in some way. And the characters were very static. There wasn’t a ton of development of their stories; I wish there had been a more conclusive ending. It might intentionally be meant to be more philosophical, leaving you to your own thoughts and interpretations, but I wish there had been more of a definitive resolution. However, there were some good life lessons and wise quotes sprinkled throughout the story that I enjoyed as a positive takeaway.
This book was not what I expected. The synopsis is that a woman named Thea, who is a psychologist, leaves her own practice for a retreat at an institute for healing and transformation to confront her own demons. Not long after she arrives, a mysterious “wild” man who was living in the forest, with a bear, is brought in. When the man is given to Thea’s care, she is challenged with the task of healing him, as well as herself. She embarks on an inner journey that requires her to confront her failures, guilt, and personal desires.
While the premise of this book was intriguing, it fell a little flat. There were many themes and important topics touched on in the story, such as abuse, trauma, and growth, but were not explored to their full capacity. There is an entire background dynamic with Thea and her daughter that I would’ve liked to see resolved in some way. And the characters were very static. There wasn’t a ton of development of their stories; I wish there had been a more conclusive ending. It might intentionally be meant to be more philosophical, leaving you to your own thoughts and interpretations, but I wish there had been more of a definitive resolution. However, there were some good life lessons and wise quotes sprinkled throughout the story that I enjoyed as a positive takeaway.
January 19, 2026
I really wanted to like this book, especially when I continued reading to see how the relationship between the main character and her daughter would pan out. However, it was very hard to get into, and I wasn’t able to read it quickly or look forward to reading it. It fell flat and I’m still confused about the point of it. Unfortunately, I just did not grasp the message the author was trying to get across.
February 12, 2026
A book about accumulating devastating trauma in one's life and seeking a reset and redemption in nature. Be forewarned a story line does involve child abuse, which while not graphic, is still disturbing.
I think a lot more could have been done with this book and the storyline about the man in the wild who befriended a bear was an incredibly lost opportunity.
I think a lot more could have been done with this book and the storyline about the man in the wild who befriended a bear was an incredibly lost opportunity.
December 20, 2025
memorable
I absolutely loved this book. It was thought provoking about human characteristics and spirituality. A unique insight into differences often as a result of personal histories. A very refreshing read.
I absolutely loved this book. It was thought provoking about human characteristics and spirituality. A unique insight into differences often as a result of personal histories. A very refreshing read.
June 17, 2025
Very much dialogue. I gave up early on.
July 19, 2025
Chapter 27 was disturbing!
September 29, 2025
I can honestly say this is the hardest book I ever read, and I did finish it. Too much of the same over and over, and really no ending. I really disliked it.
January 15, 2026
This book wasn’t bad im giving it on 3.5
It does have so harder topics but still pretty good
It does have so harder topics but still pretty good
January 19, 2026
DNF - what is happening?
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews