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Wildwood Chronicles #1-3
Wildwood Chronicles 3-Book Box Set: Wildwood, Under Wildwood, Wildwood Imperium
For fans of the Chronicles of Narnia comes the Wildwood Chronicles, the New York Times bestselling fantasy adventure series by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists, and Carson Ellis, acclaimed illustrator of The Mysterious Benedict Society. This collection brings together all three novels, each replete with illustrations, including a number of gorgeous, full-color plates.
Wildwood: Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.
Under Wildwood: Ever since Prue returned home from the Impassable Wilderness after rescuing her brother from the malevolent Dowager Governess, life has been pretty dull. Her mind is constantly returning to the verdant groves and sky-tall trees of Wildwood. But all is not well in that world. Prue and her friend Curtis are thrown together again. To save themselves and the lives of their friends, they must go under Wildwood.
Wildwood Imperium: The fate of Wildwood hangs in the balance, as Prue and Curtis draw closer to their goal of bringing together a pair of exiled toy makers in order to reanimate a mechanical boy prince. . . .
Wildwood: Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.
Under Wildwood: Ever since Prue returned home from the Impassable Wilderness after rescuing her brother from the malevolent Dowager Governess, life has been pretty dull. Her mind is constantly returning to the verdant groves and sky-tall trees of Wildwood. But all is not well in that world. Prue and her friend Curtis are thrown together again. To save themselves and the lives of their friends, they must go under Wildwood.
Wildwood Imperium: The fate of Wildwood hangs in the balance, as Prue and Curtis draw closer to their goal of bringing together a pair of exiled toy makers in order to reanimate a mechanical boy prince. . . .
- GenresFantasyMiddle Grade
1760 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 2014
78 people are currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
Colin Meloy
19 books935 followersColin Patrick Henry Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland, Oregon folk-rock band The Decemberists. In addition to his vocal duties, he plays acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, and percussion. As of 2005, Meloy has written a 100-page book on The Replacements' fourth album, "Let It Be," released as part of the 33⅓ series.
Meloy was born in Helena, Montana. His sister is Maile Meloy, an author often published in The New Yorker. He first attended the University of Oregon before transferring to the University of Montana, where he majored in creative writing. He then moved to Portland, where he met future bandmates Jenny Conlee and Nate Query. Prior to being in The Decemberists, Meloy was the lead singer and songwriter of Happy Cactus and Tarkio, both indie/folk bands from Montana.
In early 2005, he embarked on his first solo tour in support of the self-released six-song EP, "Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey," which consists of six Morrissey covers. Only 1,000 copies of the album were made, and they were sold only on that tour. Meloy did a second solo tour in January 2006, playing with Laura Veirs and Amy Annelle. On this tour, he sold an EP featuring covers of British folk artist Shirley Collins. Shows from the 2006 tour were recorded for a live release. Meloy also appeared with Charlie Salas-Humara in the music video for "Pillar of Salt" by The Thermals.
On February 24, 2006, Carson Ellis, Meloy's longtime girlfriend and graphic artist for the Decemberists, gave birth to their son, Henry "Hank" Meloy.
Meloy was born in Helena, Montana. His sister is Maile Meloy, an author often published in The New Yorker. He first attended the University of Oregon before transferring to the University of Montana, where he majored in creative writing. He then moved to Portland, where he met future bandmates Jenny Conlee and Nate Query. Prior to being in The Decemberists, Meloy was the lead singer and songwriter of Happy Cactus and Tarkio, both indie/folk bands from Montana.
In early 2005, he embarked on his first solo tour in support of the self-released six-song EP, "Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey," which consists of six Morrissey covers. Only 1,000 copies of the album were made, and they were sold only on that tour. Meloy did a second solo tour in January 2006, playing with Laura Veirs and Amy Annelle. On this tour, he sold an EP featuring covers of British folk artist Shirley Collins. Shows from the 2006 tour were recorded for a live release. Meloy also appeared with Charlie Salas-Humara in the music video for "Pillar of Salt" by The Thermals.
On February 24, 2006, Carson Ellis, Meloy's longtime girlfriend and graphic artist for the Decemberists, gave birth to their son, Henry "Hank" Meloy.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 17, 2024
The first book by Colin Meloy I perused was The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid, a historical fiction middle grade novel set in 1960s France. I enjoyed his writing style as well as Carson Ellis' illustrations, so I hunted down more of their work. That led me to discover this modern-day middle grade fantasy/magical realism trilogy, Wildwood, which I had to read through twice to fully appreciate. But I'm glad I made the effort because this hefty trilogy, while not perfect, is still worth diving into.
The three novels that make up the Wildwood trilogy, which was penned by Colin Meloy (featuring illustrations by Carson Ellis), are Wildwood, Under Wildwood , and Wildwood Imperium. Plot-wise, the Wildwood trilogy focuses on two young protagonists, Prue and Curtis, who are classmates and semi-friends. One fateful day, Prue's baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows who carry him off into the forbidden Wildwood, an uncharted forest outside of the Portland, Oregon city limits. Seeing no choice but to rescue him from an unknown fate, Prue enters the Wildwood. By her side for part of the time is Curtis, who is eventually swept away under the guise of becoming a warrior. However, as Prue and Curtis soon learn, nothing is as it seems as they find themselves at the crux of a conflict that threatens to destroy Wildwood from the inside out.
For starters, the world of Wildwood is expansive and retains a sense of realism with its own sectors, kingdoms, communities, and governments. It operates like a sandbox environment where readers explore every nook and cranny right along with the main characters. (Though, admittedly, there are some portions one wouldn't want to traverse and for good reason!) I enjoyed the fact that much of the action in all three novels occurs outdoors. Natural settings are mercurial environments for characters to brave as they are not only subject to the whims of antagonists but also the whims of nature itself. Throw in fantastical creatures and malevolent magic, and you have the makings for a perilous landscape that is just as intriguing to engage as it is watching the characters interact with it.
The main characters throughout the trilogy are Prue and Curtis. They carry out their respective roles as protagonists fairly well and with a grounded mind for the most part. While they are still young (preteens, it seems), they at least assume some mature responsibilities and don't stand around waiting for someone to give them directions or do everything for them. Personality-wise, I did find some of their quirks off-putting (I'll get more into that later on), but, for the most part, you want them to both receive happy endings. Given these characters' ages, the books' lengths, and some of the general topics, I would place this trilogy as appealing to older middle grade while also crossing over into young YA territory.
Wildwood makes for meaty reading but therein might lie its biggest deterrent. While Wildwood seems justified in its length, Under Wildwood and Wildwood Imperium feel overly long as their respective plots drag with either repetitive situations or stalled action. All three of these novels are hefty tomes at close to 600 pages each. I have nothing against large books for the middle grade set, which is the target readership, but long books need to justify their length. A first book can afford to be a little longer as it's tasked with setting up the world and its characters. But the middle and final novels could have trimmed down some of the more repetitive moments and non-essential characters.
Another negative for me concerned Prue and Curtis themselves. To their credit, they are smart, capable kids who aren't perfect but at least try to do what's right. However, both of them harbor selfish steaks that, while make sense considering their age and developing maturity, sometimes cause them to be hard to root for. Prue risks her life to save her brother but often gives her parents (who seem like decent folks) the cold shoulder. Curtis essentially abandons his family so he can go stomping around Wildwood as a bandit-in-training. Again, his courage is admirable, but at times he comes across a bit foolhardy and uncaring towards his family back home. So sometimes Prue's and Curtis' collective selfishness and occasional whiny banter slightly grated on my nerves.
Along these lines, Wildwood echoes an issue I had with Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events in that it is rare to find a genuinely smart, kind, good-willed grown up among the predominantly youthful cast (if one excludes the animal characters, who have indeterminate ages). While most of the adults in Wildwood have some semblance of a working brain, they are generally depicted as unhelpful, cowardly, or villainous. Even Prue's parents are depicted as weak-willed and Curtis' parents make nary an appearance. Other adult characters are either overt antagonists or else start out heroic then allow themselves to be corrupted or controlled by evil forces. Thus, an underlying message is that adults are untrustworthy and suspect by virtue of being a grown-up, which isn't a positive or realistic portrayal of adults.
Lastly, the trilogy takes blink-and-miss jabs at capitalism and industrialization as ills of society. This becomes more evident in the second and third installments (Under Wildwood and Wildwood Imperium) where some so-called captains of industry come into play as villains. Capitalism, industrialization, and urbanization are caricatured to be gross sins against nature, and are, thus, evil by default. Likewise, the concept of healthy business competition is exaggerated into an evil force that threatens to consume the world and make people mindless drones. Seeing as this trilogy targets a middle grade audience, less-than-subtle messages such as these seem out of place. While kids probably won't catch on, adults who peruse this trilogy will easily detect that the author had an agenda he sought to bring across, which is disruptive to the story.
Concerning the series entries themselves, Wildwood serves as a strong opener, introducing readers to Prue and Curtis, who each come to find themselves lost in the expanse of Wildwood. Prue sets out to rescue her baby brother from the clutches of kidnapping crows, which leads her to uncover an entire world just beyond her backyard. Here, she meets fellow classmate, Curtis, who decides to accompany her. What unfolds is a modern day Narnia-esque tale set in a mysterious, sinister, woods filled with talking beasts, birds, and all sorts of magical persons. In the end, Curtis and Prue find themselves on opposite ends of an age-old conflict among the persons of the woods and an evil queen. The story is rife with fun twists and turns, and, as a whole, this first novel is a good story that can both stand on its own as well as set the stage for the series' macro-plot.
The follow-up novel, Under Wildwood, crafts another self-contained tale focusing on the aftermath of Prue's and Curtis' actions in the first book (specifically the Bicycle Rebellion, as it's called). Political turmoil, dark magic, and crafty assassins abound and shadow every step Prue and Curtis make. One such nefarious force follows Prue into the mundane world before she is whisked away to the relative "safety" of Wildwood. But there is no true safe haven here as the forces of good, evil, and in-between are preparing to clash. For Curtis, he has chosen not to return to his family but remain among the bandits who live in Wildwood. For a time he thinks it's all fun and games, but he soon realizes the conflict is more than imaginary. This time, Prue's and Curtis' plots are hedged by a parallel story focused on two sisters, Elsie and Rachel, who have been handed off by their parents to the care of an orphanage as a fill-in babysitter. Suspicions about the nature of the orphanage transform into sinister realities, and the sisters plot their escape. Many second books suffer from the sophomore slump, but Under Wildwood, like its predecessor, holds its own and offers up a perilous tale that drags its feet at times but stays mostly on track.
Lastly, Wildwood Imperium closes out the trilogy and serves as a satisfying ending. Prue's and Curtis' plotlines clash and eventually crash into Elsie's and Rachel's stories as well as the various subplots of their orphanage friends. Hovering like a presence behind the scenes is the ghost of a deadly foe who, if resurrected, will spell the ruin of Wildwood and the world beyond. Together, Prue, Curtis, Elsie, Rachel, and their allies must keep their enemy at bay by creating the very thing their enemy wants - a long-lost loved one brought back to life. While the extension of some plot elements from the previous installments (Under Wildwood in particular) makes this final novel feel overstuffed and busy at times, Wildwood Imperium still serves as a solid closer and wraps up most of the sundry plots with a sense of finality.
Overall, the Wildwood trilogy is an impressive middle grade fantasy/magical realism series that offers up an expansive world. While its lead characters aren't perfect, Prue and Curtis still make for an interesting heroic duo. Along these lines, while the books' lengths and disingenuous nods towards grown ups and capitalism stain an otherwise engaging tale, the Wildwood trilogy makes for entertaining reading, especially for fans of hefty fantasy adventures.
Content:
Language - Minor, PG-level profanities (chiefly damn and some religious exclamations) are uttered by characters, including teen/kid characters, but their usage is sporadic.
Violence - Most of the violence involves magic or weapons (chiefly swords). Injuries either are implied or described with minimal details. Some perilous situations, from large-scale battles to fires, imply mass causalities. In the second novel, part of the action shifts to an orphanage that doubles as a workhouse employing children as laborers. While the children aren't abused, they are subjected to adverse working conditions and forced to work long hours. In the third novel, two characters conduct a seance and summon a ghost who compels one of the girls to collect three items that will bring it back to power. There are also minor creep factor elements throughout, such as one character who becomes controlled by a fungus that enters through the nose and attaches itself to the brain and talk of how a mechanical child was created using the teeth of the deceased child it is modeled after. Lastly, a character is almost sacrificed to magical ivy that will drain its blood, but the character is rescued in time and unharmed.
Sexual Content - None.
The three novels that make up the Wildwood trilogy, which was penned by Colin Meloy (featuring illustrations by Carson Ellis), are Wildwood, Under Wildwood , and Wildwood Imperium. Plot-wise, the Wildwood trilogy focuses on two young protagonists, Prue and Curtis, who are classmates and semi-friends. One fateful day, Prue's baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows who carry him off into the forbidden Wildwood, an uncharted forest outside of the Portland, Oregon city limits. Seeing no choice but to rescue him from an unknown fate, Prue enters the Wildwood. By her side for part of the time is Curtis, who is eventually swept away under the guise of becoming a warrior. However, as Prue and Curtis soon learn, nothing is as it seems as they find themselves at the crux of a conflict that threatens to destroy Wildwood from the inside out.
For starters, the world of Wildwood is expansive and retains a sense of realism with its own sectors, kingdoms, communities, and governments. It operates like a sandbox environment where readers explore every nook and cranny right along with the main characters. (Though, admittedly, there are some portions one wouldn't want to traverse and for good reason!) I enjoyed the fact that much of the action in all three novels occurs outdoors. Natural settings are mercurial environments for characters to brave as they are not only subject to the whims of antagonists but also the whims of nature itself. Throw in fantastical creatures and malevolent magic, and you have the makings for a perilous landscape that is just as intriguing to engage as it is watching the characters interact with it.
The main characters throughout the trilogy are Prue and Curtis. They carry out their respective roles as protagonists fairly well and with a grounded mind for the most part. While they are still young (preteens, it seems), they at least assume some mature responsibilities and don't stand around waiting for someone to give them directions or do everything for them. Personality-wise, I did find some of their quirks off-putting (I'll get more into that later on), but, for the most part, you want them to both receive happy endings. Given these characters' ages, the books' lengths, and some of the general topics, I would place this trilogy as appealing to older middle grade while also crossing over into young YA territory.
Wildwood makes for meaty reading but therein might lie its biggest deterrent. While Wildwood seems justified in its length, Under Wildwood and Wildwood Imperium feel overly long as their respective plots drag with either repetitive situations or stalled action. All three of these novels are hefty tomes at close to 600 pages each. I have nothing against large books for the middle grade set, which is the target readership, but long books need to justify their length. A first book can afford to be a little longer as it's tasked with setting up the world and its characters. But the middle and final novels could have trimmed down some of the more repetitive moments and non-essential characters.
Another negative for me concerned Prue and Curtis themselves. To their credit, they are smart, capable kids who aren't perfect but at least try to do what's right. However, both of them harbor selfish steaks that, while make sense considering their age and developing maturity, sometimes cause them to be hard to root for. Prue risks her life to save her brother but often gives her parents (who seem like decent folks) the cold shoulder. Curtis essentially abandons his family so he can go stomping around Wildwood as a bandit-in-training. Again, his courage is admirable, but at times he comes across a bit foolhardy and uncaring towards his family back home. So sometimes Prue's and Curtis' collective selfishness and occasional whiny banter slightly grated on my nerves.
Along these lines, Wildwood echoes an issue I had with Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events in that it is rare to find a genuinely smart, kind, good-willed grown up among the predominantly youthful cast (if one excludes the animal characters, who have indeterminate ages). While most of the adults in Wildwood have some semblance of a working brain, they are generally depicted as unhelpful, cowardly, or villainous. Even Prue's parents are depicted as weak-willed and Curtis' parents make nary an appearance. Other adult characters are either overt antagonists or else start out heroic then allow themselves to be corrupted or controlled by evil forces. Thus, an underlying message is that adults are untrustworthy and suspect by virtue of being a grown-up, which isn't a positive or realistic portrayal of adults.
Lastly, the trilogy takes blink-and-miss jabs at capitalism and industrialization as ills of society. This becomes more evident in the second and third installments (Under Wildwood and Wildwood Imperium) where some so-called captains of industry come into play as villains. Capitalism, industrialization, and urbanization are caricatured to be gross sins against nature, and are, thus, evil by default. Likewise, the concept of healthy business competition is exaggerated into an evil force that threatens to consume the world and make people mindless drones. Seeing as this trilogy targets a middle grade audience, less-than-subtle messages such as these seem out of place. While kids probably won't catch on, adults who peruse this trilogy will easily detect that the author had an agenda he sought to bring across, which is disruptive to the story.
Concerning the series entries themselves, Wildwood serves as a strong opener, introducing readers to Prue and Curtis, who each come to find themselves lost in the expanse of Wildwood. Prue sets out to rescue her baby brother from the clutches of kidnapping crows, which leads her to uncover an entire world just beyond her backyard. Here, she meets fellow classmate, Curtis, who decides to accompany her. What unfolds is a modern day Narnia-esque tale set in a mysterious, sinister, woods filled with talking beasts, birds, and all sorts of magical persons. In the end, Curtis and Prue find themselves on opposite ends of an age-old conflict among the persons of the woods and an evil queen. The story is rife with fun twists and turns, and, as a whole, this first novel is a good story that can both stand on its own as well as set the stage for the series' macro-plot.
The follow-up novel, Under Wildwood, crafts another self-contained tale focusing on the aftermath of Prue's and Curtis' actions in the first book (specifically the Bicycle Rebellion, as it's called). Political turmoil, dark magic, and crafty assassins abound and shadow every step Prue and Curtis make. One such nefarious force follows Prue into the mundane world before she is whisked away to the relative "safety" of Wildwood. But there is no true safe haven here as the forces of good, evil, and in-between are preparing to clash. For Curtis, he has chosen not to return to his family but remain among the bandits who live in Wildwood. For a time he thinks it's all fun and games, but he soon realizes the conflict is more than imaginary. This time, Prue's and Curtis' plots are hedged by a parallel story focused on two sisters, Elsie and Rachel, who have been handed off by their parents to the care of an orphanage as a fill-in babysitter. Suspicions about the nature of the orphanage transform into sinister realities, and the sisters plot their escape. Many second books suffer from the sophomore slump, but Under Wildwood, like its predecessor, holds its own and offers up a perilous tale that drags its feet at times but stays mostly on track.
Lastly, Wildwood Imperium closes out the trilogy and serves as a satisfying ending. Prue's and Curtis' plotlines clash and eventually crash into Elsie's and Rachel's stories as well as the various subplots of their orphanage friends. Hovering like a presence behind the scenes is the ghost of a deadly foe who, if resurrected, will spell the ruin of Wildwood and the world beyond. Together, Prue, Curtis, Elsie, Rachel, and their allies must keep their enemy at bay by creating the very thing their enemy wants - a long-lost loved one brought back to life. While the extension of some plot elements from the previous installments (Under Wildwood in particular) makes this final novel feel overstuffed and busy at times, Wildwood Imperium still serves as a solid closer and wraps up most of the sundry plots with a sense of finality.
Overall, the Wildwood trilogy is an impressive middle grade fantasy/magical realism series that offers up an expansive world. While its lead characters aren't perfect, Prue and Curtis still make for an interesting heroic duo. Along these lines, while the books' lengths and disingenuous nods towards grown ups and capitalism stain an otherwise engaging tale, the Wildwood trilogy makes for entertaining reading, especially for fans of hefty fantasy adventures.
Content:
Language - Minor, PG-level profanities (chiefly damn and some religious exclamations) are uttered by characters, including teen/kid characters, but their usage is sporadic.
Violence - Most of the violence involves magic or weapons (chiefly swords). Injuries either are implied or described with minimal details. Some perilous situations, from large-scale battles to fires, imply mass causalities. In the second novel, part of the action shifts to an orphanage that doubles as a workhouse employing children as laborers. While the children aren't abused, they are subjected to adverse working conditions and forced to work long hours. In the third novel, two characters conduct a seance and summon a ghost who compels one of the girls to collect three items that will bring it back to power. There are also minor creep factor elements throughout, such as one character who becomes controlled by a fungus that enters through the nose and attaches itself to the brain and talk of how a mechanical child was created using the teeth of the deceased child it is modeled after. Lastly, a character is almost sacrificed to magical ivy that will drain its blood, but the character is rescued in time and unharmed.
Sexual Content - None.
May 12, 2019
My son (who is 12) and I read these 3 books together. I wasn't sure about talking coyotes in the beginning, but the story pulled me in completely. I loved the magic of it. It was imaginative and caused me to stay up late every night reading it because I wanted to learn what happened next! It's definitely in league with other epic, magical tales like Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia, but yet very uniquely its own. I read it on Kindle and my son had the set of books. I try to read what he's reading so we can talk about the stories. We both were hooked on this saga and loved all 3 books!
June 21, 2017
First book is great; next two are just okay. But still, a fun read and great illustrations.
March 23, 2018
kinda interesting story, but the author was trying way too hard. Started out reading it to the kids, but they got bored halfway through the first book
February 10, 2019
Dark and heavy.
Relatively good ending but dark and heavy in the middle. Too many story lines. I would like more character development.
Relatively good ending but dark and heavy in the middle. Too many story lines. I would like more character development.
October 30, 2019
Fabulous storytelling for children and adults alike!
June 17, 2016
willwood chronicles complete collection: wildwood, under wildwood, wildwood imperium
I haven't read but three chapters so I can't say but they won't let me access the book until I give it a rating stupid.
I haven't read but three chapters so I can't say but they won't let me access the book until I give it a rating stupid.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews