The Wilderness Within

by John Claude Smith

The forest is alive.

While visiting fellow writer, Frank Harlan Marshall, Derek Gray senses a palpable dread within Frank's house and the forest that surrounds it; a subtle, malignant sentience. What should be a joyous event, as they await the surprise arrival of a long-lost friend, comedian "Dizzy Izzy" Haberstein, is fraught with unease Derek does not understand.

Derek's confusion is upended by the chance meeting with musician Alethea, formerly of Dark Angel Asylum, a band that dropped out of sight once the leader, Aleister Blut, ended up in an insane asylum. As their relationship blossoms, Derek's disorientation at the hands of the forest manifests as his world turns sideways...and one of Frank's fictional creations--a murderous monster named Average Joe--gains foothold in the surreal, psychological terrain.

As the worlds of reality and fantasy meld, what transpires bounds from deeply profound to pure madness.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

258 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 2017

About the author

John Claude Smith has published three collections (The Dark is Light Enough for Me [OOP], Autumn in the Abyss, and Occasional Beasts: Tales), along with two novels. His debut novel, Riding the Centipede, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. His second novel, The Wilderness Within, was published by Trepidatio/JournalStone.
He is presently shopping four novels and two collections.
Busy is good.

He splits his time between the East Bay of northern California, across from San Francisco, and Rome, Italy, where his heart resides always.

Words Matter!

Reviews

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars!

The Wilderness Within blew my mind! I should be used to that by now, as John Claude Smith never presents anything boring to his readers.

Novelist Derek Gray responds to his friend Frank's letter asking for him to come for a visit. Frank Harlan Marshall lives in the forest, miles away from civilized life. Together, they're awaiting a third friend and while passing the time, Derek notices Frank is in dire straits mentally. He's not himself, he's barely even present when they talk. Derek also meets Frank's neighbor, Alethea, former singer of Dark Angel Asylum. Together, all three will face something-something in the forest, something that is ancient and will change them all, forever.

John Claude Smith is always exploring new ideas and this book is no exception. My favorite parts happened in the forest-the first time Derek and Frank take a walk in the woods together is truly creepy. "I sensed in my mind, something picking through my thoughts, as if my skull had been opened up and something was looking for whatever special thoughts, memories and imagination that it fed on, and was diligently feeding: beetles picking the carcass clean."

The creative minds of authors and musicians are interesting things to explore. I'm reminded of U2's lyrics from The Fly: "Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief, all kill their inspiration and sing about the grief." John Claude's take is: "But I know creative individuals and know the madness and intensity that is part of their make-up. There has to be a lack of inhibition in allowing the madness full reign in order to really capture the gist of what one really needs to express creatively."

All of this makes it seem as if this book is focused on the inner lives of artists, and in a way it is, but it's also about the forest, nature, what is going on around us, and just maybe...how small we are in the bigger scheme of things. That part of the story and what's really wrong with Frank-these are things you have to discover for yourself. But be prepared because the truth is scary and often ugly too. Not only do we not know everything there is to know about nature and how the world works, we often don't even know the people we think we know the best.

Surreal, intense and brave, The Wilderness Within is a unique story that delivers on the creep factor and explores deeply the inner lives of the creative and the broken. At the same time, it makes me want to stay away from the forest, at least for now.

Highly recommended!

You can pre-order your copy here: The Wilderness Within

*I was provided an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenon is defined as "the object of a person's perception; what the senses or the mind notices." What is physically or intuitively observed is a highly personal experience. When there are no limits to what can be experienced, we are confounded by the possibilities. Are we beguiled by nature, or is nature influenced by us? These are the questions that are faced by the two main characters in this illusory novel. Two best friends and successful authors find themselves both attracted to and repelled by the forest that surrounds them. Nature itself becomes a third character, as its stoic existence seems to take on purpose. Something is very off-kilter in the environment. The very source of dread and unease is difficult to pinpoint. Is the forest itself playing tricks, or are the humans projecting their insecurities onto the woods?

Sensation takes front stage as the story unravels. Sound and vision are key in experiencing the incredible scenes that follow. The effects are in turn hallucinatory, frightening and uplifting. By the conclusion, we experience the ultimate definition of what it is to fully be.

Many thanks to the author, who provided me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 2 out of 5]

“There would never be any way he could leave his own mental prison, the wilderness within.”

Derek Gray goes to visit fellow writer Frank Marshall at his remote house out in the forest. Frank has received an unusual letter from their friend Dizzy who is coming up to meet them, so Derek decides to hang around until he arrives. But then, things start to get really strange as the forest begins to exert its creepy influence over Derek…

This book was weird. To be honest, I might have ended up tossing it to the side and not finishing if it weren’t so short. It starts out pretty interesting, a writer goes out to visit his friend who lives out in the wilderness and things start getting a bit creepy… but then it gets overly pretentious and I hate that kinda shit. Conversations between characters had me sitting there like….WTF was just said?! I’d say I’m relatively bright, but their dialogue had me wanting to reach for a dictionary on numerous occasions. But I didn’t care enough, so I didn’t.

Then all of a sudden, the story takes a turn into what feels like a bad acid trip (I’m surmising as to what a bad acid trip would actually be like) and I got frustrated pretty quickly. I’d love to go into detail about how ridiculous the hallucinations and shit were, but I will never include spoilers in my reviews. So just trust me when I say… it was insanity. I began skimming paragraphs just to GET TO THE END. But THEN there was a twist that I actually liked, and it was this twist that saved it from getting a measly one star. However, the book quickly got overly pretentious again for the ending and I was rolling my eyes SO. HARD. The ending was pretty stupid.

This book seems to be quite hit or miss, on Instagram I had many negative comments, however it does have its 5 star reviews on goodreads. Maybe it just wasn’t for me – I don’t think I’d be willing to read more from this author if his other work is in the same vein. At least the cover is kinda cool! 2 stars from me!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something dark lurking in the forest. It is tormenting Frank and drawing him into a world of madness. Together with his oldest and best friend, Derek Gray they will need to unravel the secrets buried in the woods that are bubbling up just beneath the surface of reality and threatening to take them both under.

I accidentally (on purpose) ate some bad mushrooms in high school in the late 80’s and this read was just like that. A surreal, twisted trip through the mind that drastically altered perceptions and threatened to throw reality out the window forever. Hmmm, I guess those mushrooms were “good” after all. (Hey, don’t judge me...It was the 80’s, man.)

If you have ever read any John Claude Smith then you already know he can pen quite the mind fuck of a story. With “Riding the Centipede”, he spoke with the insects. With this one, he speaks with artistic interpretation and with nature itself. Excellent, as usual, from Mr. Smith. A Solid 4+ stars and Highly Recommended.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was such a huge disappointment for me. I was expecting greatness because I got it in a NRB and their choices are normally on point. But this one was just not for me, for about 75% of the book all I could think was what in the actual fuck.

It started off really interesting but then it veered off in such a strange direction. It felt like the author was hopped up on some crazy ass drug and the story would only make sense to someone equally hopped up.

I’m just left feeling confused and uncomfortable after reading this, it was just so strange. And all that’s running through my head is what in the fuck did I just read?

[Mindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book...this book. I've literally thought about this book every day since I read it. A friend asked me what I thought immediately after I finished it, and I said I honestly can't decide if I really liked it or hated it. That's why I have been putting off this review. I have sincerely been trying to decide how I feel about this book for that long.

Even now I'm not sure if I should sum up the plot or get super spoilery, or what. I think at some point I'm going to have to reveal at least some major spoilers because they involve my biggest problems and/or my intense confusion over the plot. Let's put it this way, I think this is two books. Or it's trying to be two books, or the author had an insane acid trip in the middle of writing it, and his editor just said, "whatever, leave that bit in". Regardless, it's about to get spoilery up in here, so you probably should bail if you don't want The Wilderness Within to be ruined for you. Actually it's gonna get full on spoilery.

The main story, the part that doesn't sound like an acid trip, is actually pretty good. Derek, our protagonist, is urgently asked by his long time friend Frank to visit him at his remote cabin in the woods. Frank has received a confusing and somewhat disturbing letter from another life long friend of their's named Dizzy. Derek and Frank are both successful fiction writers; Derek writes more mainstream books, while Frank is popular with the horror crowd. Dizzy is actually a famous comedian/actor who fell off the grid years ago and hasn't been in touch with anyone in a long time. Frank tells Derek that Dizzy is actually coming to the cabin to explain his cryptic letter, so Derek decides to stay until Dizzy shows up.

After the stage is set, weird things start happening. Frank is acting odd, and he tells Derek that there is something sinister about the woods. Derek begins to have nightmares and hallucinations, and when he tells Frank about it Frank admits he is also having terrible nightmares, and so he avoids trying to sleep as much as possible. Derek thinks the hallucinations are just Frank pranking him, so he doesn't put much stock into them. In the meantime he meets Frank's closest neighbor, who just happens to be a musician named Alethea that Derek has been obsessed with for a long time.

Alethea was in a band called Dark Angel Asylum, but it broke up when their leader, Aleister Blut went insane. So now Alethea is out in the woods recording tracks for her own album, and pretty soon her and Derek hit it off and become good friends, bonding over philosophy, music, and literature. It's seems farfetched at first, but Alethea is charming and a welcome distraction from all the crazy at Frank's place, so I pretty much let it go that her living next door to Frank is a huge coincidence.

Dizzy finally shows up while Derek is at Alethea's, and he goes immediately to Frank's in order to find out what's going on with his old friend. Dizzy is exactly the way he was the last time Derek saw him. Seriously, the dude doesn't look as if he's aged a day. Frank has left a note that says he is off fishing, so Derek and Dizzy decide to catch up while they wait for Frank to return. Dizzy is confused when Derek brings up his note, and denies writing it. He then points out that the handwriting matches Frank's gone fishing note. Dizzy then goes straight for the alcohol, and before he knows it Derek is insanely drunk. He has numerous disturbing hallucinations, during which Dizzy seemingly disappears and Derek passes out on the couch. Hours later he wakes up and there is no sign of Dizzy. Frank shows up, and denies messing with Derek by writing both of the notes and still insists that Dizzy is on his way. Derek attempts to get Frank out of the woods and into town for some food, but Frank loses it in the restaurant saying that he can't be that far away from the woods, and Derek is forced to take him back. Frustrated and confused Derek goes to visit Alethea to clear his head.

OK, if you have made it this far, bravo. I'm really getting long winded with this one, but I feel like it's necessary to justify why the next few chapters just didn't work for me. We know from Frank that something is messed up about the woods. Derek even feels it himself anytime he goes into it. So of course Alethea suggests that her and Derek talk a walk in the woods. And of course they end up having earth shattering, life changing, utterly amazing sex in the sinister, creepy woods. That's when Derek literally turns into a tree.

For the next few chapters we get the stream-of-consciousness experience of Derek being a tree. This is where Smith almost completely lost me. I sincerely considered giving up and calling this one a DNF, but I carried on, and eventually Derek re-enters his body, at which point we learn that Alethea became the ivy at the base of the Derek tree. That must have been some crazy sex.

Also, absolutely inexplicably, Aleister has managed to escape from the asylum he was living in, and has found the couple in the woods. He's bonkers, but he's also convinced that he needs to protect Alethea from something, so her and Derek allow him to tag along when they go to confront Frank about all the craziness that's been happening. They arrive at Frank's and Dizzy is back, and somehow appropriately aged. Derek demands to know what is going on, and Dizzy begins to physically attack Alethea. The fight ends up outside, with a crazed, inhuman Dizzy trying to murder Alethea with a table saw. Aleister tries to save her and ends up getting sliced and diced by the saw. Then, in an even more bonkers moment than Derek becoming a tree, Dizzy starts to dismember himself with the same saw. I'm seriously not making this up.

At this point for some reason Derek finally realizes that nobody is actually real, including Alethea. They embrace and she disappears. Everyone is suddenly gone but Frank and Derek. Frank said the woods are feeding off the evil inside him, and he needs Derek to follow him into them one last time so that Derek can understand what's really happening. Once they reach a clearing Frank admits that he needed to know what it was actually like to kill a person in order to write about murder, and that he has taken the lives of multiple people over the years, including Dizzy and his wife. At this point Frank admits that the evil needs to stop, and Derek finally sees Frank's body swinging from a tree above him. The other Frank was also an illusion. Back at the cabin Frank has left a letter for Derek, along with a list of all the people he killed and where their bodies can be found. Frank calls the police, and they are able to close a number of missing persons reports because of Franks admission. However, now Derek has to live with the fact that his best friend murdered so many people, including someone close to them both.

Derek eventually returns to the woods, and we learn that Alethea has been following his story and actually does own the house next to Frank. At the very end of the novel she is watching Derek enter the woods through a crystal (really?) and decides to join him in the woods.

Are you still reading? If you are I'm amazed. Anyway, you can see my conundrum. Parts of this book are pretty good. I really did not dig the parts where Derek and Alethea became literal plants, but for the most part it's a decent story. I think I'm going to give this one 3 and 1/2 stars. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it, and it actually kinda stuck with me. I mean even now I'm still thinking about it. And that's gotta count for something, right?

[Mike Thorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review from my website.

I’ve thought a lot about both the correspondences and differences between a “philosophy of horror” (consider Noël Carroll’s methodology and 1990 book of the same name) and a “horror of philosophy,” which Eugene Thacker studies extensively in his trilogy—In the Dust of this Planet (2011), Starry Speculative Corpse (2015) and Tentacles Longer Than Night (2015). Upon finishing John Claude Smith’s bizarre new novel The Wilderness Within (2017), it strikes me that this author is also invested in such a crux.

Is The Wilderness Within a horror novel proper? Well, sort of. Smith quotes weird fiction scribe Algernon Blackwood in his opening epigraph, and his novel does carry the haunting residue of The Willows (1907). But he also quotes the great philosophical magic realist of Argentine literature, Jorge Luis Borges, and Philip K. Dick, legend of metaphysical sci-fi paranoia. To be sure, there are elements of dread in both Borges’ and Dick’s oeuvres, but it is philosophical inquiry above all that connects Smith’s novel with these three names.

This book sees Smith undergoing a deceptively simple exercise of content-in-form: two metal-head writer buddies take a trip into the woods, resulting in an eventual descent into freaky psychedelia. Smith charts this progression through narration and experimental style: what begins as a series of dialogues (largely steeped in theoretical interest) slips into a punctuation- and perspective-busting freak-out with its roots (pun partially intended) in the works of William S. Burroughs.

This is a very fun novel to read on the basis of plot and execution alone, but Smith distinguishes his story from straightforward genre fare by investing most intently in ideas. The author ends up addressing the aporia that results from any attempt to frame nature within human-centric models of phenomenology—this quality made me think of Dylan Trigg’s The Thing: A Phenomenology of Horror, but also of Quentin Meillassoux’s After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency (2008). Many of the (potentially horrifying) problems that Meillassoux engages on the level of philosophy, Smith conveys through the medium of magic realist horror.

To be specific, The Wilderness Within confronts the “thing-in-itself” in the form of a natural space with insidiously quasi-mystic attributes (think the pan-psychism of Blackwood’s The Willows, but somehow even quieter and less explicit). This brings me to Meillassoux, who grapples with the post-Kantian concept of “correlation”—“the idea according to which we only ever have access to the correlation between thinking and being, and never to either term considered apart from the other”; or, more plainly, that “we can never grasp an object ‘in itself’, in isolation from its relation to the subject […] we can never grasp a subject that would not always-already be related to an object” (5). The object-subject relation unfolds in a sequence echoing the human-into-tree imprisonment of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene (1590-96)… if only Spenser had had access to Salvinorin A and nihilistic industrial metal.

Smith demonstrates that one can build a horror narrative around ideas—that a prominently conceptual framework can suffice just as well as a narrative one. And this is not to say that Smith disregards plot—I see echoes of Stephen King’s rigorously designed The Dark Half (1989) just as clearly as I see the philosophical considerations. This is the first novel I’ve read from Smith, and I’m immediately impressed by his commitment to thinking through the unique possibilities and problems of horror. I’ve never encountered anything quite like it. It’s trippy, bullet-fast and madly cerebral.

[Benni Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review also posted on my blog: https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com...

As much as I love horror, I tend to be skeptical of a lot of psychological horror stories because it's all too easy to make them veer into ableist territory -- there are SO many stories out there that rely on a character being "cr*zy" or "m*d" or "ins*ne" in order for there to be any story in the first place, and this book was no exception to that. In fact, this book plays into that ableist trope on multiple occasions, and it's tiring. The characters were rather flat and had little substance, and I just didn't care.

In addition to the ableism, there were multiple racist comments, sexist comments, homomisic jokes that the main character actually took the time to explain to the reader why he laughed at, and fatmisic comments, and the further I read the more angry I got. None of these things were central to the book at all -- they were just the personalities of these characters. They weren't in-your-face lines, but they certainly bothered me while I was reading. I felt myself distancing myself from the narrator and not really caring what happened to him because I didn't like him as a person.

***If you don't want to read spoilers or anything weird about penises, skip here!***


The climax of the novel was just disgusting, and it was literally a climax. The narrator starts turning into a tree while he is having sex, and his erect penis is literally what's keeping him rooted into the ground. Are you kidding me? Honestly, if I'd have known that this graphic sex scene was what was going to end up being the high point of the novel, I probably wouldn't have even bothered reading. The last thing I need is a sexist pig making this much of a big deal out of his erection. No, thanks.


***End spoilers and penises***

While I was reading this book, it felt most of the time like there was just nothing happening. Coupling that with my apathy for the characters, I ended up really bored by this book. It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but I didn't care for it at all and I can't say I'd recommend it.

Final rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Angel Gelique · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

"...[T]here would never be any way he could leave his own mental prison, the wilderness within."

When writer Derek Gray is asked by his childhood friend, Frank Marshall, to visit him at his log cabin in the woods, he doesn't hesitate. But something is amiss. Frank is withdrawn, troubled by something he won't reveal. He alludes to something somewhat supernatural--some force within the woods.

Derek begins having some bizarre experiences. He tries to unravel the mystery. But truth is far stranger than fiction.

This is the kind of book that's not meant to be merely read, but savored. The writing is exceptional--almost lyrical--with such incredible figurative language. It's epic, really, as readers embark on a journey of discovery (possibly even self-discovery), as events from the story unfold. It's thought-provoking and philosophical.

"This is the way it always is, within the decrepit mental minefield, every thought punctured, a Swiss cheese array of black holes littered along the gray matter wasteland."

"My breath screamed in my ears, a sound like something tearing, fabric threaded with metal...."

"Some people seemed destined to destroy each other no matter how much they tried to avoid each other, rusted magnets that corroded hopelessly intertwined souls."

If you could read an acid trip, it would be embedded within this book. It contains very heady stuff--heavy duty material that can, at times, be difficult to digest and even a bit confusing. But this brilliantly-written story is well worth the journey so keep reading and everything will make sense in the end.

[Join the Penguin Resistance! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: THE WILDERNESS WITHIN by John Claude Smith

Descent into madness, or willing embrace of the madness pre-existing within; LSD flashbacks, or last-stage alcoholism' s Korsakoff Syndrome; blowing wide the doors of perception {nod to Aldous Huxley, William Blake, and Timothy Leary} or some supernatural event/presence/process? Let the individual reader decide. In this literary horror, two bestselling authors, one popular and talented comedian, and one musical artiste, combine in a minute of madness, a waltz of macabre, a tango of grotesqueries. Lovecraftian frissons awaken a dance of cosmic horror, and as above, so below.

[Aksel Dadswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody does an acid trip of a story quite like John Claude Smith. What I’ve read of his short fiction is dazzling, and weird, and dazzlingly weird. His first novel, Riding the Centipede (which I reviewed here a while back), was a marvellous debut, a neon-lit, hallucinatory nightmare of manic proportions. Smith’s writing thus far feels like the perfect distillation of gonzo horror fiction, a combination of great character beats, off-the-wall insanity, and an enormous bit of fun.

Read my full review over at my blog: https://wordpress.com/post/larvalform...

[TheVampireBookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book real bad since the people behind The Nocturnal Reader's Box always select the best horror fiction for us but this time I must say our tastes differ. A lot. I even took two days to think about it before writing this review but so far I don't see why I should recommend it when I really didn't like it.
First of all, the writing style. It starts quite poetically for a horror so I thought it would be a nice fresh point of view to introduce a writer in the story to describe the events in a different way but the consistency of this voice througout the book differs so I'm not sure about that. Then there are pseudophilosophical passages which make little sense even to us who actually studied philosophy. But maybe there was point to them, I just never discovered it - it may be my fault, not the author's. There are also repetitive sentences which break the rhythm of the story so I don't know if none of the proofreaders noticed it or if it had some kind of purpose I, again, didn't discover. All it did was annoy me so...
When it comes to the story, the premise of a forest (or nature) which looms over people sounds like a good point to start from but again I feel like it was executed weirdly. There were nice moments in there (with the nature being just nature, not bad or good) but it was put together like a bad acid trip (I'm not sure how that goes since I've never taken illegal drugs but I imagine that it would look like this).
I'm sorry but this just wasn't for me. Usually I'm all for experiments as long as they make sense but this wasn't put together well in my opinion.

[Duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel will do nothing to slow Mr. Smith's meteoric ascent to the top of the weird fiction heap. Let's just say that at the outset. It draws on King a little, touching on the themes of The Dark Half without resorting to the expedient of separating the writer and his alter ego. Instead they are old friends drawn into a pitched battle between their two visions of the world and the realities they create both inside and outside their fictions.
Deep woods indeed, full of rot and loam and maybe, just maybe, the green shoots of a new spring. That's left unsaid, unwritten, as is the idea that maybe this isn't the first time this has happened in that tree-filled space.
Very effective, absorbing; Highly recommended.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark fantasy surreal experience in the hands of nature, literally.

Claude opens with his character Derek Gray and the sounds of the forest. In a turn of events after meeting musician of a memorial band things go to the weird.
A monster of the terrain surroundings in a physiological of wildness.
See what has been creeping in the forest nowadays...
Great Read!

[Ana · Rating 1 out of 5]

10% alright, 90% ass gravy.

[KnNaRfF · Rating 5 out of 5]

The synopsis for this book had me expecting it to be good along with the fact I loved the authors first novel 'Riding the centipede' and the mention early on in the book of industrial metal and the awesome band Pigface increased my expectations......however...... I was not preapared for how incredible this book is!! This really is a 'dark weird' / 'weird horror' bonafide classic. I will be thinking about and re-reading this book for along time to come.

[Brianna | briannas_books · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only way this book classifies as horror is by how horrifyingly awful it is. The worst book I’ve read all year. So beyond bad.

[Mimi Wolske · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I must say I did preorder this novella, but before it was due to be released, I received an ARC...BUT that never makes an impression on whether I like a book or not...I didn't with "The Wilderness Within".

“—outside the realm of possibility—
“Crack.”

A Wilderness Within is John Claude Smith’s latest tour de force of weird, speculative fiction. It is not the action of characters alone, but the atmosphere Smith’s writing induces that is the great sine qua non of this novella of weird fiction.

Derek Gray is summoned to the country place of Frank Harlan Marshall and quickly determines his friend since youth is not quite all there. Frank is also expecting Isadora “Dizzy Izzy” Haberstein to arrive, a friend Derek knows, also. Before Izzy arrives, They meet Alethea Thompson at a café. She was the singer in the industrial band called Dark Angel Asylum, of which Alexander Burroughs, better known as Aleister Blut, had been the former leader and who has just escaped from a different kind of asylum. After leaving the café, Frank heads in one direction and Derek heads to Alethea’s house; but, he must travel into the forest.

I wouldn’t call the “forest” a peripheral character, but it definitely is an important character in this tale:
as Derek and Frank “had stepped into the forest beyond the dried out dirt and weeds”, they cross into something Frank suggests that “subtly persuade the minds of those who pass within their undefined range of influence” with “borders that can actually impose something, some kind of force or influence…on an individual”.

I fell deep under the spell of this chapter and that “ undefined something” they sensed as if I was traveling with them either from or into some dream opening onto some dreaded, unforgiving adventure. The author described it best when he wrote: “…everything was out of synch—everything…” and “…vibrations were misaligned”.

I love how Smith’s prose is creatively surreal, evenly-paced, and illustrated with a remarkably colorful palette. “The Wilderness Within” is filled with original ideas and concepts woven into a well-crafted tale. As for the descriptive portions of his prose, they present his unique vision and one example is as simplistic as the jewelry Alethea wears and how Derek sees her face—I found it poetic:

“In one ring-laden hand—moonstone and amber and possibly black opal, all wrapped and set in intricate, purposeful designs— she carried a plastic bottle of Gatorade. In the other hand, adorned with equal enthusiasm and accompanied by snake-like bracelets, one of which had an Ouroboros inclination as the clasp set the tail into a flicked tongue mouth, she clenched an apple, about to take a bite. The clash of apple red and her deep red lips, as haloed by the blood red that encircled most of her face, tantalized in a dangerous way. The crack and tear, the too many teeth—another of my weaknesses exploited—and speaking again—”

Wait until you read the description of Frank’s house. What happens in that house. And, his description of darkness and how it feels. And that love scene…pure surreal poetry! Well, the kaleidoscope of descriptions throughout the remaining chapters were like individual poetic hallucinations poured onto paper. WOW!

In a bizarre way, his characters are real, if you haven’t meant them in life, you know them from your dreams. With (and I hate to use this term because I believe Smith has by now defined a style all his own) Lovecraftian flare, he mixes enough of reality into this tale to make you wonder just how much of it is real…all of it? Some? None? Crack!

Heck, I’m still trying to answer two questions of my own:
Was the unexplainable atmosphere of dread created by the woods or by the thoughts of Derek and would the answer tell me if The Wilderness Within was not dead but alive?
And, is there symbolism in “I am”?

“Madness lubricates the soul” and this review is only my opinion. You need to experience this trip on your own and see for yourself the logic found only in manifested dreams.

[Ian Welke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wilderness Within is hallucinatory and brilliant. Some passages reminded me of Philip K Dick’s Valis, that connection between reality, art, and madness is thoroughly examined. And there are few other authors, Neal Stephenson for instance, who I would so readily read even in their tangents. Both Stephenson and Smith brilliantly utilize these digressions to better grow the tone of the work and provide characterization, but whereas Stephenson’s tend to be more general, Smith is laser focussed on art, music. I think I would happily read his thoughts on bands, film, etc as stand alone pieces, as an added layer to his already stellar fiction the effect is powerful.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was... okay? Pretentious, but okay.

[Zach · Rating 1 out of 5]

It started out alright, but it ends up sounding like it was written by a philosopher on drugs

[Luisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read a lot of bad books but this iseasily the worst of them. I wish I could get the time back that I wasted on reading it

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF (22% read). I found the plot too slow going for such a short book. Not being a fan of the writing style, there wasn’t really anything here to encourage me to keep reading.

[Holly Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This is by far the most interesting book I’ve read in quite some time. It goes to such wild places.

Derek Gray goes to a secluded area in the forest to visit with long-time friend Frank Marshall. Derek is under the impression that he and Frank are to be reunited with a former friend. The forest... well it has other plans. Derek is visited by several persons, that is true. But nothing is as it seems. The budding friendship/relationship as intense and powerful as it is... holds little truth. His longest friendship plagued by lies. The forest yearning for something more taking it’s insane toll on Derek and his perception of reality.

This is a wild ride of a story. What I would imagine an acid trip being like. The conflicting events that take place, the stream of strange happenings, the visions of characters that shouldn’t be able to happen. The twisted manifestations that take over Derek’s world. Still, a surprising ending that is oddly satisfying. I will definitely have to get my hands on more by this author.

[Ingrid Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read every one of Author John Claude Smith's books and was eager to read this current one. The cover grabbed me, the title evoking images of ancient wild forests yet to be explored and as always, John Claude's equally wild and evocation style of writing. BUT, this book, this novel, is one I will no doubt read again and again finding something new and iconic with each passing. I LOVED this book!

John Claude Smith stirs the mind, providing countless well-written images placing the reader inside the book, inside the scene, enticing and captivating, making this reader eager to read more, to know more. His characters were well thought out, planned? Perhaps on some level, but what I love about JC Smith's writing is the element of surprise...and the adventure? I never know what's going to happen next!

If you love dark adventure and deep, conjuring prose, you'll love this book. Or, if you just enjoy reading something original, something unique with a deep, dark twist, yeah, you'll love this book!

[Missy (myweereads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, my first thought was what on earth did I just read???? This book is a complete mind fuck when it comes to understanding what is going on. At one point it feels like you are on some kind of wicked acid trip but soon the characters begin to realise that the forest which surrounds the house is actually alive and their friend the famous writers has more than just a few skeletons in his closet. If you want to read a book that leaves you staring at it after you’ve read it thinking what on earth was that then this is the book for you!!!! It draws you in and you can’t help but keep reading on to find out what everything means!!!

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but this book was just not for me. I had to force my way through it, and in the end I was simply not satisfied or impressed. The weirdness was just too much, even for someone as weird as me, and I found myself lost and confused way too often, which is quite unlike me as a reader.

[Noelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a trip! Dark horror with elements of fantastical horror and a bit of a love story all rolled into one. It was like nothing I have ever read before. I was fully satisfied after having read it and plan to look up more of Mr. Smith’s work.

[Elsa Munoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book I would normally pick up but definitely worth a read. It was thought provoking and at times a bit confusing but still a decent read.

[Beth Galante · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! I'd have to say this is easily one of my favorite books now, and it is one of those books you can read over and over again and it would be just as good each time. This was very different from any book I've ever read.