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Wilder
A desperate village. A child who emerges from the marshes. A falcon that helps her save them all.
The child - if child it was - came out of the wild-ness. It came out of the sparse bleak marsh where few dared go and none came back. And though the village grew accustomed to the creature they did not forget from whence it came. And they whispered that there was no knowing whether she was sent as a blessing or a bane.'
When the child emerges from the wilderness, no one in the village knows what to do with her. She is odd - half-wild, without speech and seems to have an unnatural bond with animals - especially the falcon, who is always circling above her. The Wise-Woman takes her in, and names her Rhodd, but the rest of the villagers remain suspicious.
Over the years, as Rhodd grows, the village realises that the river, which is their connection to the wider world, is beginning to die, and eventually a dark sickness begins to spread. Soon, too soon, the villagers turn their suspicion on Rhodd and her falcon.
And so, Rhodd sets out to discover what - or who - is causing the river to dry up . . . to protect her mother, her falcon and herself...
A beautiful and enthralling adventure about love, belonging, the delicate balance of nature - and the wildness within us all, for fans of The Last Wild and Where the Crawdads Sing, for 9+ readers.
The child - if child it was - came out of the wild-ness. It came out of the sparse bleak marsh where few dared go and none came back. And though the village grew accustomed to the creature they did not forget from whence it came. And they whispered that there was no knowing whether she was sent as a blessing or a bane.'
When the child emerges from the wilderness, no one in the village knows what to do with her. She is odd - half-wild, without speech and seems to have an unnatural bond with animals - especially the falcon, who is always circling above her. The Wise-Woman takes her in, and names her Rhodd, but the rest of the villagers remain suspicious.
Over the years, as Rhodd grows, the village realises that the river, which is their connection to the wider world, is beginning to die, and eventually a dark sickness begins to spread. Soon, too soon, the villagers turn their suspicion on Rhodd and her falcon.
And so, Rhodd sets out to discover what - or who - is causing the river to dry up . . . to protect her mother, her falcon and herself...
A beautiful and enthralling adventure about love, belonging, the delicate balance of nature - and the wildness within us all, for fans of The Last Wild and Where the Crawdads Sing, for 9+ readers.
- GenresChildrens
256 pages, Paperback
Published February 16, 2023
5 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 7, 2023
A gorgeous folktale from the natural world centered around rewilding and adventure. Those appeared one day out of the marsh that was killing the village. She was never accepted by the community except for her adopted Ma and her friend Gar.
When the Lord tells the village they are being evicted because the land is dead, Rhodd knows it’s her time to awaken the wild within and save her home.
On the higher end of Middle Grade 10+ just because it’ll challenge comprehension more. Beautiful nature writing, a great adventure, and good twists! Lovely story.
When the Lord tells the village they are being evicted because the land is dead, Rhodd knows it’s her time to awaken the wild within and save her home.
On the higher end of Middle Grade 10+ just because it’ll challenge comprehension more. Beautiful nature writing, a great adventure, and good twists! Lovely story.
August 7, 2023
A beautiful story of magic and myth with a strong conservation message.
"You would not listen.
You would not see.
You have betrayed the wild."
A message we all must heed before it is too late.
"You would not listen.
You would not see.
You have betrayed the wild."
A message we all must heed before it is too late.
January 25, 2025
Leest als een sprookje en net zoals klassieke sprookjes heeft het een boodschap die tijdloos en nodig is. Wie zichzelf beter acht dan de natuur, zal merken hoe machteloos mensen zijn. En hoeveel moeilijker herstellen is dan voorkomen.
July 8, 2025
Go safe, child. Hide from it's eyes until you grow strong. But never forget your wild-ness within. Nor the wild-ness without.
Great story, great ending, great characters. Overall, great.
Great story, great ending, great characters. Overall, great.
March 31, 2023
Here in this small, one-street village, a girl is found naked trundling off the marsh. It's the marsh that's killed the village, for it used to be a coastal fishing port, yet the estuary has moved in with a vengeance and blocked off all access to the sea. It's the marsh that still to this day seems to take a tithe in the shape of a child's life. But here is this girl, rescued by an outcast woman, Cerys, and dubbed Rhodd (one tooth away from 'wrath' but meaning something very different). Rhodd is very different, too, for she can telepathically link up with any animal, communicate mentally with it and see the world through their eyes. But the feeling is that Rhodd, scarred by long-forgotten troubles before her arrival, will be destined to right a lot of wrongs in life, starting with a return to the marsh to discover the source of a lot of those quite evil problems.
This proves to be a completely entertaining read, with a powerful drive – and that's before you consider the ecological moral or anything else you feel that you're reading. The unearthly Rhodd and her connection to nature and the marsh makes her an instantly interesting character, and she's portrayed with such immediacy it's almost as if we and she have the mental connection. And then – then, beyond that, we have something mystical, magical and mythical. And it's this that helps the book swoop perfectly up from the mundane, learning-her-ABCs girl into what the whole shebang proves to be about. That narrative drive, that scope, that heart – it's nigh-on unbelievable. Short chapters help the pages turn, but the fact remains this is one of the most hard-to-resist dramas, bearing an outstanding grip on the reader until it finally shows the last of its secrets. Rhodd actually means gift. And boy wasn't this a gift.
This proves to be a completely entertaining read, with a powerful drive – and that's before you consider the ecological moral or anything else you feel that you're reading. The unearthly Rhodd and her connection to nature and the marsh makes her an instantly interesting character, and she's portrayed with such immediacy it's almost as if we and she have the mental connection. And then – then, beyond that, we have something mystical, magical and mythical. And it's this that helps the book swoop perfectly up from the mundane, learning-her-ABCs girl into what the whole shebang proves to be about. That narrative drive, that scope, that heart – it's nigh-on unbelievable. Short chapters help the pages turn, but the fact remains this is one of the most hard-to-resist dramas, bearing an outstanding grip on the reader until it finally shows the last of its secrets. Rhodd actually means gift. And boy wasn't this a gift.
March 6, 2023
There was once a town alongside a river. It was a prosperous trading town and its people were content. At least until something 'ate' its river.
A marsh grew out of nowhere, swallowing the water, the trade and the land, leaving only an impenetrable wasteland of black sludge, greedy quicksand and an absence of life.
One day a young child walked out of this marsh - all mud and muck, with black eyes and an ever circling falcon watching over her from high above. The local wise woman is the only one to reach out to this strange child. With no name, she calls her Rhodd (pronounced Roth), and takes her home with her.
As the town slowly dies without the river, this child is blamed for its downfall. She knows she is somehow made from the marsh, but doesn't remember anything before stumbling out of it. She knows she must remember what the marsh is, and after years pass she knows she cannot ignore it any longer. Her mother has fallen ill like so many villagers before her, and Rhodd is the only one who can save her.
Find the river. Confront whatever stole it. Bring life back to those she loves.
I was hooked from the first page! Wilder is a wild read. A girl (or is she something else?) doesn't know where she came from, but as her world implodes she knows she must confront her past.
Set hundreds of years ago, Wilder is part historical and part fantasy, with a touch of witchery.
I couldn't read fast enough wanting to know what stole a river, just as much as character Rhodd didn't want to know. With a thought provoking afterword to ensure the reader doesn't forget Wilder anytime soon, this is my favourite middle-grade read so far in 2023.
Age - 10+
A marsh grew out of nowhere, swallowing the water, the trade and the land, leaving only an impenetrable wasteland of black sludge, greedy quicksand and an absence of life.
One day a young child walked out of this marsh - all mud and muck, with black eyes and an ever circling falcon watching over her from high above. The local wise woman is the only one to reach out to this strange child. With no name, she calls her Rhodd (pronounced Roth), and takes her home with her.
As the town slowly dies without the river, this child is blamed for its downfall. She knows she is somehow made from the marsh, but doesn't remember anything before stumbling out of it. She knows she must remember what the marsh is, and after years pass she knows she cannot ignore it any longer. Her mother has fallen ill like so many villagers before her, and Rhodd is the only one who can save her.
Find the river. Confront whatever stole it. Bring life back to those she loves.
I was hooked from the first page! Wilder is a wild read. A girl (or is she something else?) doesn't know where she came from, but as her world implodes she knows she must confront her past.
Set hundreds of years ago, Wilder is part historical and part fantasy, with a touch of witchery.
I couldn't read fast enough wanting to know what stole a river, just as much as character Rhodd didn't want to know. With a thought provoking afterword to ensure the reader doesn't forget Wilder anytime soon, this is my favourite middle-grade read so far in 2023.
Age - 10+
February 5, 2023
This is a wonderful story that mixtures magical myth with the harsh reality of wildlife conservation. UKS2 readers will enjoy Rhodd's journey to face up to her past and take up the challenge of righting the wrongs of man.
Wilder is the story of a child who emerges from the marsh one day. She is taken in by 'Ma', and named Rhodd. Rhodd has a connection to nature but when the marsh takes a child every year, destroys their land and threatens to take their homes, she is reluctant to answer the call to acknowledge the part she plays in all of it.
I did enjoy the premise and the message of the story and I think the story was paced well. I enjoyed the plot and Rhodd's growth and acceptance of who she was throughout the story. There were elements of the writing style that I didn't like. There were times where the information was repeated and it was a case of show and tell, instead of show not tell. For example, in the story, everything in the natural world is dying and decaying so when trees are described as being bare instead of being a full luscious canopy, we don't then need a separate sentence to explain that without water they are dying. This may have been sorted in the editing process or may just be a personal thing for me!
Because of this, it was a solid, good 3-star read almost all the way through but the end boosted it up to a 3.5 - 4. This is a good read with an important message and a fierce MC.
Thank you NetGalley and Orion books for allowing me to review this prior to publication in exchange for an honest review.
Wilder is the story of a child who emerges from the marsh one day. She is taken in by 'Ma', and named Rhodd. Rhodd has a connection to nature but when the marsh takes a child every year, destroys their land and threatens to take their homes, she is reluctant to answer the call to acknowledge the part she plays in all of it.
I did enjoy the premise and the message of the story and I think the story was paced well. I enjoyed the plot and Rhodd's growth and acceptance of who she was throughout the story. There were elements of the writing style that I didn't like. There were times where the information was repeated and it was a case of show and tell, instead of show not tell. For example, in the story, everything in the natural world is dying and decaying so when trees are described as being bare instead of being a full luscious canopy, we don't then need a separate sentence to explain that without water they are dying. This may have been sorted in the editing process or may just be a personal thing for me!
Because of this, it was a solid, good 3-star read almost all the way through but the end boosted it up to a 3.5 - 4. This is a good read with an important message and a fierce MC.
Thank you NetGalley and Orion books for allowing me to review this prior to publication in exchange for an honest review.
April 26, 2023
Penny's first two books had some magic. But this one is magical through to the bone. Penny has chosen a setting we've all seen before - an isolated village in an undefined but not too recent past - and woven magic and mystery into it. Rhodd is a mystery even to herself, too young to remember who she was at her rescue and urged at every turn to forget it in the years since.
The language here is amazing, lyrical and simple, magical and beautiful. This is a book that will enchant even those kids who don't think they like fantasy stories. It's a great adventure apart from anything else, and I love the rabbit! Fantastic character.
This one is going to show up on a lot of the award lists this year, so get ahead and read it as soon as you can.
'That's why people are scared of the night,' Ma went on. 'Because there is always the fear that the water has drowned the sun, and the light and the warmth will never return. But then we watch through the long hours of darkness and we wait and we hope and we set our eyes to the east. And the sun always rises.'
The language here is amazing, lyrical and simple, magical and beautiful. This is a book that will enchant even those kids who don't think they like fantasy stories. It's a great adventure apart from anything else, and I love the rabbit! Fantastic character.
This one is going to show up on a lot of the award lists this year, so get ahead and read it as soon as you can.
'That's why people are scared of the night,' Ma went on. 'Because there is always the fear that the water has drowned the sun, and the light and the warmth will never return. But then we watch through the long hours of darkness and we wait and we hope and we set our eyes to the east. And the sun always rises.'
January 22, 2023
Absolutely devoured this book once I started as I was desperate to find out wh Rhodd was and where she had come from. People in the village are fearful because there is a sickness spreading through the village and through all the plants. Rhodd knows it is linked to the river and the marsh and has to confront who she is and where she has come from in order to save the village. A gripping story with many messages we can take about the destruction of nature and ecosystems in the name of progress or building.
April 16, 2023
Penny Chrimes’s fantasy novel for readers aged 9+ is a character-driven affair that draws on British folklore and the detrimental impact that greed and industry has on nature. Rhodd is a well drawn character, but there isn’t a lot of plot here and I also wanted more of a sense of place and period (there are hints that it’s late Victorian and in the west of England but it’s never explicit). It’s not that this is bad, it just didn’t gel for me.
June 15, 2025
This story kept us guessing and intrigued. We didn't know what had happened to the River or the Marsh for ages. It was exciting - we had to work out the time period of the story with the clues we had along with the mystery of the missing children. The story made us think beyond the book because we wanted to know what happened afterwards.
February 17, 2023
A really unusual book. At times gentle and slow moving, at times unsettling and dark.
Above all it was well written, a timeless tale of love, friendship and mythology.
As I read, I was desperate to discover who or what Rhodd was. I spotted the signs of a sequel or two!
Above all it was well written, a timeless tale of love, friendship and mythology.
As I read, I was desperate to discover who or what Rhodd was. I spotted the signs of a sequel or two!
August 1, 2023
Extraordinary. What a joy.
November 30, 2023
Personally not for me
September 17, 2024
I did like the environment being at the forefront of the story but feel that to have a character driven story it needs top notch main characters and feel that Rhodd was okay but not strong enough to had previously read Penny's The Dragon and her Boy and was captivated but for me Wilder was lacking in something but I'm not sure what.
carry the story and I would of liked to know more about Gar and feel that if his character was a little bit larger than life the story would of gone in a different direction.
For the above reasons Wilder receives 3 stars
carry the story and I would of liked to know more about Gar and feel that if his character was a little bit larger than life the story would of gone in a different direction.
For the above reasons Wilder receives 3 stars
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews