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lisaml's review against another edition
2.0
This was a weird one. There were moments that I liked, but the bizarre horror is not really my thing. If it's yours, you should give this one a read.
charshorrorcorner's review against another edition
5.0
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.*
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.*
gnomepartay's review
2.0
Trippy horror novel that makes it difficult to tell what is real and what isn't. I rated it 2 stars because it had a lot of tropes and cliches that I have seen done better in other novels.
hmlan89's review
5.0
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.
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.
jobis89's review
2.0
“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!
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!
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