Novel Review: Wild by Alex Mallory

Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance/Tarzan Retelling

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: July 8, 2014

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The forest is full of secrets, and no one understands that better than Cade. Foraging, hunting, surviving— that’s all he knows. Alone for years, Cade believes he’s the sole survivor. At least, until he catches a glimpse of a beautiful stranger…

Dara expected to find natural wonders when she set off for a spring break camping trip. Instead, she discovers a primitive boy— he’s stealthy and handsome and he might be following her. Intrigued, Dara seeks him out and sets a catastrophe in motion.

Thrust back into society, Cade struggles with the realization that the life he knew was a lie. But he’s not the only one. Trying to explain life in a normal town leaves Dara questioning it.

As the media swarm and the police close in, Dara and Cade risk everything to get closer. But will the truth about Cade’s past tear them apart?

A YA Tarzan retelling.

The Cover:

This cover is all right. It's fitting, what with the wild looking hair and woods on the cover, and the colors are good. I like the font of the title, and the tagline is good. But something about it just seems... messy. I'm not quite sure what, maybe the hair or the formatting of the two images, but some part of it is not pleasing to me, and it bothers me.

Quotes:

•  "Engineered, but not intentionally. According to Cade’s mother, everyone had good intentions. She included herself in that.” (ARC, 317)
• "But he couldn’t help remembering what his mother had said about the Egyptians and the Maya. Two cultures, both building pyramids to lift them to the heavens. People were beautiful.” (Pg. 347)

Review:

I love this book.

The writing was beautiful. The characters were rounded and real and I grew rather attached. The story was perhaps a little slowly paced, but kept me interested the entire time. I loved it.

I do like the original story of Tarzan, but I also just like that type of story in general. I haven’t had the chance to read (or watch) many storylines where a person is brought to a completely new world, like a boy taken from the wild and brought to the modern technological world as in this book, but the idea is so interesting to me. That being the story behind this book is the main reason why I jumped on the chance to get my hands on it.

I loved Cade. He’s wild and he’s confused, but he’s also really sweet. He just wants to go home, but now that he’s been found, society doesn’t want to let him go. The way he grabs onto Dara is just made of swoon. He’s attracted upon first sight, and the way he thinks about her and looks at her, and just feels reassured when she’s around, is delightful. There wasn’t even very much kissing (and it doesn’t even happen until way into the book), but just the eye-contact and hand-holding is utterly romantic. The attraction between them was just jumping off the pages for me, and I was seriously impressed.

While Cade was by far my favorite character in this book, I did really enjoy the others as well. Dara was good and sweet and smart. Her friend Sofia was great, and a really good friend. Josh, Dara’s boyfriend, was a little frustrating, although maybe understandably. Dara’s father was the same way, along with her sister. I was impressed, actually, with how swept up I got in all the characters and their emotions.

The ending is really the only thing I’m a little unhappy with. It was just not quite as closed as I would have liked. I’m not sure if I think doing it differently would have been better, because even if I kind of wanted that I do think that what Cade wanted was what happened, but I still wanted more closure, mainly for their relationship. I also just kind of wanted more, after falling for the characters so much.

I appreciated the sentiment for why Cade’s parents did what they did, and I liked that storyline. It’s a little scary to think about, and I can understand how a person could get so scared and paranoid.

I am seriously impressed with this book, and am so happy about that. Alex Mallory will definitely be an author I will watch, and I know that it’s a pseudonym for Saundra Mitchell so I might pick up one of her books at some point as well.