Reviews for The wild beneath
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Annie MacLeod’s life has always been tied to the sea. Born and raised on a sailboat in the Pacific Northwest with her steadfast father and otherworldly mother, Annie’s nomadic upbringing has given her a singular life, swimming with whales and mapping the stars. Her only ties to the land are her Grandma Ruth, Uncle Henry, and Evan, her childhood friend who becomes something more. But then in a moment, her whole world is set off course. A tsunami strikes, raining devastation up and down the coast. In the aftermath, Annie finds a naked, speechless man wandering the beach. She gives him the name Walker. He seems to emit a pleasing sound, a hum, that only she can hear. Torn between her lifelong bond to Evan and Walker's gravitational pull, Annie is unmoored. But Walker disappears in a storm, and she has no choice but to evacuate and move on. Six years later, Walker’s sound returns, and Annie must seek the answers to their inexplicable connection. Anderson’s lyrical and ethereal first novel connects readers to the mystery and vitality of the natural world and our relationship to it. A perfect match for readers of Charlotte McConaghy, Richard Powers, and Shelby van Pelt.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
A young seafaring woman comes to terms with her mysterious magical powers in this evocative if tonally unbalanced debut from Anderson. Annie MacLeod grows up sailing with her parents up and down the west coast of North America. The family spends most of their time at sea, but over the course of their spells at home in Hale’s Landing, British Columbia, Annie befriends a boy named Evan. When she’s 20, the coast is struck by a tsunami. Annie’s parents are at sea and disappear. Afterward, Annie finds a naked young man on the beach named Walker, who emits a vibration only she can feel or hear. When they hug, “his skin vibrates hers, almost,” and she’s “flooded with vivid images” of the deep sea. She and Walker start working on a damaged sailboat, planning to return to sea, and a predictable love triangle develops among Annie, Evan, and Walker. The novel adopts a grimmer tone once the characters leave the village, and the shift feels haphazard. More successful is the painterly evocation of the coastal landscape: “A grayish haze pushes away the night. The sun smudges pink and orange at the horizon.” This has some bright spots, but for the most part it’s a bit too fuzzy. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (Aug.)
