Wilderness Reform by Matt Query
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I just let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding…
Ughhhh, this hurts my heart. I so wanted to love this, but I just didn’t. I was bored beyond belief through the entire thing and I don’t know why, TBH.
If you look at the individual components, I should’ve loved it, but I felt nothing. I couldn’t care less about the characters, or anything that was happening to them; and since it’s a character-driven story, to not care a lick ended up having a huge impact on my experience.
This is the first I have read from Matt and Harrison Query, although I have heard fantastic things about their other novel, Old Country, which I definitely still plan to read.
This cover is beautiful. I love it, but sadly, that is as far as my love goes with this one. Since this is set at a wilderness camp for troubled teenagers, in a remote area of Montana, I fully expected to be completely gripped by this story.
I love Horror with a nature setting, and anything that involves survival elements, but in spite of that, I never felt a true sense of place, or really any atmosphere here at all. They could have been anywhere as far as I was concerned…
And IDK, maybe I did build this up as something else in my mind, and when it didn’t live up to those expectations, it made me grumpy. Maybe that is it? Maybe it’s me?
I was sort of expecting something a bit like The Troop, and that is on me. It’s not the authors’ fault that I’m a picky bitch. However, I gotta say, I don’t think it’s me that the pace of this could’ve been beaten by a snail.
Part of the problem for me was the main character, Ben. Something about him, the way he was written, or perhaps it was the narration in the audiobook, but it turned me off. I couldn’t stand him. Since he’s such a huge part of the narrative, it didn’t bode well for me.
Even though this was a disappointment for me, I can still recognize some strong attributes of the story, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if I end up in the minority opinion on this one.
With this being said, take it with a grain of salt. Maybe I am just in a mood. It’s totally possible and I admit that. If this synopsis sounds intriguing to you, please do pick it up.
If you end up loving it, come back and tell me how horribly wrong I am. I would welcome it! As I always say, there’s a Reader for every book and a book for every Reader. I’m by no means the end all opinion on all books.
Thank you to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I still am very much looking forward to getting to Old Country.