April Book Review

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

I chose this April's book review after a lot of deliberation. I've been blessed by the patron saint of good reading this year; the quality of storytelling has been exhilarating! Pair all that writing talent with my newly rediscovered attention span (one of the benefits of saying goodbye to social media), and I am in book nerd heaven. However, all that good reading creates a challenge when choosing which book to review and recommend. I know you're busy people with jobs, businesses, families, and lives to attend to, and I'm careful not to overwhelm you with too much landing in your inbox. So while I have a juicy handful of books I'd love to talk with you about, I'll keep it to one, which this month happens to be:

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff.

The Premise

The girl has decided to live, so she is on the run from the settlement where death prevails. She is alone in the wilderness, running for her life through a forest slowly waking up from its winter slumber. She is running from a life of servitude, a life with nothing to call her own. The girl is fleeing the violence of a society dominated by a patriarchal religion that demands subjugation of all its citizens, but particularly its women.

My Thoughts

The Vaster Wilds is subtle feminist storytelling. It doesn't feel like a feminist story at first, but slowly, and with great skill, the author weaves an original and captivating retelling of the relentless pursuit and attempted domination of women and the wilful destruction of our natural environment for the greed of the capitalist system. It takes us on a delicious eco-feminist journey without being overbearing or full of tired tropes.

What I Liked

I loved that amidst the anger and fear The Girl feels about her situation; she feels awe for the place she finds herself. The girl is fleeing into an almost untouched wilderness that coaxes an understanding of life outside the small-minded matrix of the Christian religion of the 1600s. This intriguing story offers an invitation to The Girl and to us to soften and see the bigger picture of God, life, and our world.

It invites us to consider a reconciliation with the natural world that releases the energy of "dominion over" and allows us to enter into the energy of collaboration.

I enjoyed the interwoven threads throughout the story, illuminating our need to respect nature and cultivate human connection. We cannot survive without a healthy planet, and we cannot survive without each other.

I loved how the story unfolded through flashbacks that explained The Girls predicament and the circumstances that brought her to the New World. I enjoyed how the present weaved itself in with the past, bringing depth to the storyline and inviting me to draw my own conclusions about The Girl and her actions.

What I Didn't Like

I loved everything about this novel: the storyline, the emotive descriptions, the throwbacks, and everything in between.

Conclusion

Lauren Groff has a ridiculous amount of talent. The first chapters were intriguing, leaving many questions about The Girl and why she was running. All these questions were artfully answered as the story unfolded, creating a picture of neglect and abuse that could not stifle a pure heart. Love reigned supreme in this story, despite the traumas inflicted upon The Girl—traumas that women the world over have come to expect as part of the female experience.

My Recommendation

Put aside a weekend to read this one. Gather everything you need to comfortably read it from cover to cover because you won't want to put it down. Turn off your phone, grab your doona, and settle in for a story that will make you feel all the feelings.

I recently read a quote that fits beautifully with this novel:

You only need power when you want to do something wrong; I find love suffices in every other situation. Charlie Chaplin.