Sometimes a book just hits the spot. For me, A History of Wild Places is that kind of book—as someone who loves all books woodsy and psychological, I felt at times that it was written just for me. YA author Shea Ernshaw’s adult debut is a moody thriller set deep in the woods of Northern California. There’s a lot to latch onto in the novel’s 350 pages: not one but two disappearances, a reclusive community brimming with secrets, a book-within-the-book motif, a key sister relationship. Perhaps the only thing missing, at least according to my taste, is a New England setting. Luckily if you squint, the densely forested mountains of Ernshaw’s inland Pacific Northwest can start to resemble our own less jagged hills.
With its missing-person mystery and remote setting, A History of Wild Places has a lot in common with Upper Valley favorites like Peter Heller and Louise Penny. But Ernshaw tacks on a hefty dose of the terror—and in some cases the magic—of the unknown, resulting in a dark, imaginative, and completely immersive look at the wilderness of both the world outside and that of our own minds.
Allie Levy owns and runs Still North Books & Bar in Hanover. She writes that A History of Wild Places is back-ordered, but “folks whose interest is piqued should know about it and they can always listen to the audiobook or ebook or just put their name down with a local bookstore for when it does come back in stock.”
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