Into the Windwracked Wilds

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Into the Windwracked Wilds) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated.  🙂

I find myself in a bit of a conumdrum having finished Into the Windwracked Wilds this morning.  The story intrigues, but the method of telling left me feeling a bit left behind. Let me see if I can explain it to you in this review.

A brief overview of Into the Windwracked Wilds

Reading the third in a series of the Up-and-Under, we have Into the Windwracked Wilds by A. Deborah Baker.  A whimsical way of telling a story with four main protagonists: Zib, Avery, Niahm, and Crow Girl.  They are found traveling the improbable road until they annoy it and it dumps them off into the ocean.  You’ll discover a variety of fantastical creatures, and an odd system of governments…both good and bad. 

I am reviewing a softcover ARC edition on behalf of Raincoast Books.  The publisher is Tordotcom Books.

Just what do you get?

Simple ornamentation decorate the chapters.  Consistently a set of crowns. 

A chapter book, it’s classified as a dark fantasy book.  It’s not a light reading book.  Based in a dangerous world where one needs to be careful with the words you use. Monsters abound and rules don’t make a whole lot of sense.  It has a very ‘dream-like’ quality in the writing style.

I want to say it’s a middle school read, but it’s not really focused on that.  It’s not a difficult read by any means, just very ethereal? Not even sure that’s the right word to use.  The main characters have a goal in mind but side stories, and the characters they meet often side-track them. Everything it seems is very dangerous and being extremely careful serves them well. 

Should you read?

Unless you have read books 1 and 2, I don’t know that I would recommend Into the Windwracked Wilds.  Some series do an excellent job at tying different books together, this one does not. You’ll get a bit of allusion to events, but nothing that really explains how the protagonists got together or even what the whole real point is. 

And if you have read the first two in the series, you know the whimsical style of A. Deborah Baker and will then enjoy reading Into the Windwracked Wilds.