I am not a brave soul when it comes to horror, so it is a recommendation in itself that I finished EE Ottoman’s A Wild and Hungry Place. Did I read this with my hands over my eyes at times? Yes I did. Did I actually enjoy the creepy tension? Surprisingly, yes. It is gorgeous and genuinely scary. There is a curse, poisonings, stabbings, cannibalism, ghosts, lycanthropy, and something that should have been left slumbering undisturbed.
Cricket is newly widowed and invites herself to live with a distant cousin of her late husband, Gabriel Throckmorton. Cricket has inherited wealth from her parents and her late husband’s family would like to keep hold of that money. Early in the marriage, a curse was laid on Cricket. If she stays beyond a certain distance from a member of her husband’s family, she will sicken and die. Throckmorton is a black sheep, and seems like her best option for getting away from her mother in law without dying. Throckmorton isn’t thrilled, but eventually is willing to house Cricket until they can figure out how to lift the curse.
I’ve been reading a lot of books with gothic elements, and in them, the transgressive characters are either the barrier to happiness or the happiness itself. In A Wild and Hungry Place, the transgressive characters are the bulwark against the evil unleashed by extractive capitalism. Throckmorton is a trans man who turned himself into a werewolf in order to reshape his human body. Cricket looks like a woman, but she is more truly a non-binary water gremlin. And then there is Rosaleen, who goes beyond gender and morality because she is dead. Cricket was unhappy in her marriage for many reasons, one being that they tried to force into the shape of a lady, and the other that they kept her in an orderly civilization when she is happiest in nature. As Cricket wanders the lands around her new home, both waking and in dreams, she discovers something is very wrong.
There were moments in A Wild and Hungry Place where I thought of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Cricket reminded me at times of a Hobbit who had been kept from her garden and her particular interest in mushrooms. I thought of Gandalf talking about Khazad-Dûm and the dwarves who dug too greedily and deeply, awakening something that should have been left dormant. Ottoman’s love of and respect for nature and its creatures shines through.
This is a genuinely creepy book, for all that it’s beautiful. Perfect for spooky season. This is for those of us who dream of moving to the woods and becoming the terrifying witch of our dreams.
I received this as an advance reader copy from the author. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
I really can’t do better than the author’s mood board.