Book Review
A History of Wild Places
Atria Books, December 2021
https://www.amazon.com/History-Wild-Places-Novel/dp/1982164808
There are times when a book grabs you and holds you in place, keeping you entranced until the very end. This book was one such story.
Travis Wren finds missing people. It’s how he uses his gift. He brings the families of the missing hope because he no longer has any. Now, on the verge of disappearing into the Canadian wilderness, he’s been called again, hired by the parents of popular children’s author, Maggie St. James, to find her. After a tragedy followed the popularity of her Eloise and the Fox series, Maggie disappeared, her car found in a remote town in Northern California. It’s been five years and the family is desperate to find her. Travis doesn’t expect to find remnants of Maggie’s essence in the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest, doesn’t expect to be pulled by her over a snowy logging path until his truck becomes lodged in the snow, and he doesn’t expect to disappear like Maggie, but that’s just what he does.
Calla, Theo, and Bee live in Pastoral, a community founded in the 1970s by people tired of living the western life. They longed for a freedom they would never have if they remained in civilization, so they abandoned it, disappeared into the forest. Calla and her sister, Bee, grew up in Pastoral, love living off the land, and they love living in the little community they’ve known their entire lives, but Calla's husband, Theo, longs for more, wishing he could cross the boundary to the road that he guards every night, wishes for the days before the trees began to die outside Pastoral, before the pox threatened their very existence.
A History of Wild Places is full of unreliable characters, people who are filled with terror from an encroaching enemy they can’t see, soothed and assured they will be alright by their leader, yet knowing that something is off in their little village. Who will cross the boundary to find out? Who will risk infection and certain death? Theo seems the most likely, especially since he’s been crossing the boundary for ages, and most definitely after he finds an abandoned truck belonging to one Travis Wren. But how will Calla feel about his disobeying and leaving the protective circle their 90 acres inhabits? Will she turn him in for possibly bringing the pox back to Pastoral? It isn’t long after Theo admits to his infraction that Calla begins to question things about Pastoral, especially when she finds clues to a greater mystery in their own backyard.
Shea Ernshaw writes beautiful prose. I, for one, am a fan of lyrical and melodic words that lull me into the comfort of a story. However, sometimes this method becomes tedious. Every action, every surrounding was described using languid language that was meant, I believe, to make the reader feel as in touch with the earth and the surroundings of Pastoral as the characters are. I’m all about thematic prose, but there comes a point when it seems like the language has become a game, a way for the author or reader to feel superior in some way. There’s also the repetition of “my husband” and “my wife”. After finishing the book, I think I know why this was done, but when I was in the thick of it, I just wanted them to refer to one another by their names.
All in all, I’m happy to have selected this as my December book of the month. It’s engaging, haunting, beautiful, and it keeps you off-balance a bit, kind of like the characters in the story.
I gave A History of Wild Places 5 stars. If you enjoy lyrical prose and unreliable narrators, you’re sure to appreciate and enjoy this book.
Updated: Dec 18, 2021
Daughter of the King
Black Rose Writing, December 2021
https://www.blackrosewriting.com/historicaladventure/daughteroftheking?rq=kerry
There is something you should know about me. I am a major fan of historical fiction. This may be because I spent most of my college life studying history, as I worked toward an undergrad in the subject and then attempted a graduate degree. Or, it could be because I've always been a little obsessed with the past. Classic overthinker. Whatever the reason, I read more historical fiction than anything else and my bookshelves prove that. It should come as no surprise, then, that I read Kerry Chaput's thrilling debut, Daughter of the King. I didn't read it as much as I devoured it. Fiction lovers know what I mean, right?
The year is 1661 and La Rochelle France is a powder keg of unrest, as the Catholics of the region are trying to convert or eradicate the protestant population. Isabelle Colette and her mother live inside La Rochelle, doing their best to stay under the radar of those who wish them harm, even when former friends threaten to throw them to the proverbial wolves. As tensions mount, Isabelle meets a young, Catholic officer and falls in love. He can accept her despite her faith and his sworn duty to the king. It isn't long after that La Rochelle becomes the scene of a massacre and Isabelle must flee her home with her mother. It is only with the help of her young officer that Isabelle and her mother escape, both rushing into an unknown future that must be better than life in La Rochelle. Isabelle will come to learn, as many do, that persecution follows and endings are only as happy as you make them.
After settling into an uneasy existence in a new town, Isabelle is once again on the run, fleeing before she can be punished for something unavoidable. However, through her new connections, she is presented with an opportunity she never expected. She will be a Fille du Roi, a daughter of the king. Setting sail for the new world, she has a responsibility to select a husband and help populate this new land, but the future has other plans for Isabelle and she is ready to do what she must to see them through.
I read an advanced copy of this book. I promised the author that I would give my honest opinion, so here it is.
Daughter of the King is the most exciting piece of historical fiction I've ever read. So often this genre can be somber and slow, but Chaput grabs the reader from the first pages and pulls them along at a breakneck pace until its conclusion. There is hope, because what is a story without a bit of hope, and there are moments that make the reader cringe, draw up into themselves, and think, I'm glad that's never happened to me. There are passages that make the reader cry out in frustration because Isabelle is making the wrong decision and they know it, but Chaput shows us these mistakes are human and must be made.
It's a story with feeling and hope and history, what fan of historical fiction doesn't love that?
Daughter of the King gets 5 stars from me. Honestly, if I could give it more, I absolutely would.
Full disclosure, I am a recovering passive voice abuser. My older work is riddled with it and I once told a writer pal they could have my passive voice when they pried it from my cold, dead hands.
Yes, I still embrace clichés, but that's a topic for another day.
What do we know about passive voice?
- It slows down the narrative
- It's a sign that you're not unpacking your scene enough.
- It sticks out like a sore thumb.
Before we get started, it's important to note that passive voice isn't all bad. Sometimes you may have a character who is quite passive, so they may speak in passive voice. Other times you may prefer to slow down your narrative for effect. It's when your narrative is bogged down with it that you run the risk of losing your readers.
Now, don't start bashing "the rules". Truth is, there are no "rules" to writing outside of grammar and English, and we've made actual careers out of bending and pushing those rules. What we do have, however, is a standard. What does that mean? The standard of fiction is built from reader expectations. Readers are overwhelmed by a ton of exclamation marks (rightly so), avoid using them. Readers want a deeper connection than omniscient can give, write a deeper or close point of view. Readers are bored or confused by too much passive voice, use it sparingly.
We can lament "the rules" all we want, but the truth of the matter is, publishing is hard, and getting readers to notice you is tough. Why would you want to add another complication to that?
Active prose keeps our scenes moving, it helps build tension, and it assists in building strong characters that readers can identify with and root for.
The MC of what I hope will be my debut is a hard character to like. She's living with trauma that she has refused to deal with. She's bitter and angry, and she blames the entire world for her problems. In short, she has a B.A.D. attitude. If I were still the writer I was in 2014, I don't think the reader would identify with her as well, and they certainly wouldn't root for her. It's through her actions and reactions, those very physical moments, that readers feel connected to her. That intimacy isn't something that's easily achieved in passive voice.
But, Sayword, you say, I read books full of passive voice all the time! So do I. I've also tried to read two books in third person omniscient this year. That doesn't mean they were enjoyable, or that I even finished them. Spoilers: I didn't.
Passive voice is a lot like telling. You need it sometimes. In fact, sometimes it doesn't really matter. BUT, when you overuse these elements, your prose becomes tedious and, quite frankly, makes those of us who prefer well-written fiction want to hunt you down and force-feed those words to you. Is that too aggressive? Okay, so it really just makes us not read your books, and it makes us tell our friends not to read your books. You know as well as I do that word of mouth is everything in this business. If you don't know it yet, you will.
So, let's look at some examples of passive vs. active voice.
From The Purple Shelf Club:
Passive: The Barber Motorsports Museum has been visited by people from all over the world.
Active: People from all over the world have visited the Barber Motorsports Museum.
From Grammarly:
Passive: The squirrel was chased by the dog.
Active: The dog chased the squirrel.
You see from these examples, borrowed from The Purple Shelf Club and Grammarly, that passive and active voice is essentially the same thing. The difference is the wording. Passive takes the long way around. It meanders. Whereas, active voice gets it over with. This is what happened, let's keep going.
There are other examples, of course. Other ways that we use passive voice in our work. Little insidious crutches that inevitably show up in a first draft. I often tell writers I work with to do a document search for "had" and "had been" because the use of them usually signals passive voice has been used.
Another thing passive voice usually signals is that we haven't unpacked our scenes properly. If you've listened to About This Writing Thing a few times it's likely you've heard me talk about my favorite article on unpacking, Chuck Palahniuk's article featured in Lit Reactor, Nuts & Bolts: "Thought Verbs". I am a HUGE fan of this article because it's one of the best I've read that talks about unpacking a scene. Though the article is specifically about eliminating thought verbs from your prose, I find that it fits into so many more discussions. Especially those of show and tell, and (shocker) passive voice vs. active.
It is the writer's job to bring their scenes to life. How better to do this than to add life to your scene. Recently, I read a piece of work with nice chunks of dialogue, but no action in the dialogue. So as my mind reads, the characters in the scene are simply frozen in place, throwing words back and forth at one another. There was no movement to show me how the characters were reacting to one another, to submerge me in the scene. Just two people tossing out words.
Action makes a scene move, makes it play before our eyes like a picture show. We come to know characters most intimately when we see how they physically interact with one another and how they react to one another. Passive voice slows that movement down (if there is any), makes it past tense, an afterthought.
So, here's your assignment. Go through your WIP. Check for uses of "was", "had", "has been", "had been", etc., and take a look at those scenes. How can you rewrite them to make them more active? I promise you're going to thank me for this. And, if you don't, your readers will. We all know they're the ones who really matter.
Good luck. Until next time, take care and keep writing!
-Sayword
For more on passive vs. active voice, I encourage you to check out the following:
