Wake the Wild Creatures
by Nova Ren Suma
High School    Little, Brown    384 pp.
5/25    9781616206727    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781523533275    $10.99

This psychological mystery with hints of a feminist utopia taps into and explores contemporary live-wire issues: gender warfare, abuse, power, vigilantism, and disillusionment with society. The novel opens in dark wilderness with an ambush by “the law” on feral-seeming thirteen-year-old Talia and her mother Pola, a “dangerous” fugitive who’s arrested on the spot. In the present day, sixteen-year-old Talia lives with her maternal aunt’s family; she’s misunderstood and desperate to return to the isolated community where she was raised. Flashback sections cover life at the Neves, an abandoned hotel at a once-grand Jewish resort hidden in the Catskills, as it grows into a self-sustaining commune and an underground haven for abused women and daughters. Teenage Talia’s story line in the “flatlands” centers on a search for truth and understanding regarding Pola’s crimes, Aunt Rachele’s intentions, her cousin Lake’s increasingly traumatic romantic relationship, and what really happened at the Neves. Elements of magic and surrealism dip in and out of the storytelling, furthering the dizzying nature of Talia’s narration—clouded by naiveté, brainwashing, or something less worldly. Suma’s (A Room Away from the Wolves, rev. 9/18) novel is an emotion- more than plot-driven story, with plenty in which readers will luxuriate: the lush atmosphere and breathtaking setting of a modern fairy tale; the alluring pipe dream of this feminist community; and catharsis in the cast of antihero(ine)s’ modes of revenge and self-determination.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.