Wilderness by B.E Jones – a review BLOG TOUR

I’m always a fan of a revenge story and so when I received an email inviting me to join the blog tour for the Wilderness by B.E Jones it sounded right up my street and I wasn’t wrong.

The Wilderness begins after Liv finds out that her husband was having an affair. Having moved from Wales to New York, Liv decides that the best way to try and fix their marriage is for them to spend two weeks on a road trip around America’s National Parks. However she isn’t quite ready to forgive him fully and so sets him three challenges that he will need to complete to prove that he is still worthy of being her husband. She doesn’t however tell him what those challenges are, and if he doesn’t complete them, well then there are plenty of ways a person might die out in the middle of nowhere.

This was an excellent story that made great use of the unreliable narrator vehicle. What could have been a relatively straightforward tale of a woman scorned who gets revenge, was not that simple. Wilderness is a slow burn of a story that had me hooked from the start. It was full of twists and turns with an ending that I found both satisfying and annoying in equal measure.

The fact that you only hear from the viewpoint of Liv means the novel has a real claustrophobic feel which is further heighted by the descriptions of their road trip through the vast American parks. This single viewpoint does of course mean that you are always slightly on edge as to what is going to happen next, as you are in the head of a rather disturbed woman. Although she isn’t a likeable character there was a part of me that felt sorry for her as she desperately tries to cling onto some form of sanity whilst feeling completely alone.

The novel’s settings switch between New York, Wales and the wildness of the American parks as we flit between current and past and gradually find out more about Liv and her relationships. I particularly liked the descriptions of America and the contrast between the hustle and bustle of New York, and the quiet emptiness of their holiday.

It is a well written story and has a great cast of characters on the periphery with Liv taking centre stage throughout. If you like the unreliable narrator style then I thoroughly recommend this as a perfect holiday read.

Thanks to DampPebbles Book Tours for my copy. You can buy your own copy of this here.