Wilderness by Roddy Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Wilderness is a book for younger readers. I usually enjoy such books, but something about this one just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t connect with the characters. I couldn’t relate to them.
It’s a story of two boys who are taken on a wilderness holiday by their mother. She is keen to be away from home while her husband’s first wife visits their daughter, who lives with her dad. I enjoyed the mother/daughter relationship — the fear, anger and getting to know each other scenes. However, I didn’t enjoy the wilderness side of the book. It bordered on boring. It didn’t feel realistic. And the climax wasn’t very suspenseful.
It’s a story that explores relationships within dysfunctional families, which is a situation I know well, but that’s where my connection with this book ended.
Having said this, it wasn’t a terrible book, just not meaningful enough for my liking.