The wildelings by Lisa Harding

I had never heard of Lisa Harding before or knew of this book coming out but once I read the description I knew I was going to love it and once I received it, I read it straight away and absolutely adored it from the very beginning.

The main character Jessica is very easy to dislike but yet I still find myself relating to her and feeling bad for her depending on the situation. Her side kick, Lisa, was always happy to stand back and let Jess bask in the sunlight whilst supporting from the sidelines and Jess enjoyed the attention too. Once they start college and Lisa begins to date a boy named Mark, things soon change and her grip on Lisa starts to falter.

Mark did not deserve Lisa. Let’s get that straight out of the way, just because Jessica didn’t deserve her it doesn’t mean that Mark did. I hated him so much, in fact I think I somehow hated yet loved every character in this book (which is how you know it’s a good one), he did encourage Lisa to spread her wings a bit but it was all under his supervision and what he thought was right.

I can relate to Jessica when it comes to slowly loosing your childhood friend to a relationship that is very obviously not going to last and reading about her trying to make Lisa see sense and failing was also painfully relatable too. In fact I think pretty much every reader would at some point see a part of themselves in Jess and that’s a major reason why I love this book so much, it’s really raw with how humans can feel and kind of calls you out a bit.

Throw a group of troubled students into a book and you’ve got be hooked for life, I loved everything about this book and I will definitely be buying a physical copy when it’s released on April 24th (I think). Jessica is my new favourite unreliable narrator and the book as a whole was a really brilliant way to get back into the academia type setting I haven’t read about in so long.

I wanted to like The Wildelings - the premise had promise, and I’m always up for a dark academia novel - but unfortunately, this one fell completely flat. The writing is clunky, the characters feel like cardboard cutouts of better books, and the plot trudges along with all the subtlety of a soap opera. It’s the kind of novel that desperately wants to be brooding and intellectual but never rises above melodrama.

The comparison to The Secret History is not only misleading but frankly insulting to Donna Tartt. Where The Secret History is masterfully written, atmospheric, and deeply psychological, The Wildelings is unoriginal and simplistic, lacking the depth or sophistication to justify the comparison. In fact, it would have been better marketed as YA - there’s a shallowness to the characters and their relationships that makes it hard to take them seriously as university students. I don't know who the person who said this author is "the new Donna Tartt" is but they must either be very stupid or have been paid a lot of money to say that.

Ultimately, while the idea behind The Wildelings had potential, the execution left a lot to be desired. If you’re looking for a gripping dark academia novel, I’d recommend skipping this one and revisiting The Secret History instead.

If you enjoy dark stories, then this book is for you. Our protagonist, Jessica, studies at an elite university in Dublin with her childhood best friend, Linda. Up until now, Jessica has always been the more dominant, outgoing, and popular of the pair. However, this changes during their first semester with the arrival of Linda’s boyfriend, Mark. He is charismatic, persuasive, charming, and dominant. He exerts influence over Linda that Jessica does not like, mainly because Jessica can no longer control Linda as she did before. Mark and Jessica begin a platonic relationship as Jessica stars in his theatre production, but the power plays, drugs, and secrets start to take their toll, making things very complicated and obscure.

This book is well-written and compulsive. While there were elements I did not like, it was certainly readable.

In keeping with the dark academic tradition, Lisa Harding's The Wildelings shocks with the insidious power of friendships, the drive to dominate and control, and the cruelties of belonging. The Wildelings is a dark, frighteningly honest, and flawlessly paced book that exposes campus life as not what it seems. Addictive, captivating, and finally exquisitely human, The Wildelings is a psychologically compelling tale about power imbalances in intimate relationships and personal manipulation told through pitch-perfect dialogue and wonderful writing.

3.5
Whenever I see a book compared to The Secret History I feel compelled to read it even though I know it won't come anywhere near, partly because I read TSH in my early twenties when it was fresh and new and had I nothing to compare it to, and partly because there's a reason it's a classic. So comparing a new book to TSH does the author a disservice from the off and this is the case here. Yes, there are hallmarks of the dark academia classics - unreliable narrator trying to be someone new, rarefied artsy, ivy covered small campus, small tight knit group, but the Wildelings is its own creation not a hollow imitation of Tartt's and stands up better to scrutiny as such.
Jessica is bright beautiful and damaged. Brought up in suburban Dublin she is at once used to being adored by her stepmother Sue and best friend Linda and rejected, her father abandoning her with Sue when she was small. So when she and Linda get places at prestigous university Wilde this is her opportunity to be the person she always wanted to be, desired, talented, a leader and sure enough, she is immediately voted Best Filly by the student body, falls gor gorgeous Jacques and gets the starring role in a play. Linda as always by her side. But when Linda is drawn into the orbit of the mysterious, pretentious but mesmerising Mark everything is upturned and Jessica finds herself relegated to bit part as Mark manipulates her and her friendship group to the ineviable end.
Told partly in the present to a therapist and mostly in flashback autobiography the book starts slow, almost too slow, and I actually put it aside to read something else in the middle. But once Mark starts exerting his malevolent influence the pace and tension ramp up. Three. five stars.

I think this is a book that could have picked up its pace sooner: the first half feels slow and over-familiar with Jessica and Linda meeting at school, one bold and the other shy. Up until about 50% I was still toying with not finishing it, then when the play kicks in, I was gripped.

Mark is a dark figure of the puppeteer, not quite coercive, not quite grooming as the book asserts, but definitely manipulative, tempting the young women with drugs and a kind of wayward sexuality.

The ending is perhaps neater than I'd prefer but there is some power in this story, even though it's more drawn out and unfocused than I'd have liked.

with the description of dark academia, I was definitely excited when I received the ARC of The Wildelings - with a somewhat unreliable and dare I say, unlikeable narrator, I was hooked! in two timelines, we learn of Jessica and Linda's time at Wilde - a time punctuated by drinks, drugs, sex and toxic friendships.

Jessica proves an unlikeable narrator - which I did, sometimes, struggle with - but the ending vindicated her - with her and Linda's friendship ready to fixed once more.

It's hard to feel any sympathy for Jessica, despite having a rough start.
She thinks too much of herself.
It's easy to feel a lot of sympathy for Linda, as it felt as if she was just being used by everyone.
Interesting power dynamics amongst the group, and a mild build up to a reveal of what the awful thing that happened was.
It was good, but I don't think it needs comparison to the secret history. Not quite THAT good.