The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury

William Morrow, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0062741998

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

Mother’s rules: never lose sight of the house; never come in with dirty hands, and most importantly, never, ever, make a person bleed.

The Wild Inside is a different kind of thriller. It’s been compared to a mix of Stephen King and the Bronte sisters, but that’s an unfair deal. What Bradbury has done is something unique, and should stand apart from those names. It truly is a wild novel both in narrative and story, something that adventurous readers should devour this spring and summer, despite the arctic bite that infects every chapter. It should also resonate strongly with the YA crowd and would do well to infiltrate that market, too.

Tracey Petrikoff is an unusual young woman. Kicked out of school for fighting, she harbors a darkness that usually can be contained. She seeks to please her parents and loves her little brother, even if things get a little crazy. When her mother passes away, Tracy is forced to grow up and help her father, an Iditarod musher who has been suspended. She also races, and aches to make the profession her life, although her behavior steps in and keeps her sidelined.

She is forced to focus on her hunting and trapping, skills she excels at, as she has a natural sense of what the prey feels and thinks. She keeps her mother’s warnings at the front of her mind, yet impulsiveness often rears its ugly head. When a stranger crosses her path in the wild, her knife flashes and blood spills. Her father saves his life, unaware that it could be his daughter who nearly killed the man. After a discovery nearby threatens to change her life, Tracey finds her world slowly unraveling. Then a boy steps out of the same woods to rent a room on their property: a character who holds more secrets than she.

What sets The Wild Inside apart from other contemporary YA fare is Bradbury’s narrative style. First person narrative is common, but while it’s not always well done, here the author excels. Bradbury’s style is both razor sharp and claustrophobic, resulting in a tense, but welcoming read. Dialogue tags are thrown to the side, often clashing with internal thoughts, forcing the reader to discern which is which: a heady, often trippy, experience that may put off casual readers, but for the dedicated, will bring rewards. Tracey is one of the more memorable characters in recent YA literature due to her moral makeup and her struggles both within herself and with the outside world.

Recommended for the thriller lover who craves something different, much different and can handle a different kind of narrative.

Contains: gore, violence, murder, descriptions of child abuse, LGBTQ+ themes

Reviewed by Dave Simms