The Last Wildspeaker is a beguiling YA Fantasy novella with a meaningful subtext about preserving and respecting nature and the environment.
In the village of Brindlewood, Mara Fern can understand animals. While that used to be considered a gift, now it's considered unlucky and could be grounds for accusations of witchcraft. Mara is told to ignore animals’ conversations and to live as normally as possible. This normal front is tested when nature has decided that it will not be ignored. Various animals hint that damaging changes are coming. It comes in the form of the Briarthing, a vine-like plant creature that crowds the forest and nearby village and holds forest spirit Elderhorn in its stems. Mara has to use the powers that she suppressed and retreat into the woods outside her village with companions, Sable, a fox, Hoot, an owl, Corbie, a raven, and Turnip, a goat to find out the root (pun not intended) of this problem.
Any book that explores nature is bound to have a strong grip on setting and this book is no exception. It carries a deep respect for nature through the character interactions and the important prominence of plants and animals to the narrative. When Mara hears the conversations of animals, she realizes that they have human arguments, frailties, and vulnerabilities making them a part of the society around them.
Much of the humor derives from these animal conversations. A squirrel insists on territorial rights for his acorns. Turnip the goat brags about how delicious that he finds the mayor’s declarations are (since he’s a goat that’s not metaphorical). A cat critiques his human’s fashion sense. Chickens argue incessantly. A dog just wants biscuits.
These conversations could come from humans surrounding her and that’s the point. Animals just want someone to listen to them and take their concerns into consideration. Just because they serve as workers, food, predators, prey, or companions to humans doesn’t mean that they don’t have opinions on how humans run things.
Mara’s time with her animal companions is the highlight of the book as each character is fleshed out. Turnip is a lazy obstinate goat whose sarcastic barbs and “whatever” attitude provide much of the humor. Corbie the raven insists that he’s a prince and is a complete narcissist who has particular views about his plumage, nest, titles, and self-importance.
Hoot the owl is, like many owl characters in fiction, very wise but his knowledge is tempered with memory lapses that sometimes result in important information being delayed while he tries to remember it. Sable the fox is a charismatic and courageous team leader but is trying to live up to the very large luminous shadow held by his god-like adopted father, Elderhorn who needs to be rescued.
At the center is Mara who is now thrown into a situation in which the abilities that she once suppressed are now the keys to saving her village. She is overwhelmed by nature’s chatter but realizes her importance as the current bridge between the village and the forest to find out what is affecting both locations and what must be done,
Not just the animals but plants are affected as well. The Briarthing creeps into the village and crowds those around them leaving a terrifying and sorrowful presence. Mara investigates the presence and learns exactly what caused this disturbance. She learns that human arrogance and error created their own monsters and now are choking under the consequences.
It’s not hard to recognize this story as a metaphor for climate change and human-caused destruction towards nature followed by natural disasters as though they were from a planet fighting back.Sometimes the theme is a bit on the nose.
But it is also easy to see that Mara is supposed to represent us, those who are charged with hearing, listening to, and cooperating with nature to find the solutions that will rescue and benefit all of us.
The Weight of Sunshine by Roban Maquire is a deeply poignant and affecting Contemporary Fiction novel about a love story. Oh not a romantic one between lovers. Instead the love story focuses on a long lasting mostly platonic friendship between a man and a woman.
Jackson “Jax” Hart and Nina Welbourne-Rhodes, both from privileged backgrounds, meet in college and maintain a long friendship. Despite debating whether straight men and women can ever be friends and giving into their impulses a few times, the friendship remains constant. Through marriages, job changes, relocations, children, and other massive life changes, Jax and Nina remain constant steadfast presences in one another’s lives.
This is the type of novel that is filled with interesting characters with Nina and Jax as the most developed and fully realized. They have similar backgrounds of wealth and privilege. The type of upbringing where they were born at the finish line and their family names carry a lot of weight. It’s a background that is rich in material goods and economic advantages, but not so in personal experience or individual agency.
Nina in particular struggles with this as she purposely goes to a different college than intended, chooses an unplanned career trajectory, and lives like other students. It’s somewhat performative as she still retains contact with her family as a family emergency shows and if she gets tired of living a frugal life, she can always go home. But, the fact that she even makes this decision shows a resilient independent need to make her way in the world her own way.
Jax also shows resilience during his marriage to Penny, a bright but troubled woman. He endures his personal misery while also helping his brother and his friends like Nina with their problems. He is a steady rock for other characters even as his own personal life crumbles.
In fact it is Nina’s independence and Jax’s endurance that attracts them to each other and keeps their friendship alive. During their reunions, they have insightful conversations about love, life, and death. Their witty dry humor bounces off each other as they are faced with youthful philosophy and adult practicality.
The book loses its luster during the half-way point when what started out as a platonic friendship becomes predictably romantic. There are some decent moments after this. They continue to support each other. They shine as a duo just as much as individuals, but the set up of a platonic friendship is lost. In trying to prove the point whether a heterosexual man and woman could be platonic friends, it deconstructs it by saying that they can’t because sex, love, and family always inevitably get in the way.
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