{"id":154776,"date":"2021-10-29T10:11:32","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T23:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=154776"},"modified":"2021-11-01T13:53:50","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T02:53:50","slug":"review-wild-place-by-christian-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/review-wild-place-by-christian-white\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Wild Place by Christian White"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Wild<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thriller lovers, rejoice! Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child<\/em> and The Wife and the Widow<\/em> is back and his latest work, Wild Place<\/a><\/strong><\/em> is going to rock your socks off. Set over the Christmas holidays of 1989 against the oversized bushland-lined homes beyond Frankston, the new novel deftly charts the troubling desperation that bubbles under the surface of suburban life and asks the question: Why do good people do bad things?<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Christian<\/a>

Christian White<\/p><\/div>\n

The action of this story is catalysed by the disappearance of teenager Tracie Reed, whose parents are in the throes of a divorce. Despite her odd activity before her disappearance, including complaints of a stalker, cops dismiss the case as a runaway, with the investigating officer even nicking off on holidays and leaving the mystery wide open to speculation. The clich\u00e9 of the missing girl isn\u2019t what excites the reader here, it\u2019s the crazy way in which her town reacts.<\/p>\n\n\n

Enter the unlikely hero of Wild Place<\/em>: Tom Whitter, a high school English teacher with a mild case of Tourette Syndrome, a Mitsubishi Sigma and two misbehaved sons of his own. Tom has little to do with the missing girl other than that she was once his student and that the open bushland that backs off his property, from which the novel takes its name, also backs off hers. Following a meeting of his sweetly farcical neighbourhood watch group, Tom starts nosing into the world of the missing girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being suburbia at the end of the \u201880s, Tom and the neighbourhood watch can\u2019t help but turn their attention to local bad influence Sean, whose pentagram tattoo and M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce fandom make him an easy target amid the sweeping Satanic Panic of the time. Sean is an interesting character however, and definitely not one without something to hide. In fact you could say that about almost everyone you encounter in this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Christian White\u2019s earlier novels, Wild Place<\/em> is a truly addictive thriller that stands head and shoulders above other books of its class. White is a master of ebbing out the perfect level of detail to both immerse the reader and light up the imagination. This book is like a time capsule of late \u201880s Aussie suburbia that surveys the destructive nature of masculinity, grief and secrecy through its gorgeously crafted characters. I was in no way ready for all the dark (and wild!) places they carry you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Wild Place<\/a><\/em> by Christian White (Affirm Press) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Booktoberfest<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘A truly addictive thriller that stands head and shoulders above other books of its class.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":154788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[9742,715,721,723,13682,9016,9480,4484,13835],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/WildPlace-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154776"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154919,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154776\/revisions\/154919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}