Book Review: What Wild Women Do by Karma Brown

I had the pleasure of seeing Karma Brown speak about her latest book What Wild Women Do a few weeks ago, and lucky for me, I already had it on my bookshelf, so as soon as I got home, I cracked it open. A mixture of literary fiction, suspense, and even a dash of ‘contemporary women’s fiction’ thrown in, this book encompasses a whole range of themes, including romantic relationships, feminism, coming-of-age, and the outdoors. A few years ago I read Brown’s Recipe For a Perfect Wife which also had similar themes, and just like that one, I loved this book too!

Plot Summary

It’s 2021, and Rowan and Seth are forced to move away from L.A., back home to the town Rowan grew up in. Seth is an aspiring novelist that has discovered a love of Youtube. He’s created a channel about his life with Rowan, and its bringing in some income, which they desperately need. Rowan is an aspiring screenwriter, but not making much money, so they rent a cabin in the Adirondacks for a month hoping it will force themselves to each work on their writing projects. Once there, they stumble upon an abandoned compound in the woods, and through the locals they learn about the owner Eddie Calloway, a wealthy socialite-turned-feminist who strangely disappeared one day in 1975. What Wild Women Do alternates between Rowan and Eddie’s perspectives, slowly unravelling the mystery behind Eddie as Rowan and Seth discover more clues, and Eddie herself reveals what happened that fateful summer.

My Thoughts

I say there’s a thread of ‘contemporary women’s fiction’ that runs through this book because one of the major themes, or realizations that women come to in this book, is how they shut down parts of themselves in order to appease their male partner. Both Rowan and Eddie do this, and they each need to go through a process of re-learning who they are in able to flourish in their current state. It’s not a romance because it’s not about connecting with the opposite sex, it’s about developing one’s spirit despite the patriarchal norms both are working within, and even though there are 50 years separating them, Rowan and Eddie are on the same path, in the same exact woods.

Despite these serious elements, there’s a lot of fun in this book. There are stylized ‘pages’ of Eddie’s handbook for women dotted throughout the story; a poem, a morning ritual of sun salutations, a recipe, a short manifesto, even a craft idea with birdseed; these add a lightness that reminds readers it’s important to have fun too. Rowan’s time in the Adirondacks is laced with a sense of awe as she rediscovers nature and its power to heal, and she also meets some strong women who act as guideposts for her as she moves forward.

The book is exceptionally well plotted and paced, which is why I’d recommend it to so many people. It never lags, and the developments are exciting but believable. The female characters dominate the narrative, but the male characters are also given their due; some behaving badly, but never made out as a villain. Women also behave ‘badly’, but it’s this shifting definition of ‘bad’ that this book so expertly explores.