TLC Book Tours – The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury

Another day, another fun book tour!

Thanks to William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

THE WILD INSIDE – Jamey Bradbury (out now!)

Book Description:

“The Wild Inside is an unusual love story and a creepy horror novel — think of the Brontë sisters and Stephen King.” —John Irving

A promising talent makes her electrifying debut with this unforgettable novel, set in the Alaskan wilderness, that is a fusion of psychological thriller and coming-of-age tale in the vein of Jennifer McMahon, Chris Bohjalian, and Mary Kubica.

A natural born trapper and hunter raised in the Alaskan wilderness, Tracy Petrikoff spends her days tracking animals and running with her dogs in the remote forests surrounding her family’s home. Though she feels safe in this untamed land, Tracy still follows her late mother’s rules: Never Lose Sight of the House. Never Come Home with Dirty Hands. And, above all else, Never Make a Person Bleed.

But these precautions aren’t enough to protect Tracy when a stranger attacks her in the woods and knocks her unconscious. The next day, she glimpses an eerily familiar man emerge from the tree line, gravely injured from a vicious knife wound—a wound from a hunting knife similar to the one she carries in her pocket. Was this the man who attacked her and did she almost kill him? With her memories of the events jumbled, Tracy can’t be sure.

Helping her father cope with her mother’s death and prepare for the approaching Iditarod, she doesn’t have time to think about what she may have done. Then a mysterious wanderer appears, looking for a job. Tracy senses that Jesse Goodwin is hiding something, but she can’t warn her father without explaining about the attack—or why she’s kept it to herself.

It soon becomes clear that something dangerous is going on . . . the way Jesse has wormed his way into the family . . . the threatening face of the stranger in a crowd . . . the boot-prints she finds at the forest’s edge.

Her family is in trouble. Will uncovering the truth protect them—or is the threat closer than Tracy suspects?

My Thoughts: 4/5 stars!

I love when thrillers and mystery novels dive into topics and lifestyles that I know very little about. In THE WILD INSIDE, Jamey Bradbury’s knowledge on the topics shines through. She places you right in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, having never been there myself, I felt like I was there.

Tracy Petrikoff is a natural born trapper and hunter. She spends her days running her dogs and tracking animals in the Alaskan wilderness. Tracy always follows her late mother’s rules:
Never lose sight of the house
Never come home with dirty hands
Never make a person bleed – the most important one

All of this changes when Tracy is viciously attacked in the woods by a man. She is knocked unconscious and when she comes to she has little memory of what happened. She notices a man coming towards her from the trees and she notices that he is gravely injured from a knife wound that resembles her hunting knife. Did he attack her? Did she almost kill him? And why is he vaguely familiar to her?

Meanwhile, she is preoccupied with helping her father cope with her mother’s death and preparing for the Iditarod (a big dog sledding race). Enter Jesse Goodwin, a man looking for a job – Tracy can’t put her finger on it, but something doesn’t seem right about him.

There was a lot of good suspense to this book. The fact that Tracy didn’t share with her dad about her attack added a layer of tension. How can she share her worries about Jesse without telling her dad about what happened in the woods? I loved the characters and the setting. This was a very atmospheric novel and with it all taking place in the woods around her home there was a small claustrophobic feeling. If you aren’t a fan of stories that don’t quite answer ALL your questions then it might be a little frustrating for you, but overall, I did like the ending.

About the Author:

Born in Illinois, Jamey Bradbury has lived in Alaska for fifteen years, leaving only briefly to earn her MFA from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Winner of an Estelle Campbell Memorial Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters, she has published fiction in Black Warrior Review, Sou’wester, and Zone 3, and she has written for the Anchorage Daily News, TheBillfold.com, and storySouth. Jamey lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

Find out more about Jamey at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Where to Purchase a Copy: