The Wilderness

 The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (2025), 304 pages

The novel follows five friends through their early twenties to mid-forties. It touches upon family issues, long lasting friendships, and current events. Overall, it was fine. The issue I had with it, is that it spread itself too thin. It tried to cover too much and in doing so left the reader feeling a bit underwhelmed. It was all very surface level when I would have appreciated Flournoy choosing a character and delving into their story line more. Flournoy also bounces around in the timeline and adds multiple side characters that end up leaving the reader confused. Flournoy introduces some heavy topics that, alone, would make a great book but get lost in the shuffle of all the other things happening in the novel. It was an ok read, but with better direction, could have been amazing.