Review: Wildwood

Wildwood by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've had this one on my radar for a little while ever since Laika Studios announced that it would be the source material for their next stop-motion movie, expected in theaters next year. Being that this book came out a couple of years after Laika's breakthrough hit Coraline, I can imagine that Meloy and Ellis took some inspiration from that movie with the dynamic between Prue and Curtis - something like Coraline and Wybie, but less antagonistic with each other to start. But I've also been to Portland's Forest Park enough times to see that the idea of it being essentially Oregon Narnia makes a fair amount of sense - even with the book adding the extra quirk that the Impassable Woods are accessible only via a St. John's Bridge that's normally nonexistent to the locals (and incidentally turns St. John's into a massive cul-de-sac of a neighborhood.) The book does drag on a bit, as some reviewers have noticed - the Laika team is for sure going to have to cut a lot of material out, kind of the opposite of their approach to Coraline where the book was smaller so the movie had to add more material. But for those readers who've become disillusioned with Neil Gaiman in the wake of his recent misconduct allegations, Wildwood would surely be a good stylistic fit if they want something else in a similar style.

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