K. AncrumRecensioni

this book is magical

4.5 / 5 ⭐️‘s

“The Wicker King” by K. Ancrum

“Jack kissed him so carefully that August thought he would fall to pieces. Kissed him with the weight of knowing the price of risk. Then he gazed back at August like his heart was already breaking.”

I found this book on some list somewhere because I was searching for LGBTQ books by Black Authors. Im so glad I decided to read this one.

This was a heart wrenching story of mental health, friendship and love that was way to short! I want more!

Very interesting premise. I wish K. had changed the names a bit, as I felt strange reading about characters that were so different and yet had the same names.

This book was the most confusing I have ever read, but not in a bad way? If I was a more poetic person I would say the whole book represents a loss of control (but you know in a more poetic way)

Yup, I loved it. Is it perfect? No. Do I care? Nope.

This was such an interesting spin on the original Peter Pan story. Wendy Darling moves to Chicago and in her first night, she discovers her window doesn’t stay shut. Telling her parents, they promise they’ll get around to fixing it. When they go out for a night, she discovers a strange boy standing in her room, Peter. He convinces her to go out on the town for the night. Only that’s when the story picks up. She meets Tinkerbelle, Peter’s friend who tries to warn her to go home. Some of the familiar characters from the original Peter Pan are reimagined in this story - Detective Hook, Crocodile, and Tinkerbelle. The story twists and turns and and pulls the reader in from the first few pages. Without spoiling this too much, I love the way Wendy’s mother was involved in this story. I was so disappointed when the book came to the end but I absolutely loved it and how K. Ancrum write this. Highly recommend this retelling of Peter Pan!!!

This was a fascinating additional short story following the Wicker King. I loved seeing parts of the story through Jack's eyes paired with the melodic fairytale story.

This book was an experience.
It was strange and interesting and left me questioning the entire time what was real and what was not. Was this world real or was it all in Jack’s head?

Jack and August’s relationship was definitely an unhealthy one which had me concerned at first but I am so grateful for how the author handled it. It was addressed and emphasized on how unhealthy and co-dependent the boys were towards each other and I am so relieved that for once in a story the characters got some type of therapy and help by the end (I cannot count how many characters would benefit from some much needed therapy).
I also LOVED the way the book was written with mixed media- the drawings, the notes, the CD’s, just everything. I especially loved how as they book and the characters spiraled into darkness the pages themselves faded to black to emphasize that. It was just such a creative choice and it just enhanced the experience overall.

Definitely an intriguing story and so very different than most books you will pick up.

This book is bizarre and that's making it hard for me to shelve it. It takes place in an (albeit far-fetched) version of the "real world" but, due to a specific type of mental illness, there are a lot of fantastical elements.

August and Jack are lifelong friends but when Jack starts experiencing hallucinations that gradually get worse and more encompassing, August chooses to play along out of a grandiose sense of obligation, instead of thinking that Jack would instead benefit from some actual medical help. August ignoring all the signs that Jack is actually ill finally coalesce to them being sentenced to criminal psych ward separated by order, though while there Jack finally gets the treatment he needed.

I ended up really enjoying the story because of how weird it is but also really enjoyed August and Jack as characters as well as their own friendship. There were several moments where it seemed a little too far flung from reality but I think that added to the charm of the story as a whole. This book isn't going to be for everyone but it's one that I won't be forgetting soon.

I do so love a good Peter Pan retelling, especially when they focus on the darker parts of his character. This contemporary thriller does this so well, and I loved the new, but totally in-character, directions Ancrum took every single character. What a treat!

This was an unusual book about two best friends, August and Jack, who have an undercurrent of something much more than friendship, as they struggle their way through absent and emotionally absent parents, mental illness, and the perils of figuring oneself out. Watching August try to help Jack as his visions grew more present was both deeply touching and heartbreaking. An interesting tale with an unexpected conclusion.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.

This book was a very beautiful read, but I must say that it didn't grab me the same way that the Wicker King did. I thought that the development between Alexandria's and Ryann's relationship seemed a little off to me. Neither seemed to actually like each other as I read the book even though they did? Maybe it was just their being awkward around one another, but I honestly couldn't see it until toward the end of the book. Overall I enjoyed the story Kayla wrote and cannot wait to see what she writes next.

Rating: 5/5 Stars
Title: The Wicker King
Author: K. Ancrum

Synopsis:
Jack once saved August's life…now can August save him?
August is a misfit with a pyro streak and Jack is a golden boy on the varsity rugby team—but their intense friendship goes way back. Jack begins to see increasingly vivid hallucinations that take the form of an elaborate fantasy kingdom creeping into the edges of the real world. With their parents’ unreliable behavior, August decides to help Jack the way he always has—on his own. He accepts the visions as reality, even when Jack leads them on a quest to fulfill a dark prophecy.
August and Jack alienate everyone around them as they struggle with their sanity, free falling into the surreal fantasy world that feels made for them. In the end, each one must choose his own truth.
Written in vivid micro-fiction with a stream-of-consciousness feel and multimedia elements, K. Ancrum's The Wicker King touches on themes of mental health and explores a codependent relationship fraught with tension, madness and love.

Initial thoughts:
These last few months, I have seen The Wicker King floating around my Instagram feed and I was intrigued by the synopsis and thought the cover looked really cool. I kept putting off reading this book though until I saw that my coworker at the library had purchased it. When I saw it featured on our shelf, I felt it was a sign to finally read this book (even though I hadn’t finished the Illuminae Files yet).
Just from the inside cover, I knew that this books was going to be a wild ride. I also noticed that the pages grew darker as the story progressed. That visual in itself was stunning and I was ready to descend into the madness of the book.

Plot:
What I liked:
Where to even begin with this book. To be honest, I thought that it was a perfect portrayal of mental illness, neglect, isolation, and toxic relationships. The progression of the book was steady and flowed perfectly. I liked how each segment was a page or two long detailing only the importance of things that were occuring within the book. As the book continued, I found myself enamored by the changes that were present in the protagonists as well. Observing the transition, I felt sad for both of the boys as they tried to piece together things on their own to the best of their abilities. The bond that the boys share is almost all encompassing causing many issues in its own way. They lived for each other and ended up hurting more as time progressed and Jack grew sicker and sicker.

What I didn't like:
To be honest there wasn’t anything I can say that I disliked about the book. This was a beautifully written book that pushed at controversial topics in a unique way.

Characters:
August: Issues x10. I was so sympathetic for August and worried about his take on his position in the world. His way of coping and working things out could have been better overall, but he was just as broken as Jack if not more so.
Jack: If August is Issues x10, then Jack is Issues x1000. I was very worried about this kid for the majority of the book as I knew that things were going downhill for him. His character shifted so greatly as the story changed.
Rina: I really liked her character and she was very sensible. I wish that I would have gotten to see more about her overall.
The Twins (Peter and Roger): I liked them and their way of handling things. They both cared so much and wanted everything to turn out well.

Overall:
This is a book that I know I am going to be reading again as time rolls on by. This book was fantastic and held my attention completely. I felt as though I were engrossed in this world that Ancrum was writing out through August and Jack. I felt very sympathetic for the protagonists and found some things in the book hitting very close to home for me. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in thrillers and any kind of psychological stories. It was very well put together and I am excited to read the side story that comes along with this book and look forward to reading more from K. Ancrum.

Grabbed this one to read in the voting line because I'd thought it would be a good Halloween-y read. Meh, not so much, and not for me. I was hoping for a dose of magical realism, but this is straight-up realistic and, well, a pretty darn awful situation. I know people who like to read this realistic-difficult-life type of genre, but it's just not for me. Even with the excellent, efficient but weighty writing.

Plotwise, my biggest frustration was that no one thought or suggested that Jack might have a tumor, and that, despite his incredible levels of delusions and pain, it took months for anyone in the hospital to think to do a brain scan. The secondary characters were wonderful, though. I loved August and Jack's circle of friends, all of them caring for each other in their own ways, and the reactions of those who stopped caring as well.

One thing that particularly interested me about the book was its physical appearance. Not only is it gorgeous on the outside--with beautiful gold images of August's attempts to record Jack's delusions--it also has some ephemera from their lives, like a scrapbook. I didn't quite get why there were CD mixtapes from most characters when only one of them talks about making one, or the article about the farmer who unexpectedly found something interesting in his field, and I wish we'd had more elaborate drawings of Jack's visions. But the progress of the pages from clean and neat through grey smudges until they were finally black with white text was an excellent visual for how bad the situation was getting. I did notice, though that the back matter's regular black-on-white pages gave the impression of a happy/normal ending that just wasn't going to come from a realistic book. Though it did kind of nail home the author's excellent closing note about how adults failing teens is something that happens in the real world.

Finally, I'm extremely uncomfortable with the two main characters' relationship. It's so unhealthy, and the text is wonderfully aware of that at the beginning, but then at the end August and Jack get together like it's some kind of triumph instead of a total terror. These two codependent people in an abusive relationship are just going to continue, but are we supposed to ship them just because they went through hell together--a hell of mental illness and said abusive relationship? The ending felt more like a tragedy to me than hopeful ending that I think it was going for. Or maybe the fact that the page stayed totally dark at the end is a sign that it is a tragedy, with no real hope in sight.

So yeah, my rating is no fault of the book's, just my own taste.

a modern, edgy, and queer reimagining of peter pan. The writing is fast paced and fun, and with it set in chicago, its gott lots of points of interest for a local

For some reason, I always thought this book was a fantasy. It made me think of the old movie the Wicker Man (both versions). But that could not be farther away from the plot of this story.

This book is a look at two teen boys, August and Jack, as they descend into madness. You know this from the very beginning because as of page five you know one of them is in an asylum. The story takes you through how August got there.

At times this story is hard to follow. Each chapter is less than five pages and each has a heading that sometimes makes perfect sense, and other times could lead to debates on it’s meaning. Most of the story is told from August’s point of view, but we see snatches from other friends who want to be helpful, but don’t know how. The adults are useless, either because they are absent, dealing with their own mental difficulties, or not paying attention. August tries to be there, be the grownup for his best friend Jack. But as Jack gets stranger and stranger, he pulls August under with him. Literally in certain parts.

The cast of friends see things happening, and try to help, but how can you help when things seem hopeless? This book is also confusing, but I think it is intended to be that way, so the reader gets to feel a bit as the boys do; lost and afloat looking for solid ground. This book is both moving and terrifying in the best way. It is well written, and thought provoking. I will need time to recover from this read. It’s just … wow!

There is a novella that tells the story from Jack’s side, available as an ebook. If you get to the end of this, that might be worth reading. That would be the fantasy book I was thinking this was. The idea intrigues me, but right now, I can’t do that. I need a rest. Like the boys, I need to sleep and be left alone with my thoughts.

I can see why this book was getting so much praise when it came out four years ago. It deserves every bit of it. And it should be on library shelves for years to come, as there are things teens will see about themselves in the pages, and it may prompt them to get the help they need.

This book was fantastic. It was hard, but it was worth reading, and a topic not readily found in many YA books.

TW: Non-graphic sex, mental instability

I didn't really expect anything that happened in this book. It was an interesting read, but it left me in a really weird mood. 3.5 stars

Absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. The ending was perfect :')

Once upon a time, August Bateman walked out into the sun. Jack watched as he tilted his head up and took a deep breath. There were no more silver birds, no more butterflies, no more gore crows, none of it. But as the light played with August’s dark hair, Jack could swear he heard singing.

A perfect companion novella with lyrical writing.

I had this sitting on my Kindle for a good few months and I can't believe I just only read it. I loved the entirety of this book. From the simple yet beautiful writing which made me want to continue reading at the end of each chapter to the fleshed out characters and world building. I do not have any faults for this book and it's definitely one of the best I've read this year. I'm not going to give away much because reading this with the bare minimum context allowed me to fully immerse in the beautiful world that K.Ancrum had crafted. The slow burn was perfectly paced and it was nice that the romance wasn't exactly the main plot of everything but played a large part in the story. The ending was also great. I didn't expect it to go that way and I'm glad that the two main characters were able to break the chain that made them friends in the first place.

DNFing this one at the halfway point. I am definitely not the target audience for this particular book and I'm having a hard time suspending my sense of disbelief. I enjoy the writing style and I'm pretty certain that as a young high schooler, I would have fallen for this book hard, the angst is intense, the emotions run high, and the situations would have captured my imagination. Sadly, as an adult, I can't help wondering where the parents are and why on earth is no one more concerned about the number of school absences these students must have...ah, adulthood :/

This was definitely a book. It was very hard to read for me, both physically due to the choice to have the pages get darker as the story progressed (the mid section got strenuous on my eyes) and the material was very dark. I think it was very well written and as a not-mentally ill person I think the characters were very believable.

I just didn't like August or Jack or their relationship and it was very difficult for me to get invested in the story because of it. This took me a lot longer to read than it should have just because I didn't really WANT to read it.

I'd say this is probably somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for me because it was really well written and the characters were real, I just couldn't invested in the characters or the narrative.

Well Damn. The second half sealed the deal for me with this one.

Full review coming soon~

4.5 star rating.

Well if I didn't know it after reading The Wicker King (and basically declaring it my favourite book of 2018) then I sure know it now: K. Ancrum is a genius. This book is somehow devastating yet hopeful and filled with such kindness, just as The Wicker King was. Kayla has this incredible talent for ripping out your heart then making you thank her for doing it. She packs so much emotion into her stories and characters and somehow makes it all the more powerful once you've turned the last page and read her authors note (which similarly to TWK made me cry goddammit). I really do believe Kayla Ancrum is one of the most promising new authors in YA fiction at the moment, and I will read literally anything she writes from now on. Thank you Queen🙌

P.S. That Wicker King reference... I SEE YOU, and I'm emotional

Trigger warning: attempted sexual assault

I honestly don't even know what I just read, but I am completely blown away like. wow. this wasn't at all what I was expecting, but it was just . . . raw and heart-wrenching and beautiful