Wild Things by Clay Carmichael

I really enjoyed this book, but retelling the plot won’t really explain why.  It’s another one of those books about a child who doesn’t know how to trust people because of the way people have let her down in the past, and yet on the surface Zoe seems to be a balanced character –she doesn’t treat her uncle (her new guardian) badly, or sulk endlessly in her room, or lash out at the kids or teachers at her new school.  It’s also a story about a man who’s never had children of his own, and yet he seems to know how to let a new child into his life –he’s not too strict or too private or too pushy.  The rest of the characters are interesting and not too stereotypical –there’s  a bully, but he turns out to have a soft spot for animals,  and there are some rich artsy snobs from New York, but there are also some rich artsy types from New York who turn out to be good friends.  I wasn’t too taken with the chapters written by the cat (who used to be feral until Zoe spent months winning him over).  There’s some suspense as the sheriff tries to figure out who vandalized the cabin in the woods that Zoe has made her own; there’s a white deer; there’s a wild boy; and some tense moments when someone or other is having a gun pointed at them.  Sounds like a good story to me.  Review by Stacy Church