The Wicker King Hardcover – October 31, 2017

Oh my heart...this book mesmerized me. I tried as best I could to read it as slow as possible so that it would not end. It is different than books I usually read, a slow slope down into madness for the main characters. K. Ancrum beautifully tells a tale of this dip into insanity and failure of society’s adults to do anything, as well valiant efforts of friends to help in any way they can. I loved each character, even Peter, twin to the kinder Roger, who on the outside seems a little cruel and uncaring, but really isn’t; he just seems to guard his heart where Roger is willing to show his. This book should be read by any adult with a child they fear is suffering severe emotional issues and any youth that is battling with these fears. I am so glad to have read it and pass along the author’s message, if you are battling with mental illness, it is not your fault, and you are not alone.

The Wicker King follows August and Jack, two boys with an intense friendship, perhaps bordering on something more. When Jack starts exhibiting symptoms of a degenerative mental disorder that causes hallucinations, August is determined to support Jack and help him cope, even if that means keeping his secret.But soon, as Jack's condition worsen's, August finds himself deeply planted into a fantasy world Jack has created and it is affecting his own mental and physical health. Together they will soon have to hit bottom before they can try and dig themselves out of the hole they have dug.I am having a hard time pinpointing my feelings for this book, because it seems that every aspect I appreciated about it, also lent itself to a negative which I disliked.For example, this book is an extremely quick read. At just 300 pages it is short enough on its own, but the font is fairly large with large margins, meaning each page can be read quickly. Furthermore, this is not traditionally formatted. By that, I mean it is not told in chapters, rather each page or two is a different snippet of information. This was intriguing and made the story fly.But this same aspect also made it harder to connect with the story. Because of the way it is formatted, it is very chunky and clunky, not always telling a cohesive and consecutive narrative. This made it extremely difficult to connect with Jack and August as characters and to fully absorb what was happening.Also, I had a hard time dealing with August's acceptance of Jack's disorder and willingness to indulge Jack's hallucinations. That it is a degenerative psychological disorder means it will only get worse. Finding entertainment and normality in Jack's hallucinations, does nothing to help the problem. This was acknowledged more at the end, but it was frustrating to see how August's intense and toxic codependency with Jack caused him to make stupid decisions.And, I have to talk about the absent parent trope that existed here. It is obvious that was a major plot point as Jack and August are essentially neglected which is what causes and exacerbates their codependency. They have to fend for themselves which further cements their bond and friendship. It is probably what fuels August's loyalty and protectiveness over Jack, and his desire to keep his secret. But again, the absent parents were fairly convenient.Despite this, I was fully set on a solid 3.5 stars. Though it took some time, I found myself invested in August and Jack and wondered what would happen to them....but then the ending happened and left me extremely underwhelmed. All that build up for nothing to happen.Overall, I thought this was a pretty fast and intense read. But I think more could have been done with it and there definitely could have been a better ending

Utterly fantastic fast read that remained refreshingly interesting and suspenseful the entire time. Jack and August friendship was pretty amazingly well done through the typical ups and downs of high school, but then with the addition of family issues with neglect, ongoing hallucination issues with Jack, and eventually the struggle of how to handle his condition without professional help.The characters really sold this especially Jack and August but also the close friends that gained through the year, the twins especially Roger became really interesting to see, the girl whom they bugged at first but opened her doors, Rina, became someone one wanted to see more of, and then Alex, though minor eventually played a part. I think even August's mom started to get to be somewhat interesting to see for development, even if she was crippled at times by the Great Big Sad. But overall Jack and August were seemingly one character split into two who with their individual parts would complete each other, enough so that it was split so well that it was like they really couldnt live without each other. For a story with the codependency theme lurking in the midst, it was one of the best done stories Ive encountered,. I think they could have got close even without the hallucination thing going on. I think several characters in universe even suggested this about them.The creative world of the wicker king was actually pretty nicely done and pretty detailed that it almost felt like a story in its own. I almost wonder if the writer wrote something fantasy at first then decided, what if I just make something set IRL and have one of the characters go through this world alone while bringing a friend alone who cant actively do anything.Overall an awesome story and one that is immensely memorable. All the tiny touches and moments of August realizing there wasnt something deeper to their friendship all along was great and I love how they finally did more than the forehead touch, melted and was so emotional.

I have such complicated feelings about this book. It's just...phenomenal.You know every now and again a book just totally grabs you and you can't put it down? Reading it becomes addictive and you constantly think about the characters? This is one of those books, for me. I read it in three days, and I can't believe I've finished it now. I almost feel lost without more to read as I was so engrossed and caught up in this book. I truly was living and breathing August and Jack's story. And it's a story of a complicated friendship that turns to love, of illness and insanity, of neglect and desperation, of needing to find the people who 'get' you.The relationship between August and Jack is INTENSE. And it's so well written. It was so tangible and I felt like I could just reach out and grab it. It's so vivid and real. I almost haven't got the words for describing it. I have never seen a relationship written as well as this. It just felt so...real. I could feel the boys' love for each other, and that ending, where they admit their feelings, was such a cathartic moment. It's the characters realising they're in love, something which the readers (and other characters) realise much earlier on.The book's about the hallucinations that Jack develops and how with each day he's sucked more into this internal world, and how August reacts to this--the codependency that he has for Jack, and his own deteriorating mental health as a result of going along with Jack's hallucinations. August's deterioration is really well done, and we see him putting himself in more and more dangerous situations--life-endangering situations--because he does whatever Jack requests.I think one of the reasons this book has resonated so much with me is because I have experienced psychosis, and K. Ancrum captures the nature of hallucinations so perfectly--even though we see it all through August's point of view. My psychosis, like Jack's, had a physical cause. Brain inflammation and a brain cyst in my case, rather than a brain tumour. And Jack's hallucinatory world and his behaviour just made so much sense to me. I could see myself in him, and it brought so much of that back to me.I almost feel like I haven't even processed just how amazing this book is yet. It's just so haunting. Usually by the time I review books, I've thought a lot about why a book creates the impact it does, and how, but I feel totally overwhelmed by the power of this one, and I wanted to write this review now to reflect these feelings.Also, the narrative devices in this book are amazing--it's a multimedia book, and parts of the story are told via hospitalisation reports, detention slips, photos of the main characters, and a note where Jack is asking out August. The note is a reoccurring piece of the story, and we see how Jack's crossed it out at various times, then scribbled over it again, as he's struggling to process his feelings for August. This added a whole new dimension to the story too.I highly recommend this book.

I honestly don’t know how I’m going to get through this review, because I have so many feelings about this book. I stayed up way later than I was supposed to, because I just needed to know what happened next and yet, I also really didn’t want it to end. Please believe me when I say that this book had me in the palm of its hand the whole time, I’ve read a lot of amazing books lately, but I haven’t experienced anything like this in a while. Normally when I read a book, I constantly have in the back of my mind things that I want to write about in my review, but with The Wicker King, I was too absorbed in the story to think about much else. This book is very uniquely structured as it contains whole pages of illustrations and photographs, for example, illustrations of the things that Jack can see and photos of the boys, the chapters are also very short and not divided by numbers, but by words and the pages also get progressively darker as Jack’s hallucinations worsen. Sometimes, the chapters would follow along from one another or simply just drop us in anywhere, which I actually didn’t mind, as it just made the chaos of Jack and August’s lives more apparent. And despite the short chapters, I didn’t feel like it was disjointed or that they were lacking in any way, the words that were written had purpose and were more than effective at telling August and Jack’s story, if anything it helped keep me focused on what was happening.The writing in this was so freaking good, like there are very few books that have made me add page markers to almost every single page, but my copy is overrun with them. Every chapter, no matter how short, held its own and I just wanted to remember every single one of them, as a whole, and just many lines individually. K. Ancrum just has this amazing ability to phrase things so perfectly, so you feel each of her words deeply and truly. The writing was the most phenomenal when it came to describing the dynamics in Jack and August’s relationship. Never in my life have I witnessed so much sexual tension between two characters, I mean it was literally shouting at me from the page. All the little moments that the author included to build this tension were just so well done and always had me anticipating what would happen next between them, “Then, without thinking at all, he bowed his head against Jack’s side and closed his eyes. Jack pushed his fingers through August’s thick hair and gripped hard”. I’m not going to pretend that their relationship wasn’t dysfunctional, because it really was and it was hurting both of them, but I still found myself rooting for them, because I could see just how much they meant to each other, “I’m responsible for him. And I owe him. Knowing that he’s okay is important to me. More important than anything else right now.” “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but I don’t think that’s healthy”. At times, I would literally have to stop because some of the things they said and did to each other were so ‘out there’ and ‘messed up’, but I also just found it so fascinating to observe this type of codependent relationship. It also highlighted to me how you don’t necessarily need to have labels such as boyfriend and girlfriend etc, to be in an unhealthy relationship, “He hadn’t noticed Jack flinch like he’d been slapped. His back to his king, broad and vulnerable. “Do what you want. You know who you belong to”…he smiled, always indulgent, even in the face of Jack’s petulance. “Yeah. I know”At the core of this story and what the author so diligently talks about in her author’s note is neglect. It is so easy to look at Jack and August and their situation and point the finger only at them. However, both boys have been severely neglected by their parents, Jack’s parents are never even home, “You can’t tell me how to raise my ch-child,” Jack’s father stammered…August let go of him in disgust…”Oh yeah? And who do you think has been raising him while you were gone?”, and August’s mum is home, but only in the sense of ‘the lights are on, but nobody’s home’. Jack can barely take care of himself and so August is acting as a parent to both his mum and Jack, cooking meals for them, checking on them and trying to keep a roof over his and his mum’s head. It is therefore unsurprising that Jack and August cling to each other like life jackets, as they are all the other has and therefore develop this unusual relationship, “On the floor”, Jack corrected. “I’m not going to look up at you. On your knees..don’t ever run away from me. you shouldn’t abandon your king. It’s…dishonorable”…Jack crawled out of the chair and kneeled on the floor in front of him, but it no longer felt right for them to be on the same level. August felt himself bowing lower and lower until his forehead touched the floor”. Throw in the problems that Jack is facing in regards to his mental health and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. No authority figure seems to even notice that there is something going seriously wrong with these two boys, all they offer are punishments, but never an ear to listen to them. It’s maddening to think that no teacher ever saw what was happening to Jack at least, but I guess that’s the sad reality. I’m sure many people will criticize the boys for not asking for help, but when you’ve been let down by almost every adult in your life, I doubt you’d be eager to ask them for help with something you don’t even understand yourself.Although the relationship between Jack and August was messed up beyond belief at times, what truly disturbed me the most about this book was Jack’s hallucinations. The author did such a great job of keeping us in the loop of exactly what was going on in Jack’s mind, but left out enough to show that no one would ever be able to fully grasp or understand it. August is trying his best to be there for Jack and so he is constantly asking him to tell him what he sees, at first these hallucinations seem random, but nevertheless, harmless, however as things progress they start to get darker and scarier, ” I mean technically, I can’t touch anything in your world. Chances are, it wouldn’t be able to touch me either” “what if? I just had to watch you get violently eaten? Then I completely lost the ability to see you? What about that? Jack spat angrily” August went silent. It was so difficult to read about some of the things that Jack was going through, because it just broke my heart, and then I’d have to think to myself, well imagine what this is doing to August when Jack is basically his whole world. I truly felt how stuck they both were and like August does for Jack, I just wanted to tell them that everything would be alright. However, I immediately knew that things were only going to get worse when August started to indulge Jack in his quest as The Wicker King, but of course wherever Jack goes, August will willingly follow, “This was a decision. August was choosing this. He wasn’t Alice falling unaware down the rabbit hole-that was Jack. August? He’d seen Jack fall and sprinted toward the pit”. I love these two boys with all of my heart and it was so hard to watch them going through this together, but very much alone, “If he’s your responsibility, you should be responsible enough to fix it. If you’re looking after him, look after him”This was a much grittier YA then I am used to and I enjoyed every second of it, from the portrayal of mental illness, the effects of neglect, dysfunctional relationships and just the teenage experience in general. I thought that it was extremely refreshing to have a book where characters are exploring their sexuality without any labels being assigned to anyone and how teenage relationships come in many shapes and sizes, as this one explored the idea of how being codependent of someone can bleed into sexual desires, “This is your game August. You asked for it. And we aren’t finished playing because you haven’t asked to stop”. Jack was close. His breath skittered across August’s eyelids, making him shiver”. The characters were beautifully realistic and so were the things that they were going through and I cannot stress enough, how important these stories are, to educate others and simply for those who are going through similar things. The Wicker King is now one of my favourite books of all time, a bittersweet tribute to love and friendship and the tribulations of growing up without the expected people to hold your hand along the way. This was heartache and hell, but I would do it all over again.

If you're looking for a book that will suck you in so quickly, you'll not even remember turning the pages or how long it's been since you started reading, look no further. This book is so dark, but so absolutely spell-binding and heartbreaking, that you won't be able to put it down. We follow August, whose best friend, Jack is starting to hallucinate. Since they were little kids, August and Jack have always been extremely close, and yet in school no one would think to pair them together. When Jack's hallucinations start to worsen, and they seem to take the shape of a whole other world set atop their own, Jack believes he's been shown this world for a reason, and it's up to him and August to find out why. August is so worried for his friend that his own health begins to deteriorate, and before long they find themselves in impossible and life-threatening situations. This is a book with so many trigger warnings, from parental abandonment, co-dependency, physical illness, depression, eating disorders, and so much more. But if you think you can handle it, I promise it's a story you'll never forget.​One pretty cool thing to add is that as Jack's condition worsens, the pages in this book get darker and darker. The chapters are only around 2-4 pages each, which makes this such a quick read as well! While this book is a contemporary, Jack's hallucinations give the story a slight magical element, which makes this the perfect book for fans of fantasy, contemporary, and magical realism.

Wow just wow 😮 My first book of 2019 and it’s a 5 star read!Everything about this book is phenomenal!I love it so much! It broke my heart 💔 into a million pieces in a million different ways.The physical book is so beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to look at, whilst being a physical representation of August’s mental decline. The multimedia format adds so much depth to the story as well functioning as a visual reminder of just how young and human these characters really are.The writing is so beautifully poetic and powerful that I was lost in the story from the first page to the last.The author’s depiction of mental illness is done in such a way as to show respect without shying away from the terrible reality this type of illness can create.The relationship between August and Jack is so dark and destructively addictive. Neither one is good for the other but they are both providing exactly what the other is woefully missing from their lives. Both are horribly let down and neglected by their parents and teachers and are therefore seeking that unconditional love, support and guidance from each other. Underlying all of that is the undeniable attraction between both boys. Some of the scenes contained so much sexual connotation and tension that it was easy to see that they could never be just friends.From the beginning of the book, Jack’s mental illness is front and centre and this cleverly distracts the reader from August’s ever declining mental state. August is a fantastic example of an unreliable narrator. He is so concerned with Jack’s mental health, that he isn’t even aware of his own illness and the hold it has over him.A truly powerful and emotional story about mental illness, friendship and love.I cannot recommend this one highly enough!

This was...This was...HOLY SMOKES!I Don't. Even. Know.The most beautiful - chilling - heart-wrenching - gut-twisting - torturously fantastical piece of mindflippery I've ever read.I don't know what to say. Don't know what to think!August and Jack were mostly disturbing.Their relationship was a dysfunctional sh*tstorm.Each complimented and nurtured the other's worst side.I should not have been rooting for them.Why the flip was I rooting for them?!