“Little Wild” is a tale of deep-rooted allure bordering on obsession

Little Wild by Laura Evans exceeds expectations if you’re seeking a braided tale of deep-rooted allure bordering on obsession. Evans’ lush literary style drags you through the thorny English countryside with abandon and hope that true love endures.

It’s 1937 in Suffolk where young Margaret anticipates reuniting with her secret beloved, Joanie Winther — face to face after an extended period apart, Joanie having left for holiday away from her spirited family of quirky siblings, a hypervigilant mom and a less-than-empathetic father.  

Anything separate from tradition was marked as evil in the eyes of the Winthers. If anyone knew of Margaret’s intense love for Joanie and their shared intimacy, they surely would deem her a black-magic witch, which is what eventually unfolds. Margaret’s dead mother had a reputation for dark magic, so why wouldn’t her daughter follow suit?

The first few chapters carry with it a tasty anticipation, along with the descriptions of the Winther estate: layered pastries, meadow florals, committed staff and quirky family members who all have their station and well-developed habits. Meg has determined that a few past experiences with Joanie sealed their fate as lovers. I’ll take her hand and with my thumb draw circles on her palm and up her wrist… fascinate her with who I am … had she forgotten?

Upon Margaret’s mother’s death years ago and the exile of her father, the Winther family had taken her in as their own. Margaret’s suspicions grow about the men on the Winther estate.

In a moment of deliciously penned electricity between Margaret and Joanie, their relationship is discovered which sends Margaret to the depths of the woods to live with her estranged father in his cabin — expected to remain there at the demands of Joanie’s father. Joanie returns to university but is due back in eight weeks. Those weeks turn a bit emotionally gruesome for Margaret having to rough it with Dad and the relentless wilderness. There is an equal holiness in dark. Dark is soothing, it demands no effort or pain; but the light of heaven … is stark and unforgiving.

Finding it unbearable to live without Joanie and in the confines of the intuitive magpies, treacherous mud and endless dogwood, Margaret resorts to a lofty form of Voodoo using clay and hair. She recreates the essence of Joanie Winther. What results is as intense as her original love for her. I held my breath through many pages and tromps through dark, wet forest trails and tense, filled moments of human behavior at its worst. Worst in the best way.

Margaret learns about her capabilities, the truth about her mother’s reality and demise, and how unforgiving people can be about that which they do not understand, nor even try to understand.

Little Wild smells like woodsmoke, sugar and dirt, and you will devour it in hours, happy to be in those English woods with no real idea about how you will escape. Do you even want to? It’s a thrilling ride. This is the pace, cadence and arrangement in which all novels should be written in this decade.

Little Wild, by Laura Evans, ©2026, Henry Holt and Co.