The Wicker King

The Wicker King
Written by K. Ancrum
Contemporary, Mental Health, LGBT
336 Pages
Published October 30th 2018
Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia
Add to Goodreads
★★★★★
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 behaviour, 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 fulfil 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 microfiction 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.
Following the nonlinear narrative of seventeen year old August Bateman, August is incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, keening and desperate to find Jack Rossi. Jack and August are unlikely friends, Jack the popular, athletic student while August is an introvert, hiding behind fashion labels in the hope no one will discover his low socioeconomic status. Beyond the confines of school, August and Jack and inseparable. Throughout the narration, we experience the codependent and often disturbing friendship between the two young men, the possessiveness, toxicity and domination. It's frightening, fascinating and will captivate readers until the final page.

August is a young man who feels like an impostor in his own skin. After his parents separated, August's mother developed a deep depression and retreated to her basement where she spends her days watching game shows. From a young age, August had learned to fend for himself by becoming self dependant and taking care of his mother. Unable to work and with only meagre support cheques from his father, August sells drugs to make ends meet, his side project well known throughout the wealthy student community. It's his friendship with Jack that sustains August, caring for his friend in a world that was created for them and them alone.

We get to know Jack through the eyes of August, who often views his friend with rose coloured glasses. Jack is popular, attractive and athletic, not to mention not even remotely in the same orbit as August. But somehow, their friendship works. Growing up, the boys liked to explore their surroundings, from the surrounding forest to abandoned buildings, Jack with his crown made of sticks and makeshift sword, August his loyal champion by his side. But Jack's childhood games have become increasingly disturbing, his imagination existing between two separate worlds sharing the one space. He sees people and objects within his vision from another time, no longer a game and claims the residents of this historical plane need his help to find an object. An object that will save their world. It begins to blur the lines between fantasy and mental illness as Jack experiences delusions, luring August into a world he can only experience through Jack's illness.

August and Jack's friendship takes an intense turn while playing in the forest, August slips into the river only to be rescued by Jack. An act of bravery leads August to believe that he now owes Jack, his life, his spirit and whatever Jack will now ask of him. Jack begins to feed upon that toxic devotion and begins to lay claim over August, often resorting to physical intimidation and abuse that August has become dependant on. Similar to being in an abusive relationship where the victim may believe they are deserving of abuse or that toxic possession is a way of expressing love by their abuser.

August and Jack are very much a product of their individual environments. Although Jack is from a wealthy family, his parents are often travelling or simply absent. August feels a deep responsibility to care for Jack, understanding his feelings of abandonment and isolation. On the surface of what seems to be a friendship of codependency, is a dangerously toxic love story, an all consuming love that threatens to destroy them both. Written with a passionate intensity, I was swept away by the relationship and hopeful that these two abandoned beings would survive their ordeal.

It was messy, complicated and utterly brilliant. I was enamoured by August and Jack and consumed by their relationship. Beautifully written with a dark, brooding realism rarely seen within young adult fiction, The Wicker King is phenomenal.

15 comments

  1. I'm so glad you liked this one too ahh! It has got to be one of my all-time most favourite books 😭💛

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine too now. My goodness, how did I not read this sooner. It's absolutely beautiful. Those boys stole my heart and I can't stop thinking about them.

      Delete
  2. A phenomenal review for a phenomenal book!

    At the time I was reading it I just had too many things going on, so it took me a little while to get into. But once I was past the 15%ish mark, I was hooked.
    This book definitely deserves to be given your full attention.
    I absolutely adored August (actually all the characters really) and am super excited for The Weight of the Stars :-) :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sarah.

      I was captivated from the first few pages and it almost destroyed me in the most delicious way possible. I'm so excited as well!

      Delete
  3. Looks like a good read. I'm going to look it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You definitely won't be disappointed, one of the best contemporaries I've ever read.

      Delete
  4. It's been ages since I've read a messy, complicated book! I think I'm overdue for some heartbreak, haha. I've added this one to my TBR. Thanks for the lovely review! You always make me want to read books RIGHT NOW, haha.

    Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is a book you absolutely need to read, I can't recommend it highly enough. Those complicated, messy, loyal and at times frightening boys will leave you breathless. It's a book that will stay with you long after the final page. It's worthy of a cult following.

      Delete
  5. AHH! I'm so glad that you read this and loved it. It's just amazing, isn't it? So dark and compelling and Jack and August are both fascinating characters. I really need more - I'm pretty sure there is going to be a sequel.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is! I need so much more. I can't stop thinking about those boys, they has such an incredibly profound effect on me. I cried, I laughed, it was one of the most complex, alluring and delicious contemporaries I've read.

      Delete
  6. Wow, this sounds like an incredibly powerful and heartbreaking read. Adding this one to my TBR right now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Suzanne, you're in for such an experience. I cannot wait to see what you think of it!

      Delete
  7. Before this review I've realised I actually had no clue what this book was about. Considering I've seen it about you'd think I'd have read the summary at some point (not so much). It sounds weird, but like a good kind of weird where you get sucked in by the weirdness and just want to know what the hell is going on. I kind of want to read just to experience this book as it sound like a trip.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I feel like this is one of those books that you need to experience first hand I think. Wonderful review Kelly, you've totally piqued my interest in this.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Like Becky, I didn't really know what this was about before, even though I'd seen it around a lot. But whoa, this does sound really good in a dark and disturbing sort of way.

    ReplyDelete

© Diva Booknerd. Design by Fearne.