Synopsis:
I have grown hungry. Grief no longer nourishes me. I will eat the wild.
Whisper your prayers, light your candles, watch your steps, cherish your life, and— most importantly— never let the spirits hear your name.
These were his mother’s rules before she disappeared. And Kazuki followed them, even when his father was ripped apart by a malevolent spirit. When he decides to go in search of his mother, an encounter with a corrupted bear leaves him weak, wounded, and worst of all, tainted.
With her rules and his father’s sword, he ventures north into the unknown. Demons, spirits, and gods all haunt his steps, and the closer he gets to the truth, the further from himself he becomes. His name forgotten.
Can he find his mother, or will the wild consume him?
Review:
It’s always something special when an author finds a story that just fits their style and skill set perfectly. For G.J. Terral, it is He Who Ate the Wild. This is a story about grief and finding one’s place in the world when everything has set them up to be left behind. It’s a story with unlikely friendships, forced growth, and overcoming the spirits that hound us, both physically and mentally.
Kazuki is a teenage boy who’s mother has disappeared and father has been torn to pieces by vengeful spirits. Seeking to find his mother, Kazuki stumbles into a forest full of spirits and loneliness, eventually losing his name to an animal god. He finds himself in a remote village, learning how to find his lost way, meeting other troubled kids his own age, and uncovering dark truths about the spirits in his forest.
This is a book that envelopes you with its evocative prose and intimate first-person point of view. You get lost in the lyrical prose and endless stream of Kazuki’s conscious, delving deep into his melancholy and yearning to be accepted. He is a soul that is incredibly broken and Terral makes you feel it keenly. There are profound drops of wisdom littered throughout, almost as if Kazuki is looking back on his early days and harbors so many regrets. It is just brilliant work by Terral here.
The world is Japanese Shinto inspired and there is just this deep appreciation and respect toward it. Kazuki’s world is inhabited by spirits, both good and bad, mostly neutral until man interacts with them. To say this book is heavily inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Princess Mononoke is no lie, as many elements from that seminal work show up here, but Terral makes this story his own and uses Kazuki’s character to shine through the inspirations. One of my favorite things Terral did in this story was to add haiku poems within the chapters. Not only do they add extra flavoring to the lyrical nature of the prose, but it shows another skill the author has.
Kazuki, or Ku as he is called in the book after losing his name, is such a compelling protagonist. His grief, his warts, his failures, I couldn’t help but connect with him. But I think it is his bond with the bird spirit Susu that really makes Kazuki great. There is banter, taunting, dislike, joy, and many other emotions over the course of this story that just really made their connection work for me. I also enjoyed the ‘bad’ Kara spirit (bad being in ‘bad’ is based on Kazuki’s interpretation and it was a good source of humor). Nu (his semi-friend/rival) and Furen (his semi-rival/crush) are great foils for Kazuki and when they leave the village, their arcs are excellent.
Now, one thing I’ve seen from other reviews is that this book has an uneven pace and while that might technically be true, I believe that only makes this story even better. There is an urgency at the beginning, but once Kazuki loses his name and is followed by Susu, things start to slow down, especially when he is in the remote village. I personally think this is much more important to the overall story than the frenetic pace in the climax (more in a second). The time in the village is where Kazuki rediscovers who he is. His time spent carving his mask (important world lore) is absolutely necessary for this story, same with him learning sword forms. This is a growth period for Kazuki and very much an Eastern-style of storytelling, whereas we in the West put action and fast pacing over character introspection. Again, not to cling to Miyazaki (who is the GOAT and Princess Mononoke is my fave film of all time) but Miyazaki understands the introspection moments all of his characters go through. It is essential to their arcs, and Terral does this perfectly. Terral does not skimp on the action, though, and the latter third of the book really has some great set pieces, especially some god slaying scenes. But again, the ending seems to be divisive for some readers and it shouldn’t if you look at this book through an Eastern-style lens. It ends with a hopeful thread. It is not a clean-cut ending where Kazuki finds his mother and I know some readers want a sequel, but I think this book lands the standalone ending perfectly, because this story is about Kazuki discovering himself, not solving all his problems.
He Who Ate the Wild by G.J. Terral is one of those books that just hit every aspect I look for in a story. I highly recommend checking it out if you love intimate character-driven tales with heady themes and flowing prose.
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