Review: Wildlord by Philip Womack

We’ve all had that moment; passing through an ancient graveyard or the dappled sunlight of a forest when suddenly the lines between worlds feel just a little too thin for comfort. And out of the corner of your eye, a twitch of movement, a flash of something you can’t quite put your finger on, something … unsettling.

Philip Womack’s first YA novel, Wildlord, is exactly that — an exploration of the ethereal worlds of which we only catch brief glimpses. Parentless teenager Tom is to spend a summer with an uncle he’s never heard of, let alone met. But when he arrives at the isolated farmhouse, strange things begin to happen in the shimmering heat of the summer. … Womack meditates on the laws of time and space — and the chaos and knowledge that come with breaking them — in this startling YA debut. Concepts of time travel and otherworldly entities collide in this original and unusual take on faerie folklore.

The prose is kept simple, largely because the concepts can be complex at times, so we’re left a little uncertain of the rules of this universe. However, this seems to be Womack encouraging us to think of the endless possibilities of this boundless power, and what control and the lack of it can mean when meddling in matters of dark magic.

Fans of Sarah Maria Griffin’s Other Words for Smoke will enjoy this darkly glittering and malevolently magical tale of found family, betrayal and power.

Fiona Murphy