The Wanderer in Unknown Realms - Discussion Post

Just to refresh your memory, this week we dove into The Wanderer in Unknown Realms by John Connolly. This was our first novella of the month, and one that came highly recommended by the Amazon community as a dark, sinister read.

I'm excited to see what you all thought about John Connolly's novella. So let's get started.

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Discussion Questions:

*Let's start with the basics. Is The Wanderer in Unknown Realms outside of your normal reads?

*Is this your first novella?

*What did you think of John Connolly's writing style? Did it hold your attention, or make this a tough read?

*Give us your first impressions of Soter as a character. Do you believe that he was well written?

* Did you feel that this story ended well, or were you wishing for more story?

*Share out anything else you want to chat about!

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Jessica's Thoughts:

Let me first say that I'm a long time fan of John Connolly, so I may have been a bit biased in recommending this book :). This is the first novella I've read of his, but his stories are always dark, and a bit odd, so I'm used to the way he writes. I'll admit that this particular story did take me a little bit of time to fall into. The writing style reminded me a lot of reading my beloved Poe stories, and I just had to switch tracks a bit after reading a lot of YA lately. Once I was able to make the switch, I fell in love with the atmosphere that this book all but oozes off the page.

I thought Soter was an interesting enough character, what with his background in the military. The fact that he was a veteran made his reactions to otherwise extremely creepy occurrences a little more palatable. I suppose if you've seen men die in horrific battle, it's probably not too much of a jump to take a man made of shadows head on, eh? Although, trust and believe that if creepy backward walking children were anywhere near me? I'd be running full tilt as far away as possible. I never felt fully attached to Soter, but I did like him as a protagonist.

The one thing that disappointed me, was the ending. I felt like it was apt, considering the fact that this is a novella, but I really wanted more! Especially once things picked up. I wish I knew what happened to Maudling. I desperately want to know what's going to happen to the world, and I feel like it was just a little to easy to end it where it did. Still, I've come to find that novellas tend to do that sometimes. I guess it's leave them wanting more?

Here are three more books by John Connolly to check out, if you liked this one! Since I've read him before, these are three of my favorites, from different grade levels of reading. Enjoy!

(Middle Grade Fiction) The Gates: A Samuel Johnson Tale

(Young Adult Fiction) The Book of Lost Things

(Adult Fiction) Every Dead Thing (Charlie Parker #1)