Eddie Callaway wanted every woman who attended her Camp Callaway to return home with this truth: "Your wildness is a gift that must remain uncaged." Eddie's mysterious history slowly uproots Rowan's life in the wildly intriguing What Wild Women Do by Karma Brown (Recipe for a Perfect Wife; The Choices We Make; The Life Lucy Knew), a novel that weaves two timelines like the tree branches covering the Adirondack Park in which it's set.
Almost 50 years after Eddie Callaway vanished from her women's retreat in the 1970s, Rowan and her fiancé, Seth, head to a cabin to overcome their creative roadblocks. Seth's novel-in-progress is on the back burner, while Rowan waits for one of her screenplays to take off. Meeting the (very few) locals and traversing the vast natural landscape around their cabin, the couple finds the abandoned Camp Callaway, mysterious stories of the disappearance of its owner, and a clue to a hidden treasure. Their research and a Camp Calloway handbook help them begin to piece together the puzzle of Eddie's enigmatic past, leading Rowan on a journey to find the wild woman within herself.
Both Eddie's and Rowan's timelines expose remarkable moments of self-discovery, women's empowerment, and suspense. Eddie's "wild woman" practices embody 1970s' second-wave feminism, exploring its ability to empower some and provoke others. Eddie's legacy of ambition and strength inspires Rowan to take charge of her own life. Both narratives capture the challenges and greatness of womanhood and the courage it takes to become your authentic self. --Clara Newton, freelance reviewer