Book: innocent wanderings: Walkers of the Mist by Ash Wrenwood
Reviewed by A.Hampton Reads
Rating: 3/5
⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Innocent Wanderings has a haunting central premise: a mysterious mist that reflects the fears, grief, doubt, and darkness people carry within themselves—and can gradually consume those who give those feelings too much power.
There were moments of genuinely beautiful writing here. Some of the descriptions of the mist, human nature, grief, and despair were thoughtful and moving, and several scenes handled very dark subject matter with a surprising amount of grace. At its strongest, I could feel myself being pulled completely into what the story was trying to say.
Unfortunately, I struggled with the execution surrounding those moments. Unusual formatting, punctuation issues, abrupt POV transitions, repetition, and extensive explanations repeatedly pulled me back out of the story. The symbolism of the mist is compelling on its own, but I often felt its meaning was explained or described more times than necessary, which eventually lessened its impact for me rather than strengthening it.
With so much repetition, I found the pacing difficult as the progress moved slowly. It felt challenging to reach the end. Once there, I wanted more resolution and less explanation.
That's what made this one difficult to rate. There are ideas and individual passages here that I found genuinely beautiful, and I appreciated the larger message about the danger of allowing our darkest thoughts and feelings to define us. I just wish the story trusted its strongest imagery to speak for itself.
There is something meaningful at the heart of this book; I simply struggled to stay connected.