REVIEW: Wild Life by Opal Wei
Content Note: anxiety, panic attacks, neglectful parents, discussion of non-fatal cancer
Dear Opal Wei,
I’d heard good things about Wild Life and Olivia Dade blurbed it which is a meaningful recommendation to me in itself, but knowing you are also Ruby Lang* made me even more inclined to dive in. (*Not a secret, I checked.)
Davy Hsieh, former member of a C-pop band and current hermit, bumps into Zoey Fong at the university where she is a Phd student undertaking cancer research. Davy is hoping to meet with a professor at the college to get some help starting a wild life sanctuary. Davy comes from a wealthy Taiwanese family and owns a small island off the Sunshine Coast of Canada. He rescued a cougar from a zoo and big cat Baby lives on the island with him. Davy has anxiety and a huge fear of letting people down (in part because his father told him constantly that he does let people down all the time. His father is obviously a complete jerk) and keeps away from others and very much to himself as a result.
Zoey’s sister, Mimi, had bone cancer some years ago. She made a full recovery after treatment but Zoey, who as the older sister, had to step up quite a bit during Mimi’s illness, has dedicated herself to “The Plan” which involves getting both a medical degree and a doctorate in cancer research and curing the bone cancer from which her sister suffered. (Or, at least creating a better treatment). Only, she’s miserable. She’s worked hard for years and spent a lot of money but she’s very unsatisfied. Maybe The Plan isn’t what’s good for her? But if she does not have The Plan, what does she have? And, if she quits the program she will be letting people down and become a quitter – things that Zoey Fong is not a fan of.
When Davy and Zoey bump into one another (Davy never does meet the professor he’s looking for), Zoey asks him to hold an envelope for her. The envelope contains a slide of cancer cells of the kind Mimi had and is a kind of talisman for Zoey. After some confusion between them, Zoey and Davy separate – but Davy still has the slide. Zoey, desperate to get the slide back so she can continue with The Plan, tags along with Davy the next day to get it back only for reasons, the three never seem to be in the same place at the same time. The next day, Zoey ends up traveling to Davy’s island* with him in order to locate the slide which has been packed away somewhere among all the other stuff he’s shipping there. (*I admit I was a little surprised that the island where Davy was hoping to start a wild life sanctuary was not tropical. I guess I was influenced by the very tropical cover. )
Zoey refers to Davy in her mind as “the Handsome” even though she’s mad at him for not having the slide and giving it back to her straight away. He’s very good-looking and very distracting. Davy, for his part, is immediately deeply smitten and guilt-ridden about Zoey being upset.
Davy Hsieh did not often know what he was doing. He didn’t operate with a plan—it was more a set of loose guidelines. And even then, he usually forgot about them.
This—this situation—however, seemed to call for some sort of forethought. While Zoey stood on the deck of the boat, talking on her phone, he jotted down a quick list.
1. Don’t screw up Zoey Fong’s life
2. Don’t screw up MY life
3. Help Zoey get the slide back
4. Win Zoey’s forgiveness
5. Get to know Zoey better
6. Let Zoey get to know me
7. That’s kind of scary that most of this list is about Zoey
But he had to make sure of a few things. She had to be protected and safe at all times. So even if she insisted on doing something foolhardy, like getting on a boat with a stranger (this plan was already going well), then he was going to object and stand his ground and not let her dark eyes bore into him until he couldn’t think straight.
There’s a kind of humour within the writing which I found very endearing.
Davy settled them onto the piano bench and thought of how nice it was to have contact with another person again, especially when that person was Zoey, so alive and snappish and vibrant and—
“I’m not joining in on a song I don’t know,” Zoey said snappishly and vibrantly.
While on the island, the story veers into something like caper territory. A little bit farce, a little bit ridiculous, mostly fun. A grumpy neighbour makes an accusation and Fierce Zoey comes to the fore.
Meanwhile, Zoey and Davy give into their attraction and also open up to one another. So there was this mix of serious (discussion of anxiety and addiction to pills for example), romance and intimacy and zany set pieces. Somehow it all worked together. I have the feeling that the humour and/or the mix won’t work for everyone (no book will ever do that of course) but it worked for me. Mostly.
I did get a bit tired of Davy constantly leaping to self-blame. Fortunately, so did Zoey. And she called it out.
“I’m getting really tired of this. Is blaming yourself the way you keep people from getting close to you? Who needs an island when you’ve got that thick wall of self-regard masquerading as self-blame keeping people out?”
Thank you Zoey! If Davy never moved on from that, it would have made him hard to be around for very long I think. (Also, by the end, Davy was in therapy which was a very good thing.)
Davy needs to learn to let people in. Zoey needs something similar. She doesn’t always have to know everything. She doesn’t have to save the world. She doesn’t have to save her sister that’s for sure – her sister is fine. I really liked how Davy talked to Zoey about the possibility of moving on from The Plan and making a new plan.
“It depends on where you end the story, doesn’t it?”
Someone once gave me similar advice when I was struggling and it made all the difference to me.
I enjoyed the side characters, Li-leng – Zoey’s roommate and best friend, Davy’s good friend and former babysitter, George, in particular. George is exhausting but passionate and devoted to Davy.
Apart from the epilogue the story takes place over less than a week and it was that which gave me a little pause. Both main characters fall in love and completely change their lives after such a short time. I was prepared to go with it for romance reasons but it also seemed out of character for each of them so I had a bit of cognitive dissonance about it.
Wild Life leans heavily on the zany to leaven the more serious aspects of the story – at times, it was just a little bit too zany for me but for the most part, I was charmed.
Grade: B
Regards,
Kaetrin
I had such a great time with this book! I was very much in the mood for zaniness when I started, and honestly I was expecting far MORE zaniness — just based on having seen Bringing Up Baby, which this book is inspired by. A very solid outing from Opal Wei, whom I adore, and I hope it leads to many more books by her.
This does sound intriguing, Kaetrin, so thanks for sharing your thoughts.
@Jenny Hamilton: I though it may have been inspired by Bringing Up Baby! It very much has that vibe.
@Kareni: Let me know if you decide to give it a try. I’d love to know what you think.