Vaster Wilds is in a word, harrowing. Author Lauren Groff has written a colonial era adventure that will leave you knowing for sure that we are really soft here in 2023.
We follow Lamentation Callat or as she is mostly called Zed or just a servant girl following her escape from a settlement that has fallen apart due to hunger and unpreparedness for this new world.
The narrative is her journey away from that horror interspersed with the journey from orphanage during a plague to America which is better but not great. Her mistress calls her the same name as a beloved former dog.
Hunting for food. Dodging men. Trying to stay warm. Staying alive in the wild. Each page makes you want her to find a nice warm abandoned cabin filled with food and clean clothes. But this wisp of a girl is strong.
I will avoid further description to stay clear of spoilers but this is a churn your stomach read that would have been good for Halloween. The last seventy pages flew by with great speed.
To drink, I would go rustic. Rustic pilsners seem to be a growing trend. Or a rustic saison. If neither are on shelves look for something unfiltered to approximate the types of water found in the forest and streams. A third choice would be something from the Bear Republic Brewing portfolio for reasons I cannot divulge.