The Wildelings

(Paperback)

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A vivid and compulsive story of obsession, control and guilt, set in Nineties Dublin perfect for fans of dark academia

'Arrives to fill the Secret History-shaped hole in your lives ... Gloriously entertaining Observer, Books to look out for in 2025
'A searing exploration into our deepest desires and insecurities. I adored it' Heather Darwent
I was gripped by this dark and thrilling fable Dominic West
I was hooked from the very start Rachel Joyce

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Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival.

Now eighteen, the two girls have come to Wilde an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends.

But then Mark enters the picture. A philosophy student a few years older than them, he has strange and compelling ideas about self-discovery. When Linda and Mark start dating, Jessica is disturbed by the change in her friend and how quickly she seems to have fallen under this abrasive, charismatic mans control.

It turns out that Marks influence is not limited to Linda alone; and Jessica soon finds out that her whole group of friends are keeping secrets for him culminating in a terrible tragedy that strikes at the end of their first year.

Years later, Jessica is still grappling with her guilt over what happened at Wilde. And when Mark resurfaces, she knows she owes it to herself and Linda to set the record straight once and for all.

Reviews

With pitch-pure dialogue, and a plot that weaves in and around the theatre until the edges of reality blur, Lisa Harding presents us with a psychologically gripping story about personal manipulation and the imbalance of power in intimate relationships. A powerful performance -- JANE URQUHART
Dark, blistering and full of theatrics, The Wildelings is an electric exploration of control, guilt, and one young womans fight to free herself. I was hooked from the very start -- RACHEL JOYCE
Fans of dark academia or Donna Tartts The Secret History, this ones for you * HARPER'S BAZAAR, The 25 Best Books Coming Out This Spring *
Harding gives Jessica a self-excoriating, incisive, bitter, and evocative first-person voice. The Wildelings' inexorable plot is like the proverbial train wreck: shocking, electric, impossible to turn from. Its psychological tumult verges on horror. With this atmospheric roller coaster of a novel, Harding offers pulsing intensity, gut-wrenching emotional upheaval, and high drama in every sense * SHELF AWARENESS *
A story of obsession, control and guilt, set in 1990s Dublin ... Perfect for fans of dark academia and Donna Tartts The Secret History * IRISH TIMES *
The Wildelings arrives to fill the Secret History-shaped hole in your lives ... Gothic and gloriously entertaining -- Alex Preston * OBSERVER, Fiction to look out for in 2025 *
A searing exploration into our deepest desires and insecurities. I adored it -- HEATHER DARWENT, author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Things We Do to Our Friends
I was gripped by this dark and thrilling fable - Harding is the new Donna Tartt -- DOMINIC WEST
Lisa Hardings The Wildelings, in the tradition of dark academia, shocks with the cruelties of belonging, the seductive power wielded in friendships, the impulse to control and subjugate. Impeccably paced, dark and disturbingly honest, The Wildelings reveals campus life as theatre of cruelty; but the real stagecraft lies in Hardings ability to excavate the still beating heart of a shared past and bonds beneath those brutalities. Riveting, addictive and, ultimately, beautifully human -- UNA MANNION, author of Tell Me What I Am
Obsession, possessiveness, coercion, malice, spite, insecurity, frailty, vulnerability; lurking unease and the wax and wane of tenuous friendship. Theres a bundle of narrative thread to unravel here and Harding does it in a manner as unsettling as it is addictive -- ALAN McMONAGLE
Praise for Lisa Harding: 'Absolutely dazzling -- MARIAN KEYES
On every page there are little shimmering bombs -- LISA TADDEO
Quietly devastating ... Reminded me repeatedly of Shuggie Bain * OBSERVER *
Stark and terrifying, fast-paced and intensely lucid * NEW YORK TIMES *
A heady mixture of heartbreak and hope * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *
A pungently propulsive heart-wrencher ... An alarming yet tender portrayal of the slow-burn impact of long-repressed grief * DAILY MAIL *
A novel of extraordinary intimacy and vividness, a uniquely disquieting account of a mind sinking into the depths and rising again, full of such powerful love and fear -- MEGAN HUNTER
A tense, unflinching, immersive mapping of a pitted track of addiction and recovery ... I lived every scene as I read, and I know that these characters will be with me for a long time -- DONAL RYAN
[Harding's] writing is taut, and there is such an intensity, an urgency about the narrative that you find yourself turning the pages as if you fear Sonya might race out of sight ... A contemporary, zeitgeisty read and very satisfying * SUNDAY INDEPENDENT *
Mesmerising, beautifully realised ... Glorious mix of barely-held-together sanity and unbridled honesty * IRISH INDEPENDENT *
Delves into territories which are as devastating as they are illuminating * REFINERY29 *
Well-crafted Its a wild ride, culminating in a scene that combines hope, fear and beauty * OBSERVER *
Startling, urgent and intimate ... A meticulous portrait of a life unravelling, and of the painstaking, heartbreaking work to put it all back together -- LISA McINERNEY
Tender and electric ... Interrogates the raw edges of love and addiction with an honesty that made me ache. It captures the fragility of our fractured minds and illuminates our power to break legacies of hurt -- JESSICA ANDREWS
Lisa Harding is a vivid and original stylist and a gifted storyteller. This is a fabulous novel -- KEVIN BARRY
A shattering portrait of the divided self. Bright Burning Things walks the razors edge between addiction and recovery in prose that is searing, sensual and merciful -- PAUL LYNCH
Unputdownable: infuriating, nerve-wracking and hugely enjoyable -- RODDY DOYLE
A gripping, atmospheric and deeply truthful novel from a writer whose work I love -- JOSEPH O'CONNOR
A gritty, uncomfortable and profoundly moving read, Bright Burning Things captures all the manic sadness and fallout from the past, of how we try to cool fires that rage ... I couldnt put it down -- ELAINE FEENEY

Author Bio

Lisa Harding is a writer, actress, playwright and the author of two novels. Her previous book Bright Burning Things was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and was named as a book of the year by the Observer, Grazia, Irish Times and the Irish Independent. She lives in Dublin.