The
Wild Inside
by Jamey Bradbury is part paranormal, part thriller, and part
horror. This debut novel is very character driven, specifically
with the protagonist Tracy Petrikoff, where readers wonder
if everything that happens to her is driven by her imagination,
some delusions, or was indeed reality.
Bradbury noted, “Tracy is hard to pin down. Sometimes
even I wonder if she is part vampire or a werewolf that has
not completely transformed. There is a genetics quality with
the connection coming from the family members. She is tough
to like. She is problematic as she makes her decisions based
on selfish and stubborn motivations. In some ways, she is
an unlikeable narrator. But she also has good qualities of
being loyal to her family, very caring, and a naturalist.
I think I would call her more of a difficult character than
an unlikeable one. I do hope the reader can find in her something
that they like, admire, or at least understand.”
People meet Tracy, a natural born hunter and trapper who loves
the Alaskan wilderness, where she spends her days in the remote
forest by her house. She still has not come to grips with
her mother’s sudden death that occurred two years ago.
For Tracy, it was her mother who understood her, allowing
her freedom, yet laying down three important rules: Never
lose sight of the house, never come home with dirty hands,
and most importantly never make a person bleed. The reader
finds out that Tracy gains essential strength from drinking
the blood of her prey while also temporarily mind-melding
with victims.
The paranormal comes into play as “with my idea is that
the mom had this weird genetic abnormality passed down through
generations to the women by the women. I originally wrote
it where Tracy’s mom would say ‘my own mom didn’t
understand me because it had skipped a generation.’
Her mom struggled with it because, unlike Tracy, she wanted
a normal life. Both connect with animals and people. It is
the supernatural quality of the book. What she gets from the
blood is the ability to understand their experience, their
thoughts, and their desires. The mythology I created is that
if Tracy and her mom just tasted a little of the blood they
could have only a slight impression. But if they drank the
blood of a person or animal they are able to get all the thoughts
and feelings. Basically, they have access to others feelings
and impressions.”
But now, because of being expelled from school, she is prevented
by her father to do what she loves, working with their dogs
and trapping in the wilderness. Rebelling against him, she
goes into the forest anyway and it is there she is attacked
by a burly man who eventually shows up at her family’s
house with a knife wound. Almost at the same time, a mysterious
drifter appears looking for a job. Tracy senses, Jesse Goodwin,
is hiding something and is determined to get to the bottom
of his secrets.
It is a book where readers will constantly turn the pages,
wondering who is this protagonist, Tracy.
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