Colin Meloy, Under Wildwood (2012)
Content warning:
Animal cruelty, child abuse, death, serious injury, stalking, torture, war and displacement. All presented in a non-graphic manner intrinsic to Children’s literature.
Synopsis
Within Under Wildwood, a children’s fantasy novel set in a mythologized version of Portland, Oregon, a hidden world of talking animals, political intrigue, and ancient magic exists within Forest Park. Sudden calamity ensues as Prue is pulled into the magic realm of The Wood when shapeshifting assassins are sent her way by an unconfirmed foe. In The Wood, this hidden world in which animals talk, where mystics can control and communicate with plants, and a place that outsiders can’t enter alone, she joins Curtis, who, already living there, has now entered training to become a bandit of Wildwood. As Prue and Curtis commence on a winding, conspicuous adventure in an attempt to fulfill the guidance the Great Tree has given to Prue, they are met with many unexpected turns, enemies, and allies.
Meanwhile, Rachel and Elsie, younger sisters of Curtis, are deposited by their parents into an orphanage to care for them as they search for their dear son Curtis, who they believe is missing and possibly in Istanbul (just a little way off). After being dropped off at the orphanage, Rachel and Elsie soon find out their new temporary home is wrapped up with the “Great Industrial Titans!” Even further, the owner of the orphanage is a self-realized “monomaniac” focused upon nothing but entering The Wood to exploit the Impassable Wilderness for all its resources by any and all means! Follow these different characters with their intertwined narratives working together to create dramatic irony, on the adventure of a lifetime Under Wildwood! Will Rachel and Elsie find their brother in the end?
Essay
The more I dive into this book and its ties to Portland, the more I am moved and impressed by the intentional action of Colin Meloy, along with his wife (the illustrator, Carson Ellis), in creating this beautifully woven tapestry of fantasy within the real places and interests of Portland. After starting this 559-page book on a Sunday evening, I finished it on Tuesday evening, without a dull moment ever passing.
The bulk of the narrative takes place in the fantastical “Wood,” which is the fantastical hidden world of our real-life Forest Park of approximately 5,200 acres. There are many other realities taken from our world and interwoven within the story of Wildwood. Meloy describes one of his favorite Portland-inspired inclusions in an interview in Sunset Magazine, “In Under Wildwood, Prue and Curtis are navigating . . . the Impassable Wilderness through underground tunnels. . . it turns out they’re in Portland, under Old Town in the Shanghai Tunnels, which are these tunnels that all Portlanders know about.” Additionally, even the name of this trilogy comes from the real trail in Forest Park named “Wildwood.” I could go on and on with all the Portland allegories and locations included in the book. Clearly, so much of this trilogy comes directly from the area of Portland, but it doesn’t stop with geographical locations; he uses many of Portland’s interests to usher along the text as well!
Still within the Wildwood map, you’ll notice the “Industrial Wastes” (where the orphanage lies) sitting between the Impassable Forest and the Willamette River. The “Industrial Wastes” not only signifies the location of Portland’s industrial riverfront butting up against the Willamette, but the character development also illuminates how Portland’s interests for environmental conservation do hold tension with the further industrial development of the city, a central theme for Under Wildwood: Nature vs. Industry. A villain of the narrative, Joffrey Unthank, is a Portland industrialist who wants to exploit Wildwood’s resources. His factories and obsession with production stand in strong contrast to the living ecosystems of Wildwood. Elsie and Rachel make note of this indirectly by “coughing every dozen steps or so; the smog was so dense it felt like her lungs had been lined with Saran Wrap” (250). This clear conflict within the narrative reflects and paints vividly the nationally understood tension Portland has with conservation and development.
The grand reception of this trilogy has only elevated over the years, especially seeing that it is making its way to the theatres with a movie based on the first book coming out this year, in 2026.
Author Bio
Colin Meloy was born in Helena, Montana, on October 5, 1975. He is not only an Author, but also an American musician and singer-songwriter, known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk-rock band: the Decemberists. A fun fact about the Decemberists is that they had a cameo appearance in the renowned TV series Parks and Recreation in a two-part episode entitled "Moving Up: Part 1" and "Moving Up: Part 2". He attended the University of Oregon in Eugene for two years, studying English and Theatre there, before moving back and finishing his degree at the University of Montana in Missoula. After a few shorter publications, he debuted as a children’s writer in 2011, when he wrote Wildwood. Meloy released the sequel, Under Wildwood, in 2012, and the third book in the series, Wildwood Imperium, was released in 2014. He now lives on a little farm near Portland, with his wife and two children.
Further Reading
Colin Meloy, Wildwood (2011)
- The first book in the trilogy
Colin Meloy, Wildwood Imperium (2014)
- The final book of the trilogy, you’ll want to see how this ends. . .