When we meet Jennifer, she’s working in a London cafe, working hard to leave her past behind her; but when her past walks back into her present, we are taken back to her childhood and adolescence, to a time and place where she was known as Neef, and Neef and Danny were inseparable, until the relentless forces around them, and the weight of the trauma they carried, created a space from which there was no going back. 

Usher breathes such life into her two beautifully drawn, struggling characters, drawn together through circumstances involving loss, abandonment and neglect, coping with the losses of their childhoods through their creativity. Her a storyteller and writer; him a deft and intuitive gardener, nurturing his plants and flowers. They develop a deep bond that turns from friendship to love, sharing their plans, their hopes, their dreams of making it out of their rural Yorkshire town; but both are coming from places of trauma, at times flawed in their decisions and self-destructive in their actions, sometimes coming from a place of self-preservation or a deep need to be loved, even if it’s by the people who have hurt them the most. 

There is so much raw emotion in this story, exploring themes including racism and the prejudice and obstacles faced by individuals and mixed race couples, generational trauma, the destructive and cyclical nature of addiction, mental health, poverty, and allowing ourselves to move on from the trauma and mistakes of our past. 

This is difficult reading at times; our narrator Neef’s story, from a childhood of yearning for a life beyond her world of neglect in the shadow of addiction, to a self-destructive adolescence when Danny cannot always be what she wants, needs him to be; and the losses, prejudice and abandonment that Danny has endured. But there is also deep friendship, love and that particular indelible joy of first love, as well as meaningful moments of resilience in the face of adversity. And I absolutely loved the ending of this book.

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Wild Ground is published by Serpent’s Tail on May 30th. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the DRC.

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Emily Usher is an author and award-winning short story writer, originally from West Yorkshire. She gained a 1st Class BA Honours Degree in Media and Performing Arts at the University of Salford and went on to live in Sheffield and London before relocating to Australia. Emily also works as a freelance writer specialising in the not-for-profit sector, and teaches creative writing in prisons and secure centres.