Wildelings

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

Set against the backdrop of a beautifully reimagined Dublin of the Nineties, The Wildelings is a campus novel with a twist; a blisteringly real story of control and vulnerability, desire and ambition. A propulsive read -- ROISIN O'DONNELL

Harding's style of writing is direct and intense, giving her novel a raw and emotional tone. It's a compelling read, one which will be hard to forget ― IRISH EXAMINER

A deliciously dark psychological mystery ― IRISH TIMES, The best books for summer 2025

The Wildelings is a shiver-inducing delight. I found myself reading when I should have been doing a million other things, unable to tear myself away from these bewitching characters, Harding's beautiful prose, and the prickly suspicion that a dark surprise was waiting for me on every page -- LAUREN GRODSTEIN

A spectacular tour de force ― THE GLOSS, The best books to read this summer

Propulsive, with echoes of Donna Tartt's The Secret History ... This is dark academia at its most gripping ― ECONOMIST, The best novels published in the second quarter of 2025

The Wildelings is a darkly lyrical and compelling novel about power, obsession, and the fragility of intimacy. A thrilling excavation of the blurred lines between friendship and the more dangerous shadows of youth. Harding crafts a masterful study of vulnerability, control, and the uneasy art of self-reinvention. -- ELAINE FEENEY

Dark, blistering and full of theatrics, The Wildelings is an electric exploration of control, guilt, and one young woman's fight to free herself. I was hooked from the very start -- RACHEL JOYCE

Fans of dark academia or Donna Tartt's The Secret History, this one's for you ― HARPER'S BAZAAR, The 25 Best Books Coming Out This Spring

Full of brooding menace ... A dark and riveting novel ― SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

A vicious, sardonic, cruel book...very dramatic ... I lapped it up -- RYAN TUBRIDY

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 Tartt's 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 Harding's 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 Harding's 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. There's a bundle of narrative thread to unravel here and Harding does it in a manner as unsettling as it is addictive -- ALAN McMONAGLE

The Wildelings is, above all, a rich character study. Every relationship was created with so much care, and I found the novel enthralling, a haunting exploration of friendships and relationships gone sour ― NB MAGAZINE

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 . It's 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 razor's 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 couldn't put it down -- ELAINE FEENEY