Content report card
The Wicker King parent’s guide: what’s inside
What it offers
Positive messages
A note for parents
This is a dark psychological thriller centered on mental illness, hallucinations, and codependency—explicitly marketed to mature YA readers. The book tackles serious themes including anorexia, depression, arson, and child neglect with emotional intensity. While it offers some value in exploring mental health, the heavy focus on delusion, dysfunction, and the romanticization of an unhealthy relationship make it best suited for older teens with some life experience. Not recommended for younger readers or those vulnerable to triggering content around mental illness.
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From the publisher
The Wicker King is a psychological young adult thriller that follows two friends struggling as one spirals into madness. Jack once saved August's life...now can August save him? August is a misfit with a pyro streak and Jack is a golden boy on the varsity rugby team—but their intense friendship goes way back. Jack begi... The Wicker King is a psychological young adult thriller that follows two friends struggling as one spirals into madness. Jack once saved August's life...now can August save him? August is a misfit with a pyro streak and Jack is a golden boy on the varsity rugby team—but their intense friendship goes way back. Jack begins to see increasingly vivid hallucinations that take the form of an elaborate fantasy kingdom creeping into the edges of the real world. With their parents’ unreliable behavior, August decides to help Jack the way he always has—on his own. He accepts the visions as reality, even when Jack leads them on a quest to fulfill a dark prophecy. August and Jack alienate everyone around them as they struggle with their sanity, free falling into the surreal fantasy world that feels made for them. In the end, each one must choose his own truth. Written in vivid micro-fiction with a stream-of-consciousness feel and multimedia elements, K. Ancrum's The Wicker King touches on themes of mental health and explores a codependent relationship fraught with tension, madness and love. An Imprint Book
Shelved under
- Young Adult Fiction
- Character driven
- Loveable Characters
- Diverse Characters
- Unloveable Characters
- Weak Character Development
- dark
- emotional
- tense
- Fantasy
- Young Adult
- LGBTQ
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ISBN 9781250101563 · Imprint