53 pages • 1 hour read
The Boy from the Woods
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Themes
Biological, Adoptive, and Chosen Family
Familial relationships are prominent across the novel’s plotlines. In addition to the novel’s biological and adoptive families, Wilde functions as a parental figure for the neglected Naomi and the fatherless Matthew, highlighting that family need not be defined by legal or blood ties.
Wilde acts as Matthew’s father throughout most of the book, rescuing him from Crash Maynard, giving him fatherly advice, and reprimanding him when he has done wrong. He is concerned that Matthew will grow up fatherless and wants to do everything he can to make up for David’s absence in the boy’s life. However, there is always an obstacle blocking their relationship—Wilde isn’t Matthew’s biological father, as nearly everyone says at some point. The Crimsteins’ inability to conceive of family in an alternative way means that Wilde never receives due credit for his role in Matthew’s life, and his role gradually lessens. Laila gets a new beau, and Matthew gets a new father figure; Hester sees Wilde as David’s friend but never a father.
Wilde’s relationship with Naomi ends on a more hopeful note. Naomi needs a father figure given that her adoptive parents, Bernard and Pia, are inadequate in every way. They give her very little support when she is being bullied at school, Pia ultimately abandons her, and Bernard does little to get Naomi back when she disappears. It is only when Naomi meets Wilde and Ava that she finds adults who truly care about her. Wilde and Ava are direct foils to Bernard and Pia. While Pia is absent, Ava is actively involved in Naomi’s life—seeking her out in New Jersey, attempting to protect her from bullies, and redirecting Wilde with false clues so that she and Naomi can run away to start a new life together. While Bernard is abusive and neglectful, Wilde is strong, capable, and caring. He is the one who finds Naomi both times she goes missing, and he does it because he cares about her well-being, not because he was asked to. He continues to put her welfare first when he lets her go start a new life with Ava. That one of the two most supportive adults in her life is unrelated to her emphasizes that chosen families are just as legitimate as legal or biological ones. At the end of the novel, Naomi leaves Pia and Bernard for a new, better family with Ava and Wilde. However, the plane ticket to Costa Rica is just as significant for Wilde as it is for Naomi—they both finally find the family they deserve and the family that wants them back.
The Tension Between Love and Grief
The complicated relationship between love and grief is another major theme of the novel, demonstrated mainly through Hester’s romance arc. A widow who has also lost her son, Hester is afraid of emotional vulnerability, a requisite for a proper, healthy romance. However, she is also very attracted to Oren Carmichael, to the point that almost every conversation they have includes flirting. They strike up a tentative relationship after they go on a date, but Hester is constantly reminded of her son because Oren was present when David was found and thus can never be extricated from his death. Her grief sours their relationship, and she breaks things off. She only realizes that grief and love can coexist when Oren takes her to the crash site for the first time and she can face her complicated feelings head-on. When she learns to accept the irreconcilable tension between grief and love, she and Oren can resume their relationship on more solid footing.
Laila, who struggled to love again after losing David, goes through a similar process, though her journey is mostly behind the scenes. Her no-strings-attached physical relationship with Wilde is “safe” for her and for him, as Wilde struggles to form long-term romantic connections. However, Wilde’s romantic potential with Laila is closed off when Laila begins dating Darryl. His appearances are brief, but Matthew’s approval at the end of the novel signals that Laila is finally ready to move on from David.
Wilde undertakes his own journey from grief to love. Though he spends much of the book denying his ability to form relationships due to his traumatic childhood, he depends on his ties to David’s family. He misses Laila when she breaks things off, and he even contemplates restarting his fling with Ava, though he usually avoids doing so because of the potential emotional fallout. Though nothing happens sexually or romantically between them over the course of the novel, the window is left open when Wilde joins Ava and Naomi on their trip to Costa Rica. His decision to go with them signals that he, too, is ready to pursue meaningful connections despite his grief.
Secrets, Revelations, and Justice
Everyone in the novel has secrets. The novel explores what happens when secrets are revealed, and in doing so it reflects on the effects secrets have at both the macro and micro levels. For example, Wilde’s secret has profound implications for Hester because it changes her perception of David’s death—she goes from being able to blame Wilde to realizing that “David was alone and he shouldn’t have been driving drunk” (362). While this revelation doesn’t change much on the macro level—David is still dead, and Wilde is still legally responsible for the accident—it significantly alters her understanding of her son and his final moments.
The Maynards’ secrets, on the other hand, have the potential to change things at the macro level. Dash records everything, and his secret footage of Rusty becomes insurance for the family’s safety and privileged lifestyle, but it also makes them a target. Rusty wants the tape because he knows that it could damage his political career; Gavin and Saul want it for the same reason. Dash’s refusal to give up the incriminating video of Rusty thus sets into motion a chain of events including his son’s kidnapping and mutilation. However, Delia’s secret is even more explosive and has the farthest-reaching consequences of all. She knows that her testimony could be used to exonerate Raymond Stark, the man wrongfully convicted of Anson’s murder, but she chooses self-preservation over justice, and Raymond languishes in prison as her scapegoat.
As Raymond’s fate shows, the revelation of secrets does not always correlate to justice being served. Wilde knows this, and for this reason, he circumvents the law, keeping Gavin and Saul’s secret in the name of justice for Raymond and Rusty’s victims. However, Hester, bound by her career and belief in adhering to the legal system that she follows, can legally do nothing to serve justice, despite knowing everyone’s secrets. In this way, Coben reflects on the effects that secrets have at both the macro and micro levels and how revelations of secrets do not always correlate to justice being served. Ultimately, the Maynards and Rusty evade justice.
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By Harlan Coben
