" Wilderness opens like a poem, demanding your attention, requesting your ear. The lyrical prose makes one slow to its cadence and learn to read all over again. Yet, the story itself, what I consider central to a novel, loses me in the end. If you are a fan of literary fiction it is well worth the read--the prose is polished and wondrous, and there were many moments when the turn of phrase took my breath away. Yet, the characters themselves I found wanting and one dimensional. Abel, as the central character, is the most robust and evokes the most empathy, but the other characters lacked depth and development; I only felt sorry for them. The brutality and violence of the Civil War, as well as the western territories during the 19th Century in which the novel is set, take center stage, and the author cannot seem to wrest a human individual from this time, except to define her/him by the violence done against them. I wish that Weller had turned his gifted writing to develop the characters in his novel; if the attention he paid to describe the landscapes should turn to evoke the intricacies of the human heart, the work would be outstanding. "
— Gina, 2/20/2014