From the Publisher
"A unique and haunting debut that smolders like the embers of an unattended fire." — Newsweek, "2021's Most Highly Anticipated New Books"
"In this tense, complicated novel, the loss of a daughter is observed through the singular, haunting voice of the town’s mothers as they wage a daily battle for safety under the guise of conformity and belonging. What is the cost of leaving, and what is the cost of staying? There are no easy answers in this thrilling debut novel by Texas writer Alison Wisdom, whose taut, steely prose reveals new complexities, questions, and dangers with each turn of the page." — Elizabeth Wetmore, New York Times bestselling author of Valentine
"Captivating." — Publishers Weekly
“Eerie and powerful. . . . the hypnotic storytelling and exploration of Alice’s character—and the character of Alice’s entire town—will draw readers in.” — Booklist
“A dreamy debut. . . . Propulsive and haunting. . . . Wisdom hits each note with perfect precision.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Alison Wisdom's addictive, down-the-rabbit-hole debut reads like The Girls by way of The Virgin Suicides, with an extra dash of Cheever's unsettling suburbia. The result is sinister and surprising: a novel I couldn't put down, and one that I kept thinking about long after I'd reached its unexpected, chilling end." — Emily Temple, author of The Lightness
"In her beguiling debut, Alison Wisdom exposes the menace concealed just beneath the surface of the ordinary. When Alice Lange falls off the map, abandoning her status as a beloved it-girl in her suburban enclave to pursue a mysterious stranger, I fell right with her. A story of mothers and daughters, the competing allures of safety and danger, and the volatility of early adulthood, this is a spellbinding novel that followed me into my days." — Alexis Schaitkin, author of Saint X
"This is a melancholy, dreamlike book about group dynamics, power, growing up, and the choices people can't take back. Alison Wisdom gives her haunting story a quiet but inexorable forward momentum—like that of adolescence itself." — Lydia Kiesling, author of Golden State
“Beautiful and wry, We Can Only Save Ourselves is the story of a teenager who breaks free from the confines of her suburban home to try to find a more authentic way of living. I wanted to look away as the novel spun toward an ominous conclusion, but I couldn’t stop reading. A haunting and immersive debut with echoes of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides.” — Kate Hope Day, author of If, Then and In the Quick
"Alison Wisdom’s clear-eyed debut lulls you into a tenuous comfort, only to jump out when least expected. The collective narration flawlessly juggles youthful idealism and hardened maturity, marking the decisions women make—both deliberate and coerced—and their struggle to break free from societies determined to stifle their freedom to choose. Insidiously haunting, subtly clever, and impossible to put down." — Julia Fine, author of What Should be Wild
"A haunting, beautifully written story of a girl falling into darkness. Alison Wisdom renders a fascinating portrayal of the subtle shifts in tension, power, and affection among the young women who follow a Manson-esque cult leader. With the propulsion of a page-turner and the detail of a psychological study, We Can Only Save Ourselves is a stark and captivating novel. " — Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters
Kate Hope Day
Beautiful and wry, We Can Only Save Ourselves is the story of a teenager who breaks free from the confines of her suburban home to try to find a more authentic way of living. I wanted to look away as the novel spun toward an ominous conclusion, but I couldn’t stop reading. A haunting and immersive debut with echoes of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides.
Emily Temple
"Alison Wisdom's addictive, down-the-rabbit-hole debut reads like The Girls by way of The Virgin Suicides, with an extra dash of Cheever's unsettling suburbia. The result is sinister and surprising: a novel I couldn't put down, and one that I kept thinking about long after I'd reached its unexpected, chilling end."
Elizabeth Wetmore
"In this tense, complicated novel, the loss of a daughter is observed through the singular, haunting voice of the town’s mothers as they wage a daily battle for safety under the guise of conformity and belonging. What is the cost of leaving, and what is the cost of staying? There are no easy answers in this thrilling debut novel by Texas writer Alison Wisdom, whose taut, steely prose reveals new complexities, questions, and dangers with each turn of the page."
Julia Fine
"Alison Wisdom’s clear-eyed debut lulls you into a tenuous comfort, only to jump out when least expected. The collective narration flawlessly juggles youthful idealism and hardened maturity, marking the decisions women make—both deliberate and coerced—and their struggle to break free from societies determined to stifle their freedom to choose. Insidiously haunting, subtly clever, and impossible to put down."
Booklist
Eerie and powerful. . . . the hypnotic storytelling and exploration of Alice’s character—and the character of Alice’s entire town—will draw readers in.
Lydia Kiesling
"This is a melancholy, dreamlike book about group dynamics, power, growing up, and the choices people can't take back. Alison Wisdom gives her haunting story a quiet but inexorable forward momentum—like that of adolescence itself."
"2021's Most Highly Anticipated New Books" Newsweek
"A unique and haunting debut that smolders like the embers of an unattended fire."
Alexis Schaitkin
"In her beguiling debut, Alison Wisdom exposes the menace concealed just beneath the surface of the ordinary. When Alice Lange falls off the map, abandoning her status as a beloved it-girl in her suburban enclave to pursue a mysterious stranger, I fell right with her. A story of mothers and daughters, the competing allures of safety and danger, and the volatility of early adulthood, this is a spellbinding novel that followed me into my days."
Jennie Melamed
"A haunting, beautifully written story of a girl falling into darkness. Alison Wisdom renders a fascinating portrayal of the subtle shifts in tension, power, and affection among the young women who follow a Manson-esque cult leader. With the propulsion of a page-turner and the detail of a psychological study, We Can Only Save Ourselves is a stark and captivating novel. "
Booklist
Eerie and powerful. . . . the hypnotic storytelling and exploration of Alice’s character—and the character of Alice’s entire town—will draw readers in.
"A unique and haunting debut that smolders like the embers of an unattended fire."
Kirkus Reviews
2020-12-25
An all-American golden girl runs away from her small town to join a cult in Wisdom’s dreamy debut.
Two days before she will surely be crowned homecoming queen—how could it be otherwise?—Alice Lange, beloved and beautiful, the pride of the neighborhood, is approached by a stranger. She's reading on her front porch swing when it happens, when the man, who is handsome and older, takes her picture with a “ravenousness she liked.” They will see each other again, the man tells Alice, and this turns out to be true: Alice won’t go to the dance after all. Alice will get in the man’s truck and she'll be gone, and when the police come, it will be clear she has left voluntarily. The novel, narrated by an all-knowing chorus of the neighborhood mothers, moves between Alice’s new life off the grid with the man and his followers and the small town shaken by her disappearance. The man, who is called Wesley, is the charismatic leader of a doomsday cult—the novel is not especially specific about the ideological details, but they will, someday, build a new civilization from the world’s ashes—for which he has recruited a small band of young women, most recently Alice. Alice, who remains, in her golden perfection, a sort of girl-shaped place holder, is easily swept along. For the town, life goes on, but her absence is a constant reminder of its precariousness. “That’s what we’ve learned from Alice Lange,” the mothers explain. “Sometimes the darkness wins.” Propulsive and haunting, if psychologically thin, the novel is a fever dream of familiar tropes: the idyllic suburb, the chosen girl, the allure of escape, the cult, the undercurrent of violence. The novel doesn’t seem to offer any particular insight into these things—it proceeds about how you’d expect—but Wisdom hits each note with perfect precision.
Crisp and well constructed, if not especially emotionally resonant.
