Wild People Quiet is the latest release by Canadian author Tara Gereaux. Expected to be released on March 3, 2026, it asks what happens when someone tries to hide who they are. Florence is Métis, but learned at an early age that she can pass as white. In the early 1900s, that was a powerful thing to know about yourself, especially when there was rampant racism against you and your family. But what happens when her past catches up 30 years later?
I want to thank Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Wild People Quiet. However, all opinions expressed here are solely mine.
Synopsis from Goodreads
Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee at Pratt’s Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde—never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every Saturday night, without fail.
But one morning at the end of summer, everything changes.
Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her.
Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin.
And when Florence learns of the government’s plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice—one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever.
Positives
- Just over 300 pages
- Interesting characters
- Small town life
Negatives
- At times, there was a little too much of the language used by Florence’s family without explaining what was being said.
My Opinions
I added Wild People Quiet to my TBR because I want to learn more about the experience of the Indigenous peoples of Canada. For those who don’t know, the Métis are an Indigenous group that resulted when the fur trappers and traders, mostly the French, had relationships with Indigenous women. They are one of the three main groups of Indigenous people in Canada. As a result of these relationships, many of the children could pass as white. In a time of rampant racism, that could be a good thing.
Florence was one of those people. She wasn’t ashamed of who she was; she was ashamed of how she was forced to live. And took the opportunity she was given to rectify that. Would I be able to do what she did and hide who she was for so long? Probably not.
Gereaux wrote a compelling story with compelling characters. Wild People Quiet could have been a preachy book, telling the world where everything went wrong. Instead, the author took the time to show us the story of her people and how history books don’t always tell the true story.
Are you looking for some more books to read? Check out my bookish lists, book reviews, and monthly reading wrap-ups.
Discover more from Read! Bake! Create!
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Great review! I haven’t heard about this book or Indigenous group but the book sounds really interesting! I’m gonna have to keep it on my radar—thanks for putting it there. 😊
I don’t think many people outside of Canada have ever heard of the Metis. I know I didn’t, until I moved here 17 years ago. They’re a group that are part of both “worlds”, the Indigenous and the European, but never quite a part of either.