Something Wild #3: Cover Reveal

As you can imagine, this doesn't really feel like the right time to be sharing my new book cover, with so many horrors and tumultuous things happening and many of us afraid and alarmed. But the moment has come for me to do the honors of revealing the cover of Wake the Wild Creatures. If you're carrying some sharp-edged emotions right now (as I very much am), I want you to know you might feel at home in this book. There was a lot of anger channeled into this story. In this story you'll also find a literal refuge away from the broken world, a vision of community, and, ultimately and maybe most importantly, a true glimmer of hope.

Wake the Wild Creatures is coming May 6 from Little, Brown and here's the beautiful dream of a cover, illustrated by Adele Leyris, and designed by Sasha Illingworth:

Cover art copyright © 2025 by Adele Leyris. Cover design by Sasha Illingworth. Cover copyright © 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. 

I called this cover a "beautiful dream" because that's exactly what came to mind when my editor Alvina Ling first showed me the cover concept in sketch form. I see my narrator, Talia, held apart in an unfriendly world, but dreaming of the place she lost—the lush green forest that she used to call home. The more I stare at this cover, the more I see a whole narrative unfold through the design. Do you see glimmers of that too? The forest is behind Talia and all around her. She's longing to find her way back, but she can't yet see. She belongs there, even if it might feel impossible to return.

In terms of the visuals, this exact shade of green and the wild tangles of foliage connect to what I'd pictured as I was writing. And two details I especially love are Talia's untamed, dark hair and her black boots. Hidden inside one of her boots is a knife. I know it's there even if we can't see it. (She'd never let you see it.) Another thing I adore is the fierce edge shown in the title's lettering, and how those hard scratches speak to what's coiled inside Talia and in the book itself, raring to get out.

I'm so honored to have Nina LaCour's gorgeous words on my front cover! (I am such a passionate fan of her work, ever since I read her incredible debut novel, Hold Still, and to this day, crying and soaring through her adult debut, Yerba Buena!) There is a collection of stunning blurbs from other authors I admire, and you can read them all here.

And most of all, as I stare deeply into this cover art, I find myself grateful to the artist for embodying Talia so vividly and to the designer's vision in bringing this to life. I hope this cover offers you an entryway into Wake the Wild Creatures and gets you itching to know more. The book comes out on May 6, 2025!

With that in mind, I'll share the official jacket copy below, as well as the pre-order links at the bottom of this post... including an audiobook, which is in progress as we speak and is also set to release on May 6!

About Wake the Wild Creatures:

Already one of the most acclaimed novels of 2025, this extraordinary, timely, and must-read novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nova Ren Suma explores young women’s freedom and rage as Talia plots her way back to her hidden mountaintop home after her mother’s arrest for murder.​

Three years ago, Talia lived happily in the ruins of the Neves, a once-grand hotel in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains, with her mother Pola and their community of like-minded women. Some came to the Neves to escape cruel men, others to hide from the law, but all found safety and connection in their haven high above civilization, cloaked by a mysterious mist that kept intruders away. But as their numbers grew, complications followed, and everything came crashing down the night electric lights pierced the forest. Uniformed men arrested Pola, calling her a murderer and a fugitive, and Talia was taken away. 

Now sixteen, Talia has been forced to live with family she barely knows and fit into a world scarred by misogyny, capitalism, disconnection from nature . . . everything the women of the Neves stood against. She has one goal: to return to the Neves. But as Talia awaits a signal from her mother, questions arise. Who betrayed her community, and what is she avoiding about her own role in its collapse? Is it truly magic that keeps the hotel so hidden? And what does it mean to embrace being her mother’s daughter? With the help of an unexpected ally, Talia must find her way to answers, face a mother who’s often kept her at arm’s length, and try to reach the refuge she lost—if the mist hasn’t swallowed her path home.

Fierce and lyrical, unsettling and tender, Wake the Wild Creatures marks the long-awaited return of one of the most distinctive voices in young adult literature.

Preorder the hardcover | Preorder the ebook | Preorder the audiobook