The Wild Unknown

By Emily Gale

Text Publishing 2026 

Reviewed by Zewlan Moor 

It’s 2045 and Eddie lives with his brother, Jude, and his parents in suburban Naarm. He’s starting to get anxious about his first year of high school, and is determined to make the most of his last holiday with his best friend, Kit, before he goes off to a fancy school. Eddie and Jude’s mother is a fact-checker for a fake news exposé site, and their wheelchair-bound father leads a team that approves new buildings and public amenities for the local council. People are connected and tracked via miniature devices in their ears called micas, and surveilled by the government. 

This surveillance is by bird-drones that mimic noisy miners. “What adults didn’t say out loud was that the sight of any drone made them nervous. Drones used in wars could fire bullets. Parents didn’t want kids to have that in their heads, but kids knew.” 

Despite this futuristic set-up, the lifestyle of the boys is quite relaxed. They spend a lot of time on their bikes and down at the river, can remove their mica devices, and therefore have quite a lot of freedom. But then a boy goes missing from the neighbourhood and Eddie and Kit feel compelled to investigate when the authorities seem to get nowhere. 

Their detective work leads them to the old factory by the river. When Eddie swallows river water he starts to have strange physical symptoms, such as revolting burping, strange growths and super-fast sprinting ability. Many twists and turns lead to a satisfying denouement. 

Gale has written in a blogpost on the Text website that she wrote The Wild Unknown for her son when he went through puberty. He was the sort of kid who would not want to have a discussion or even read a book that mentioned the term puberty. But perhaps he would not mind a speculative fiction book exploring transitions and otherness. In a serendipitous twist of fate, Text published Rebecca Stead’s latest middle grade novel, The Experiment, in the same month. It is not a spoiler (it is illustrated on the cover) to note that the main character in that book also experiences strange growth, this time of a tail! 

These themes of the blurring of boundaries between human and non-human; corporate and government conspiracies; technological innovations and their relationship with increased authoritarianism and privacy breaches are sure to provoke much discussion. The Wild Unknown would be a successful classroom read-aloud or set text for Stages 3 and 4, sure to keep listeners interested. The Experiment could be used as a compare-and-contrast text, either for everyone, or as an extension activity for keen readers.

Zewlan Moor is the author of Nothing Alike, The Bill Dup and Our World: Philippines. Her latest book, Say Hello Like an Armadillo is out in the US/UK in June 2026 and Australia in Summer 2026-7. Pre-order or add it to your Goodreads Want To Read shelf now!