My hope is that Cave Walker fits into contemporary eco-fiction in the sense that nature occupies a central space in the novel almost at all times. The Maine woods through which Gillian hikes to reach the holy cave is a character. Each cave is a distinct character. Even when Gillian can’t name the specific places she has visited, she defines them by the terrain and landmarks. Also, the lives of the characters are wholly intertwined with their environments.
-Donelle Dreese, interview
Cave Walker is about love, adaptation, change, and exploring one’s powers. As it follows Gillian through treacherous ways of thinking and the inevitability of foreseeing sometimes-terrible futures, it also serves a healthy portion of faith, ethics, and lessons that can be gained from shipwrecks, fear, denial, and the differences between psychosis and reality.
Goodreads Reviews
4.0 rating based on 5 ratings (all editions)
ISBN-10: 1927685222
ISBN-13: 9781927685228
Goodreads: 34457317
Author(s): Publisher: Moon Willow Press
Published: 4/22/2017
How far would you go to save the life of someone you love? Would you face your deepest fears? Would you walk into the dark belly of the bedrock Earth and rest your head on its bouldering fangs? Twenty-four year old Gillian Berry enters the haunting, narrow corridors of the Cave of Desperate Cries to save Neil Foster’s life, but discovers she must save her own.
Cave Walker tells the story of Gillian Berry, a talented breakfast chef who works at her mother’s charming B&B, the Pointed Firs Inn. After Gillian foresees the death of her love interest, Neil Foster, she nervously journeys into the Cave of Desperate Cries in the deep woods of Maine, hoping to save his life. This cave is known to be a holy place where people go for miracles, but many have entered and not returned. The caves take Gillian on an adventure as she unravels the truth behind the “ancestor syndrome” in her family and tries to heal the trauma that has been passed down through five generations of women. When Gillian returns from the caves, she reunites with her estranged father, who is now a permaculture designer and lives in an eco-village. She learns the truth about Neil Foster and her premonition of his death. Her encounters while traveling the caves allow her to finally realize who she really is, a cave walker and a healer.
