Vaughn's "Bannerless" was an unexpected reading pleasure for me
back in 2018. Like Emily St. John Mandel's "Station Eleven", it
posited a post-apocalyptic society where things were, well, not
entirely shit.

In place of the usual marauding rape gangs, societal breakdown
and child murder, Vaughn sketched a community which had managed
to hold onto some particular scientific progress and where
people just tried to look out for each other. It wasn't perfect,
not by a long distance, but it offered something hopeful, hence
"hopepunk".

"The Wild Dead" explores many of the same themes surfaced in
the first book, most particularly how the society of "The Coast
Road" interacts with and deals with those who will not pay
the price of membership of their community. Once again, our
protaganist is Enid the Investigator, a group apart from the
usual society who act as an amalgam of police, judges, mediators
and counsellors.

While the primary narrative of the book is (again) a murder
investigation, this is just the building block on which Vaughn
creates a beautiful and contemplative look at this imperfect,
but striving, society. There's a lot here on the nature of
what level of interaction and supervision might be neccessary
in a collective syndicalist type society, on how that society
would deal with those who are distinct, or odd, or who break
the society's primary rules. In the absence of a carceral or
murdering state, how can these people be dealt with?

There are elements of Solarpunk here too - but this is not the
focus of the books.

I enjoyed returning to the Coast Road, and will happily
read anything else which returns there. I happily recommend
it to those looking for a more subdued, almost mournful
post-apocalypse.