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A review by votesforwomen
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
4.0
So intense. So beautiful. So broken.
Honestly? I loved this book. There was some content that I was uncomfortable with, thus the lower rating, but I still could. Not. Get. Over. This. Story.
Yael! She was so feminine and beautiful and yet strong. I appreciated that so much. She grappled with the fact that, as a skin-changer, she seems to have no personality, no place in the world, no people to call her own. So sad.
Luka! One of those complicated boys who might be pale and brooding but still knows what's what and isn't afraid to LAY. IT. DOWN.
Felix! I need a brother like this k?
The tattoos themselves. Such a powerful way to remind us what was lost in this war. I cried a couple of times.
CONTENT
VIOLENCE: Yael escaped from a Nazi death camp where medical experiments were constantly performed. There are some scenes with quite a bit of blood here, although they are flashbacks. Lots and lots of death as the Holocaust as we knew it drags on--in this story it's 1960 or so, Germany won the Second World War, and the purge of Jews continues. It's never too graphic or gory, although it can be hard to look at sometimes, but this level is never gratuitous--it's the truth.
There's also some death and injuries that take place as a result of the motorcycle race. People are not nice, okay? It's dark but there is hope.
A couple of assassinations take place.
SEXUAL: There are several references to Hitler's love life, none of which are at all explicit. Some innuendo, I think. A few kisses. Nothing too graphic.
LANGUAGE: Some light cursing in English, heavier cursing in German. Unlike the Book Thief, the German words are left untranslated, although their meaning is easy enough to infer. The a-word, both b-words, s-word, and g-word are all used a few times (mostly in German).
DRUGS/ALCOHOL/ABUSE: A doctor is said to perform horrific experiments on people, although we don't see a ton of that except for the (considerably milder) effects on Yael. A young man smokes cigarettes throughout the book. Food and water are drugged occasionally, with occasional disastrous results.
This book is hard to read. It's heavy. It's dark. It's a place we don't like to go.
But it's important. It's so important. Because the more we know of what happened then, the less likely we are to let it happen again.
Can I recommend this book? Not really. But will I? For mature young people who want to know some of the dark secrets of the Holocaust as well as read a terrific road race story, yes. Yes I will.
What you do matters.
Honestly? I loved this book. There was some content that I was uncomfortable with, thus the lower rating, but I still could. Not. Get. Over. This. Story.
Yael! She was so feminine and beautiful and yet strong. I appreciated that so much. She grappled with the fact that, as a skin-changer, she seems to have no personality, no place in the world, no people to call her own. So sad.
Luka! One of those complicated boys who might be pale and brooding but still knows what's what and isn't afraid to LAY. IT. DOWN.
Felix! I need a brother like this k?
The tattoos themselves. Such a powerful way to remind us what was lost in this war. I cried a couple of times.
CONTENT
VIOLENCE: Yael escaped from a Nazi death camp where medical experiments were constantly performed. There are some scenes with quite a bit of blood here, although they are flashbacks. Lots and lots of death as the Holocaust as we knew it drags on--in this story it's 1960 or so, Germany won the Second World War, and the purge of Jews continues. It's never too graphic or gory, although it can be hard to look at sometimes, but this level is never gratuitous--it's the truth.
There's also some death and injuries that take place as a result of the motorcycle race. People are not nice, okay? It's dark but there is hope.
A couple of assassinations take place.
SEXUAL: There are several references to Hitler's love life, none of which are at all explicit. Some innuendo, I think. A few kisses. Nothing too graphic.
LANGUAGE: Some light cursing in English, heavier cursing in German. Unlike the Book Thief, the German words are left untranslated, although their meaning is easy enough to infer. The a-word, both b-words, s-word, and g-word are all used a few times (mostly in German).
DRUGS/ALCOHOL/ABUSE: A doctor is said to perform horrific experiments on people, although we don't see a ton of that except for the (considerably milder) effects on Yael. A young man smokes cigarettes throughout the book. Food and water are drugged occasionally, with occasional disastrous results.
This book is hard to read. It's heavy. It's dark. It's a place we don't like to go.
But it's important. It's so important. Because the more we know of what happened then, the less likely we are to let it happen again.
Can I recommend this book? Not really. But will I? For mature young people who want to know some of the dark secrets of the Holocaust as well as read a terrific road race story, yes. Yes I will.
What you do matters.