The Wolf Road: A Novel

by Beth Lewis

An indomitable young woman fights to escape her past and rejoin humanity in an intimate cat-and-mouse tale of revenge and redemption, from the author of The Origin of Iris
 
“A white-knuckle trip through a gritty, frightening, and all-too-plausible postapocalypse.”—Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearers Club
 
Elka barely remembers a time before she knew Trapper. She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he’s taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other.
 
But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible, monstrous secret. And now that she knows the truth, she may be his next victim.
 
But Trapper’s taught her far too well. Elka, too, is a predator, and she’s going to fight and survive—no matter what the cost.

• ISBN10: 1101906146
• ISBN13: 9781101906149
• Publish Date: 11 April 2017 (first published 30 June 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781101906149

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown publishing for originally giving me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review. I ended up getting it from my library in physical form.


"Trapper was my family even though I didn't know a sure thing about him.... Trapper was the kind a'family you choose for yourself, the kind that gets closer'n blood. He was what I chose and I chose wrong."

This was a book that surprised me, because of how it was a post-apocalyptic western. I wasn't expecting the post-apocalyptic part and that threw me for awhile because I was trying to figure out what exactly happened.
Elka is a young woman who was left with her grandma when her parents went to pan gold, but a 'thunderhead' ended up taking her far far away. This is when she meets 'trapper' who ends up becoming a father figure to her.
Some bad things end up happening, forcing Elka to have to leave, but trapper isn't far behind her and it's almost like he's taunting her.

Elka will now have to survive on her own in the wild with next to no supplies and her mind all confused about what her life has been like for the past few years.

Overall I really struggled to read this book because of how slow paced it was. I just kept wanting to start getting answers or for things to at least make sense for a change. Having said that though, by the last quarter of the book I did start enjoying it. When Pen got involved I ended up like Elka a little bit more as well, she just brought out the best in her. Truthfully I'm still not sure what my exact feelings for this book are. On one hand, I did enjoy it, but on the other, I'm still disgusted about the things that trapper had her doing. Just no. not okay....
I can see the comparison of it to true grit as Elka is a bit like the character from that book, but honestly true grit (John Wayne movie) is so much better in my opinion.

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[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

The Wolf Road was recommended to me by a friend on Goodreads because I love, LOVE post-apocalyptic survival stories. Although the True Grit comparison did scare me a little bit at first, I was really excited to jump into this book and find out more about the characters and world this author had created.

Elka is a terribly unreliable narrator and she isn't especially likable, although she does become easier to sympathize with as the book progresses. Orphaned at a young age, she was found and raised by Trapper, a man she met in the forest who taught her everything she knows. She knows how to hunt and survive in the woods and avoid people. Trapper is her entire life and is the only person she knows how to interact with, so whenever she has to go on the run her life is turned upside down, especially when she realizes she's the one being hunted now.

Although Elka isn't my favorite protagonist of all time, I think it's fair to point out that her character development is some of the best I've seen. At the beginning of The Wolf Road, she doesn't even know what her real name is and doesn't want anything to do with anyone other than herself and her wolf. Without giving away anything, by the end Elka has come to an incredible amount of realizations about herself and Trapper, causing her to completely reevaluate her life and everything she has ever experienced.

The story itself was nothing like what I expected. Although this is marketed as post-apocalyptic fiction, there is really not much to set it apart from any other survival story. Apart from the occasional reference to the "Damn Stupid," which apparently sent the world (or at least the country) into chaos, what I assume were tornadoes called "thunderheads," there wasn't anything that made this feel like post-apocalyptic fiction. Instead of feeling like I was reading a book set sometime in a post-apocalyptic future, it felt like stepping back in time. It honestly seems like the post-apocalyptic bits could have been added in as an afterthought for marketing reasons.

Another issue I had with The Wolf Road was the pace - it was incredibly slow. Elka's journey was interesting, but the majority of the book consists of her walking through the woods, hunting, and talking to a wolf. It does pick up towards the end, but this was one that I definitely would not have made it through if I hadn't been listening to the audio. The unraveling of the mystery of Elka's past was fascinating and I saw it through to the end to see what the big twist would be, but I expected a much faster pace from this story.

I honestly expected to love this book, but I was not expecting a Western. I did enjoy the mystery and the thrill of what would happen between Elka and Trapper! I also really liked watching as Elka grew as a person and (obviously) I loved the wolf! Unfortunately, I was expecting more of a post-apocalyptic thriller and just couldn't love this book in the end.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars