Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Wolf by Wolf (Wolf by Wolf, #1)

by Ryan Graudin

From the author of The Walled City comes a fast-paced and innovative novel that will leave you breathless.

Her story begins on a train.

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, they host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The prize? An audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball in Tokyo.

Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female racer, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele's twin brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move.

But as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and stay true to her mission?

Reviewed by Kait ✨ on

5 of 5 stars

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This book is SO COOL. The premise: imagine if Hitler had won the war. That’s really all I needed to dive in, but this book has a lot more going for it than just the action-packed plot.

I’ve always been fascinated by the medical experiments that were done on some concentration camp prisoners. (A couple other books on this subject that come to mind are [b:The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII|17290707|The Nazi and the Psychiatrist Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII|Jack El-Hai|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1364865552s/17290707.jpg|23912961] and [b:Gretel and the Dark|18242996|Gretel and the Dark|Eliza Granville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1374769969s/18242996.jpg|25690265].) Basically prisoners were subjected to genetic alterations, attempts to cure homosexuality, injections of dye to change hair and eye colour, etc. This book has an element of sci-fi as Yael is able to shift her physical appearance to take on the face/body of someone else.

Yael’s journey to complete her rebel mission is a tense and heartbreaking one full of love (and love lost), jealousy, and a whole lot of backstabbing from the other riders in the race.

Of course the ending can’t be as neat as one might wish (I say that more in the sense that we root for Yael’s whole-hearted success), and it ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. I am dying to start the second book, [b:Blood for Blood|26864835|Blood for Blood (Wolf By Wolf, #2)|Ryan Graudin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454518446s/26864835.jpg|46906263]. I have no idea where Graudin is going to go from here but I have no doubt it’s going to be fantastic.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 27 December, 2016: Finished reading
  • 27 December, 2016: Reviewed