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 readingwithwrin on

5 of 5 stars

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“These were the names she whispered in the dark.
These were the pieces she brought back into place.
These were the wolves she rode to war.”


See reviews first on my blog

This was my first book from Ryan Graudin and I am so glad I started her work with this one. It was way amazing and far better, then I ever thought it would be.

This book not only takes on an alternative history and a whole new part of history with the potential experiments that the Nazis were doing on people. While this was interesting and fascinating it was also rather terrifying to think of.

Yeal is one of the most complex characters that I have read thus far. When we first meet her she is a very young girl just going to the concentration camp with her mother. From there we see her grow up and change drastically due to the suffering she had to go through due to doctor's experiments. The experiments not only change her as a person, but they also make the other prisoners terrified of her. Because of this though she also is able to escape and become part of the resistance. She gets taken in by Aaron-Klaus and Henryka who taught everything she knew outside of the camps.

This story is told from two perspectives all by Yael just as a child and her in the present. For me this made the book far more enjoyable because we slowly got to see how she became who she is today and what made her want do this.

If you're wondering how the wolves come into all of this be prepared for a great deal of heartbreak.

I really enjoyed the race parts of the book and found them really interesting especially when it was explained how it certain parts were now a part of Germania and what parts were still their own countries. Not only did we see the places along the race roads we also got to see Tokyo and see how it and Germania's political parties acted towards each other.
The race had so many different things going on with it at all times that it made the book fast-paced and I was always wanting to know what would happen next and how she would get out of trouble or evade trouble in the first place. We also have Yael trying to live Adele's life and attempt to keep Adele's brother from getting hurt and from stopping Yael on her mission to end Germania.

That ending was amazing and I can't say anything about it sadly. So please go and read this book!

"So that was Valkyrie. Not a woman of war- bearer of life and death- but a military protocol."


I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 28 September, 2015: Finished reading
  • 28 September, 2015: Reviewed