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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder
Different, and not necessarily in a bad way. I love creepy cult books, but particularly on the YA side of things, they tend to follow a very predictable pattern; this book definitely breaks out of that pattern in interesting and unexpected ways, but in ways too that left me with a shaky sense of their world. We know that the nine girls at the center of the book decided to break away from the rest of the cult and live in their own cabin together. We know that they were beaten for this transgression--that corporal punishment for transgressions is the rule of law in Havenwood--but, after accepting their punishment, they were permitted to stay in their private cabin. Why? If this is a cult, why don't we get a real sense of the rules--apart from some passing references to rules about shunning the outside world and sex of any kind being forbidden--or the tactics of control being exerted on its population? If a compelling reason to remain in the cult is the promise of religious salvation, what kind of dogma do the cultists abide by? Perhaps I'm nitpicking slightly, as the mystery of the missing girl--an absence that is never suggested to be linked to the fact that they are in this cult--is the real point of the book, but the lack of firm foundation into this world was frustrating to me.
This is also an extremely short book at fewer than 300 pages in verse--and it had far, far too many POVs. There are eight girls in the titular "wolfpack" (a ninth, Rose, is the missing girl), all named after plants (Violet, Poppy, Willow, Oleanna, etc.), all of whom receive some kind of POV, and the end result is that I had no idea who any of these girls were as individuals, except for the two who were in a secret relationship with each other, and Daisy, who was the youngest. I much preferred the sections of the book that were narrated from a communal point of view, and would have preferred either that the book be exclusively written like that or had a much, much smaller cast of girls. (Though the signaling of POV sections with beautiful artwork of the flowers/plants that coincided with the POV character's name was very lovely to look at.)
Tl;dr: breaks the mold in interesting ways and has some very beautiful, unflashy verse, but needed a lot of help in certain areas.
This is also an extremely short book at fewer than 300 pages in verse--and it had far, far too many POVs. There are eight girls in the titular "wolfpack" (a ninth, Rose, is the missing girl), all named after plants (Violet, Poppy, Willow, Oleanna, etc.), all of whom receive some kind of POV, and the end result is that I had no idea who any of these girls were as individuals, except for the two who were in a secret relationship with each other, and Daisy, who was the youngest. I much preferred the sections of the book that were narrated from a communal point of view, and would have preferred either that the book be exclusively written like that or had a much, much smaller cast of girls. (Though the signaling of POV sections with beautiful artwork of the flowers/plants that coincided with the POV character's name was very lovely to look at.)
Tl;dr: breaks the mold in interesting ways and has some very beautiful, unflashy verse, but needed a lot of help in certain areas.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Nine girls who live together in a cult, but when one of them disappears, they’re willing to do anything to find the truth. Nine girls who live together in Havenwood, a cult lead by Joseph. They live separate from the main home and have a “pack” of their own. But when Rose disappears, the remaining eight girls will begin to look closer at those around them and discover how far they are willing to go to find Rose and protect each other. This was definitely an interesting read, with so many different POVs, but an interesting mystery, it’s told in a lyrical kind of format. I think if you enjoy a mystery in this kind of format definitely give it a go.
*Thank you Little Brown Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
*Thank you Little Brown Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
fast-paced
As a novel in verse, it's a quick read, but still effective as a slow-reveal mystery set in a cult commune. The protagonists are a group of teen girls, best friends who formed their own inseparable group within the cult after a building issue forced them to live in their own separate quarters until the kids' dorm was fixed and they just never went back. The story starts when one of the girls, the outspoken Rose, goes missing; the others keep it secret, afraid that she has run away, which would mean she would never be allowed back, unless they hide her absence until she returns - which of course she will, we're BFFs. When Rose doesn't come back, the worried girls start quietly investigating to find out what happened to her.
Chapters alternate between the POVs of the many girls (were there 7 or 8 of them...?) but I didn't get a sense of a distinct voice for each - this was okay since the writing was in third-person and felt more like a near-omniscient narrator anyway. The girls are all true believers in the cult, most having lived all (or almost all) of their lives there, so it's not a tired story of rebellious kids being cruelly repressed, even though the story does reveal hidden tensions in the commune under their utopic facade, and the girls are starting to get old enough to notice problems. The final reveal and resolution were not what I expected.
Recommended for readers who enjoy a more subtle, character-driven kind of mystery without car chase-type action.
Content warnings: no swearing, no sex scenes (the commune has a strict celibacy rule), no sexual assault or molestation, though the girls do get occasional heated glances from boys; drunkenness and drugs are mentioned as outside evils, and alcohol makes rare appearances, but there are no drinking parties etc; this is a religious commune largely shut off from the 'unclean' outside world under a revered leader where things like prayer meetings are important events, but the exact nature of the religiosity is kept vague (we only get basic commune rules, no scriptural quotations or preaching); there is one LGBT romance that gets no outright homophobia but is as forbidden as straight romance under the commune's no-family-ties rules; mention of corporal punishment (caning), controlling cult behaviour like intercepting mail as part of forbidding outside contact
Chapters alternate between the POVs of the many girls (were there 7 or 8 of them...?) but I didn't get a sense of a distinct voice for each - this was okay since the writing was in third-person and felt more like a near-omniscient narrator anyway. The girls are all true believers in the cult, most having lived all (or almost all) of their lives there, so it's not a tired story of rebellious kids being cruelly repressed, even though the story does reveal hidden tensions in the commune under their utopic facade, and the girls are starting to get old enough to notice problems. The final reveal and resolution were not what I expected.
Recommended for readers who enjoy a more subtle, character-driven kind of mystery without car chase-type action.
Content warnings: no swearing, no sex scenes (the commune has a strict celibacy rule), no sexual assault or molestation, though the girls do get occasional heated glances from boys; drunkenness and drugs are mentioned as outside evils, and alcohol makes rare appearances, but there are no drinking parties etc; this is a religious commune largely shut off from the 'unclean' outside world under a revered leader where things like prayer meetings are important events, but the exact nature of the religiosity is kept vague (we only get basic commune rules, no scriptural quotations or preaching); there is one LGBT romance that gets no outright homophobia but is as forbidden as straight romance under the commune's no-family-ties rules; mention of corporal punishment (caning), controlling cult behaviour like intercepting mail as part of forbidding outside contact
Nine girls, a mysterious disappearance, and a cult-like community. Wolfpack is written in free verse, which gives it this poetic, introspective vibe. I loved the idea of the girls' strong bond, but the their voices felt a bit too similar, making it hard to tell them apart. The cult setting was weirdly interesting. It’s a quick read that stands out for its different approach to storytelling.