Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Once There Were Wolves

I’m not sure if I liked this book.

Many parts were beautiful: the description of nature, the twin-sister bond between the main character Inti and her sister Aggie, the exploration of themes of kindness vs violence, and which we as people tend towards in a world that hurts us. The wolves were especially well-written, their beauty captured, their wildness, but they were not glorified even within our narrator’s viewpoint despite her adoration of them. They are wild creatures, and they cannot be viewed through our human lenses. In this, the book was successful.

However, there were things that did not appeal to me. I liked the emotional push-and-pull between Inti and her love interest, Duncan, dependent on her wavering mental state and lack of trust; I did not like that his job of police chief was unquestioned (given the racist history and present of policing). I recognize the narrative sensibility of literally everything coming to a head in the climax, but the lack of realism that everything really *would* happen all at once took me out of the story. And I had a bit of a sense of biological essentialism in the way Inti’s relationship with motherhood resolved, which, as someone disinterested in motherhood and critical of things just “feeling right” and all conflict working out for women the moment they accept motherhood, did not please me.

And finally, there were things that interested me. I liked the exploration of conservation; the wolves and how the townspeople react to them are a very important piece of this book, and I felt I learned a lot about people’s pushback to conservation efforts (especially when agreements and coexistence are not supported). I also liked hearing about Inti’s “mirror touch”, her neurological disorder where she physically feels what she sees others physically feel. (This disorder is why I have marked diversity as “it’s complicated”; Inti’s mirror touch is a rare condition that does impact her way of life in a manner at times akin to a disability).

The prose in this book is lovely; the themes are well-explored; the narrative pacing and placement of events leave a bit to be desired; the character writing is complex and interesting; I approve of some of the messaging but very much disapprove of others. I feel bad potentially bringing down the score of this book—but to me, this is a 3.75 kind of read.

Content Warnings