allisonhollingsworth 's review for:

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
“This is how empires crumble. This is how tyrants fall. Like everyone else.” This book has been on my list for a while now and I’m excited to finally get to reading it. I’ve heard nothing but good things. The story sort of a medley of genres. It is historical fiction in the sense that it takes place in the 1950s, but an alternate timeline in which Hitler and Germany won the world war. Our main character is Yael, a Jewish girl who was a prisoner in one of the death camps as a child and had experiments carried out on her. Not only has she lost many people and suffered horrible tragedy in her life, she now is able to change her appearance as one of the effects of these experiments. Fast forward, and she is working with a resistance of the Third Reich. She gets a tattoo with five wolves that often comes up throughout the story. This was a good summary of what it means to Yael:

‘“Babushka—the one who gave her purpose. Mama—the one who gave her life. Miriam—the one who gave her freedom. Aaron-Klaus—the one who gave her a mission. Vlad—the one who gave her pain. 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.”

I like how there were flashbacks with each of these people sprinkled throughout the story. It helped break up the narrative of the race and also exposed us to more and more of Yael as we went, helping us connect with her and her mission. With her abilities, her mission is to enter a cross-continental motorcycle race and win, because the Victor she is impersonating - Adele Wolfe - won the previous year and she got to dance face-to-face with Hitler. And she needs to be able to dance with him again, to get so close to him that she can shoot and kill him, on live television, in front of everyone. That is the only way to pave the way for revolution. The resistance kidnaps Adele the night before the race, and Yael, with her face-changing abilities, enters the race as her with her mission. But it becomes clear from the get-go that things aren’t going to be as easy as she hoped. First of all, Yael’s brother has unexpectedly entered the race. He wants her to come home to the family. Their older brother died in the race and Felix and their parents couldn’t stand if it happened to Adele too. He even goes so far as to try to drug her food to get her to lose the race. That kind of sabotage isn’t illegal in the game but contestants have to be subtle to not get caught. But Yael pushes on, and Felix isn’t the only obstacle to her winning. A boy, Luka, won the race in a previous year and clearly has some history with Adele, but Yael can’t figure out exactly what it is despite all her research on Adele she did before she entered the race. As the race goes on we find out that the two had some romantic moments between them in the last race but Adele sabotaged Luka to win. He can’t be completely trusted now. He does end up drugging her by kissing her and slipping a sleeping draft into her mouth. Yael is furious when she wakes up but Felix come to get aid by giving her his bike, which he tinkered with to make go faster. Despite the close race, Yael still loses and she thinks she has failed her mission until Luka invites her as his date to the ceremony. There, Hitler asks her to dance. She goes to do so, ready to kill him. She tells him that she is Yael, and reads off her inmate number, then shoots him through the heart. But as he’s falling to his death she sees his face change - he was a shifter, like her. Yael doesn’t have time to process what this means and she springs away to her escape route. She manages to sneak away but that’s where the story ends! Definitely a cliff hanger - Hitler is still alive, but people thought they saw him die on TV. The rise of the revolution is on. People are mobilized. I wonder if they’re going to try to kill him before people find out he’s a live so he doesn’t squash the rebellion. I’m looking forward to the next book. This was definitely a unique in its blend of historical fiction, dystopia and the fantastical element of Yael’s shape shifting ability. I read in the remarks at the end of the book that the author made that choice to explore the racism at the center of Third Reich and expose the ridiculousness that one race is above the next. I thought that was an interesting concept. I did wonder at the power only being able to take on women’s faces - it honestly feels like Yael should be able to take on anyone’s face. It’s unclear what the parameters are for a certain gender. I’ll also be curious to see how Yael deals with the fallout of the real Adele, her brother Felix, and Luka. How will they react to all of this? Looking forward to the next book.