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A review by featheredturtle
Pyotra and the Wolf by Elna Holst
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
<strong>A very, very, very, <em>very</em> steamy sapphic retelling of <em>Peter and the Wolf</em>, with an odd second half.</strong>
<strong>The Good</strong>
– Sympathetic lead
– Descriptive, lyrical prose
– Strong opening chapters
– Nenets / Siberian Indigenous rep
– Lots of steamy sex scenes
– Strong characterization
– Strong setting descriptions
<strong>
The Bad</strong>
– <em>Lots</em> of reiterating
– Slow first section
– Uneven pacing
– Second half feels completely different from first
<em>(I received an advanced copy of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56645899-pyotra-and-the-wolf">Pyotra and the Wolf</a> in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Elna Holst and NineStar Press for this opportunity!)</em>
<strong>Story</strong>—★★☆☆☆ (2.5 Stars)
Wolves orphaned Pyotra. First, a pack of wolves killed her mother. Then, her father drank himself to death in his grief, leaving Pyotra to raise her young brother and care for her blind, ageing grandfather alone. When she finds Sergei in the jaws of a wolf, Pyotra decides the wolf must die, even if it saved her brother. A wolf who’s tasted human blood cannot be left alive. So, Pyotra sets out, trailing the strange wolf through frigid weather toward the tundra.
The first few chapters establishing Pyotra’s situation and launching her on the wolf’s trail are rock solid. However, the next section drags. Pyotra and Volk (the wolf), only have fleeting interactions as they travel, and Volk doesn’t talk for most of them, which means we spend a lot of time alone with one or the other and their inner monologue. It’s a lot of thinking about how fantastic the other one smells or how unusual she is. Then they meet, realize Pyotra has left a potential crisis at home, head back, fall in love very fast, and then the plot changes entirely. Now there's a kidnapping and a creepy billionaire. Logically, the complication makes sense, and I enjoyed the upping of the stakes. But the switch from sapphic werewolf sex to an unhinged rich guy and his flaccid member is, uh, <em>jarring</em>.
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> is tonally confusing in this way. Although Holst hits all the right plot beats at the right times, and both the intense romance and the creepy billionaire parts are written well as their own individual elements, the target audience for each does not seem to have much overlap. The person who picks up a steamy sapphic werewolf romance is unlikely to want to a glimpse into Oleg's sad, deranged mind, and vice versa.
My biggest frustration is one that crops up in books the most often: rehashing the obvious. Characters will frequently reflect on a scene or chapter, and well, unless the book in question is a big ol' SFF epic, there's no <em>reason</em>. It does not advance the plot or characters. It devalues the other lines because we do not know which lines are useful to the story, and therefore meaningful to us as readers.
Holst does a top-notch job with the Siberian setting. It's well-established and undeniably <em>Russian</em>. Descriptions for individual settings were also fantastic: Holst's attention to oft-overlooked senses like scent and temperature bring scenes to life.
<strong>Characters</strong>—★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars)
Pyotra is easy to like from early on: the combination of her hardships, her kindness, and her initiative makes her a sympathetic character who gets things done. (I found her particularly relatable when I read, <em>"[She] had lived with a droning terror at the back of her mind, which she hadn't any better name for than Things Could Happen."</em> Holy <em>shit</em>, that is my primary emotion these days.)
Volk is a solitary wolf who's become something of a wolf-hermit since she lost her wolf-wife. She is unflinching and socially abrasive, someone who longed to be wolf instead of woman, and looked forward to her turning.
Pyotra and Volk have a sort of “instalove” romance. From the start, they each stand out and feel a magnetic draw to the other. Now, instalove romance is a very YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) thing. If you enjoy fast connections in romance, there’s lots of steamy scenes, cuddling, and emotionally intimate moments very early between these two, so you’ll have plenty to enjoy. Volk is rather <em>wolfy</em> for several sexual encounters, which varied these scenes from "wolf gf with extra sharp teeth" hot to "okay, is that a wolf tongue doing that?" uhhh, weird.
Unfortunately, this quick connection means Pyotra sets aside her reservations about wolves early on, and there isn't much conflict or character growth for either Pyotra or Volk. They have a few conversations while travelling, but there are no problems chafing between them, nor internal issues to wrestle with.
I immensely enjoyed how well Holst characterizes <em>Pyotra</em>'s cast of characters: every single character, role big or small, feels not only like a real person, but a person I could pick out from a crowd. From Mariya Leonova, the general store owner, to Sergei, Pyotra's little brother, Holst establishes characters quickly and writes each with a distinct sense of self. I found myself protective over happy outcomes for most of the supporting cast after only knowing them briefly.
<strong>Writing Style</strong>—★★★★☆
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> is written in third person, past tense, with chapters alternating between Pyotra and "The Wolf" for the first half, and incorporating the points of view of multiple supporting characters in the second half.
Holst has really lovely, lyrical prose which, combined with her attention to detail and broad vocabulary, tickles readers' senses and brings a vividness to scenes. The biting snow of the tundra, a lover's muskiness, the smoky air in a cabin come to the reader with ease. My only complaint is that sometimes the loveliness wins over how generally readable a paragraph or two are.
<strong>Themes and Representation</strong>—★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars)
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> touches on themes of overcoming prejudice and the complications of one unfortunate thing happening so another, better thing can happen.
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> has sapphic (likely specifically lesbian) representation in Pyotra and Volk, gay representation in two supporting characters, and Siberian Indigenous representation (specifically Nenets) in Volk and a supporting character.
<strong>Overall</strong>—★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars)
<strong>Recommended For...</strong>
Fans of werewolf girlfriends; fans of steamy romances; fans of mate romances; fans of instalove romance; fans of underrepresented retellings.
<a href="https://featheredturtlepress.wordpress.com/"><strong>>>More book reviews at Feathered Turtle Press<<</strong></a>
<strong>The Good</strong>
– Sympathetic lead
– Descriptive, lyrical prose
– Strong opening chapters
– Nenets / Siberian Indigenous rep
– Lots of steamy sex scenes
– Strong characterization
– Strong setting descriptions
<strong>
The Bad</strong>
– <em>Lots</em> of reiterating
– Slow first section
– Uneven pacing
– Second half feels completely different from first
<em>(I received an advanced copy of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56645899-pyotra-and-the-wolf">Pyotra and the Wolf</a> in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Elna Holst and NineStar Press for this opportunity!)</em>
<strong>Story</strong>—★★☆☆☆ (2.5 Stars)
Wolves orphaned Pyotra. First, a pack of wolves killed her mother. Then, her father drank himself to death in his grief, leaving Pyotra to raise her young brother and care for her blind, ageing grandfather alone. When she finds Sergei in the jaws of a wolf, Pyotra decides the wolf must die, even if it saved her brother. A wolf who’s tasted human blood cannot be left alive. So, Pyotra sets out, trailing the strange wolf through frigid weather toward the tundra.
The first few chapters establishing Pyotra’s situation and launching her on the wolf’s trail are rock solid. However, the next section drags. Pyotra and Volk (the wolf), only have fleeting interactions as they travel, and Volk doesn’t talk for most of them, which means we spend a lot of time alone with one or the other and their inner monologue. It’s a lot of thinking about how fantastic the other one smells or how unusual she is. Then they meet, realize Pyotra has left a potential crisis at home, head back, fall in love very fast, and then the plot changes entirely. Now there's a kidnapping and a creepy billionaire. Logically, the complication makes sense, and I enjoyed the upping of the stakes. But the switch from sapphic werewolf sex to an unhinged rich guy and his flaccid member is, uh, <em>jarring</em>.
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> is tonally confusing in this way. Although Holst hits all the right plot beats at the right times, and both the intense romance and the creepy billionaire parts are written well as their own individual elements, the target audience for each does not seem to have much overlap. The person who picks up a steamy sapphic werewolf romance is unlikely to want to a glimpse into Oleg's sad, deranged mind, and vice versa.
My biggest frustration is one that crops up in books the most often: rehashing the obvious. Characters will frequently reflect on a scene or chapter, and well, unless the book in question is a big ol' SFF epic, there's no <em>reason</em>. It does not advance the plot or characters. It devalues the other lines because we do not know which lines are useful to the story, and therefore meaningful to us as readers.
Holst does a top-notch job with the Siberian setting. It's well-established and undeniably <em>Russian</em>. Descriptions for individual settings were also fantastic: Holst's attention to oft-overlooked senses like scent and temperature bring scenes to life.
<strong>Characters</strong>—★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars)
Pyotra is easy to like from early on: the combination of her hardships, her kindness, and her initiative makes her a sympathetic character who gets things done. (I found her particularly relatable when I read, <em>"[She] had lived with a droning terror at the back of her mind, which she hadn't any better name for than Things Could Happen."</em> Holy <em>shit</em>, that is my primary emotion these days.)
Volk is a solitary wolf who's become something of a wolf-hermit since she lost her wolf-wife. She is unflinching and socially abrasive, someone who longed to be wolf instead of woman, and looked forward to her turning.
Pyotra and Volk have a sort of “instalove” romance. From the start, they each stand out and feel a magnetic draw to the other. Now, instalove romance is a very YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) thing. If you enjoy fast connections in romance, there’s lots of steamy scenes, cuddling, and emotionally intimate moments very early between these two, so you’ll have plenty to enjoy. Volk is rather <em>wolfy</em> for several sexual encounters, which varied these scenes from "wolf gf with extra sharp teeth" hot to "okay, is that a wolf tongue doing that?" uhhh, weird.
Unfortunately, this quick connection means Pyotra sets aside her reservations about wolves early on, and there isn't much conflict or character growth for either Pyotra or Volk. They have a few conversations while travelling, but there are no problems chafing between them, nor internal issues to wrestle with.
I immensely enjoyed how well Holst characterizes <em>Pyotra</em>'s cast of characters: every single character, role big or small, feels not only like a real person, but a person I could pick out from a crowd. From Mariya Leonova, the general store owner, to Sergei, Pyotra's little brother, Holst establishes characters quickly and writes each with a distinct sense of self. I found myself protective over happy outcomes for most of the supporting cast after only knowing them briefly.
<strong>Writing Style</strong>—★★★★☆
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> is written in third person, past tense, with chapters alternating between Pyotra and "The Wolf" for the first half, and incorporating the points of view of multiple supporting characters in the second half.
Holst has really lovely, lyrical prose which, combined with her attention to detail and broad vocabulary, tickles readers' senses and brings a vividness to scenes. The biting snow of the tundra, a lover's muskiness, the smoky air in a cabin come to the reader with ease. My only complaint is that sometimes the loveliness wins over how generally readable a paragraph or two are.
<strong>Themes and Representation</strong>—★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars)
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> touches on themes of overcoming prejudice and the complications of one unfortunate thing happening so another, better thing can happen.
<em>Pyotra and the Wolf</em> has sapphic (likely specifically lesbian) representation in Pyotra and Volk, gay representation in two supporting characters, and Siberian Indigenous representation (specifically Nenets) in Volk and a supporting character.
<strong>Overall</strong>—★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars)
<strong>Recommended For...</strong>
Fans of werewolf girlfriends; fans of steamy romances; fans of mate romances; fans of instalove romance; fans of underrepresented retellings.
<a href="https://featheredturtlepress.wordpress.com/"><strong>>>More book reviews at Feathered Turtle Press<<</strong></a>