Wolf Pack

   

Title: Wolf Pack

Series: Wolf Pack #1

Author: Edo van Belkom

Publisher: Tundra Books, October 1, 2004

Pages: 184

Genre: Children's Fantasy

After a devastating forest fire, a ranger discovers a litter of wolf cubs. He and his wife soon learn that they are no ordinary wolves. They are both animal and human. Although the young ones try to fit into the human world, their true nature makes the challenges of being teenagers all the more difficult.

When one of the pack is kidnapped, the others must draw on both sides of their nature – human and wolf – to find the cunning, the strength, and the courage it takes to rescue her.

Edo van Belkom has created unlikely but compelling heroes in a book that is by turns funny, frightening, and always entertaining.

I learned about this book because of the new Paramount+ show. It's been advertised alongside the Teen Wolf reunion movie, so OF COURSE I had to give it a shot.

The show premiered last night and I managed to get 60% of the book read before the premiere. I had big feelings going into it that they would be nothing alike. And boy was I right! The pilot was great, I can't wait to finish the season! The book, while cute, was less compelling.

I know that I never would have picked this up if it weren't for the Teen Wolf of it all. This is a middle grade book wrapped up in a YA package. And with none of the nostalgia of having read it when I was younger, I didn't have much connecting me to the characters. 

In saying that, for what it is, it's good. But what it is, is a coming-of-age story and a vaguely environmentalist manifesto. Werewolves are cool. I love a good werewolf, and these werewolves are cool. Their origin story is really cool. But I felt like I was dropped into the third or fourth book in a series. Like why does everyone just throw around the word lycanthrope like it's the preferred term when you see a teenager turn into a wolf for the first time ever? But it was short and sweet and ultimately decent.

Ratings

Stars: 3/5