I read a lot of xenofiction on here, particularly about wolves. But I rarely read (wolf) xenofiction that's actually written in my native language, Dutch. I mean, I've read my fair share of Dutch xenofiction translations, but one that is natively written by Dutch people in the Dutch language is rare, especially for a teen/YA audience.
So here's a book based on a fun concept: What if wolves were to return to the Netherlands in the 21st century after being wiped out here? Note that wolves did indeed return to here from Germany after 150+ years of absence while this book was being written, in 2019. Spoilers ahead.
We meet our protagonists: a group of three young-adult wolves. The trio consists of Gruwel, the leader, and her brothers Grauw and Grijs. They get separated from their own pack in Germany during a skirmish and flee across the Dutch border. Now being in this densely-populated land full of people and their livestock, the inexperienced trio will have to rely on one another to survive.
Overall I liked this book more in concept than the actual execution. It's not bad, I'm not saying that, it's just that the concept is really interesting but the writing is pretty lackluster sometimes.
First things first: this book is entirely fictional. I know it was published around the time the first wolves re-settled in the Netherlands, but the tale of Gruwel, Grauw and Grijs is entirely made-up and not based on any actual wolves. There were wolves sighted in the Netherlands before settling a few years earlier, but none of those settled and they mostly were just passing through. So don't expect the journey of our main trio to be based in any truth or real wolf, such as the stories based on O-Six from Yellowstone.
That said, it was still very enjoyable to read a wolf xenofiction that actually takes place somewhere I can really relate to as it's in my own country. A lot of wolf books I've read so far have usually been about wolves in the USA/Canada, or sometimes even entirely fictionalized settings. So having actually recognizable landmarks these three wolves pass was pretty fun. As is the concept of having three inexperienced young wolves trying to find a way to live in a land that isn't used to having wolves around at all.
However, the execution was a bit mixed. The writing in the early chapters could get overly-expository (I think having them being told through flashbacks could've worked better) and our trio doesn't really have a lot of personality. I think the only traits I could really give them is that Gruwel is the determined leader and Grijs is thoughtful and wise. I wouldn't even know what personality or traits to assign to Grauw, he's just kind of there without much to him.
Gruwel definitely has the most personality out of our main three, but even then there's still not a whole lot to her. They're constantly together as a trio and they're all equally inexperienced with living on their own, so they start to feel kind-of same-y after a while.
The writing flip-flops from being in the wolves' POV to the POV of certain human (or "noise-makers", as the book calls them) characters they come across, but I honestly didn't mind this much and actually thought it was pretty fun to see the humans' takes on the actions of our main trio. They're inexperienced wolves, so they mess up a lot as they get too close to humans, their towns or their livestock, so to see various humans comment on them like that was pretty fun.
One thing I didn't like: the character of Roeboe. He's basically the "wise owl" stereotype and tries to help our main trio a couple of times, but honestly his "wisdoms" were too vague to remotely sound wise. Part of this is intentional (with only Grijs really trying to comprehend then), but if you want your character to come off as smart to the reader you shouldn't have them spout what sounds like nonsense with just some expensive words. Roeboe is fine as a character, he's not overly annoying, but the way he was written felt just too vague. Having him say actually understandable wise things that make sense when you think about it (like uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender) probably would've made him feel more like an actual helpful character, because right now he just appears from time to time but never really is all that helpful because the trio can't make light of what he's trying to communicate.
Overall I think this book is pretty good and I do recommend it to Dutch wolf fans, but the writing was a bit lackluster, particularly the character-writing. I'd have liked if our main trio were all very distinct characters, each with their own goals and arcs. Also, just keep in mind that none of this is based in truth despite taking place in real locations around the time wolves were actually starting to return and settle in our little country.
I think it's honestly a pretty fun probably-coincidence that this book was published only up to a year or so after they returned here. The authors make it clear that they had the idea for the book since the eighties, and of course a book isn't written within a year usually, so this book being published almost within the same year of wolves officially re-settling in the Netherlands after being wiped-out here is pretty cool.
Rating: 3/5
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