I've read this book once before and didn't like it back then, however I'm totally open to re-visiting older books and re-reading them, maybe even gaining a new appreciation for or perspective on them in the process. I was a very snarky reader and reviewer back in 2016, after all. Spoilers ahead.
McKinley is a Malamute living in a small town, where he is the leader of its entire population of dogs and often challenged by the man-loving setter Redburn. McKinley is the pet of a boy named Jack, and he loves his boy dearly, but when a mysterious she-wolf appears in town to recruit the dogs to join her wolf pack, the Malamute must decide where his loyalties lie: with humans as a pet, or out there, free and wild.
I honestly still don't think this is an amazing book. It still just feels a bit too juvenile for me to be able to thoroughly enjoy it. That said, I definitely enjoyed it a lot more upon my re-read than before. Before I gave it a measly two stars, and now it's definitely up to three. Still far from perfect, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
I appreciated how McKinley isn't a perfectly flawed protagonist. Despite loving Jack and being loyal to the boy, he's also willing to break the rules if it means helping others. He generally seems to have a bit of a hero complex as he wants to help literally every dog and wolf that needs him. The other characters, however, were all rather one-note. I liked Duchess, the abused greyhound who befriends Lupin the she-wolf, but the golden retriever (forgot her name), Redburn, Jack and Lupin all were pretty boring characters. I did like Lupin with her being the only wolf in the story, but there wasn't that much to her other than her being the only one and getting hurt and needing to rely upon McKinley and his friends for help.
The plot was pretty interesting. McKinley consistently has to choose between helping his boy or his canine friends, and once Lupin makes it clear she wants the dogs to join her pack, he is faced with the difficult decision to have the dogs do so or not as its leader.
There's also a small sub-conflict with Redburn trying to usurp McKinley's position as head dog, but honestly that subplot was rather boring to me and I hated Redburn as a villian. He was so uninteresting and just felt like a stock character. The subplot regarding helping Duchess escape was much better executed, though again its antagonist (her human owner) was rather weak.
I'm glad that McKinley chose to be loyal to Jack in the end, though I didn't really doubt for a second that he'd leave. In the end, only Duchess leaves with Lupin, and honestly good on her because she's way better off out there with her best friend than with her abusive owner. I'm also glad that none of the dogs (except stupid Redburn, of course) shames her for doing so. At first I thought she might get adopted by a kinder owner, but I like this ending, too. Lupin's mission wasn't totally in vein and Duchess gets to find her own happiness.
Overall this is a decent children's book about dogs and their loyalty. It has a good protagonist and conflict, I just wish the execution felt a little less juvenile and the other characters (particularly the antagonists) were a bit more interesting. It's not perfect but I think most xenofiction lovers will at least get something out of it.
Rating: 3/5
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