Book Review: Waya and the Wolf by Jonne Kramer

 

Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Waya en de wolf.

A neat little Inuit-inspired story about a boy and his wolf going on an epic journey. Spoilers ahead.

In a land where it is always winter and a lonesome mysterious king rules, a boy named Waya and his wolf friend Tikaani go on a journey. Waya comes from a broken family, and only has his parents, and later a grandfather as well. His grandmother, Nanuk, seems to have vanished years ago under mysterious circumstances, and nobody wishes to talk about what exactly happened to her. Waya decides that it is up to him and Tikaani to go on a grand journey in order to find Nanuk and bring the family back together.

Overall a pretty darn good book. I really liked reading Waya's and Tikaani's journey. While they themselves are not the most interesting characters in the story, you do truly root for them and the people around them they are trying to make happy by re-uniting the family. It's a creative story about the importance of family and storytelling. It also takes inspiration from some elements of Inuit culture.

It's not flawless, however. Like I said in the previous paragraph, Waya and Tikaani are not very interesting characters despite being the protagonists. The story is written from Waya's POV, however he doesn't really change as a character throughout the story. He wants to unite his family, he goes on his journey and succeeds, and then the story just ends. I'd have liked to see him grow as a character more throughout his travels, because he does go on a pretty epic quest. He does learn things here and there, but he doesn't really change as a character. Even his storytelling skills (which end up saving the day in the end) he already had from the start of the story, so it's not like this was a tale about him slowly becoming a stronger or more confident storyteller. He just goes on his quest, uses his storytelling skills he already had to change the king's mind about Nanuk, and all's well that end's well. 

About Tikaani: I'm kind of mixed on him. On the one hand, he's just a pretty generic animal sidekick and he doesn't do that much for the plot. He's not Waya's pet, but they have been close friends since Waya was just a baby and the wolf a pup, and Tikaani is more or less his protector on the journey. But while he's not a very interesting character, I did really like Tikaani because his bond with Waya is just so damn strong. Seriously, these two characters are barely ever apart and even when Tikaani ends up meeting his birth wolf pack, he still is loyal to Waya to a fault. 

That said, I do wish that Tikaani had just a bit more to him other than being the animal sidekick. His bond with Waya was super fun and wholesome to read, but in the grand scheme of things Tikaani doesn't do that much on the journey and plot (which you'd expect since he's in the title and all) and he doesn't have that much personality to him. I get that he doesn't talk like the human characters, but you can still very much assign a personality to a non-verbal animal character. Tikaani is pretty much your generic protector dog/wolf character you see in a lot of media. And while his bond with Waya is well-written I'd just have liked a little bit more out of our titular wolf. More plot relevance, just a tad more of a personality.

As for my final gripe: the first few chapters go by really, really fast. The pacing becomes a lot more steady once we're past that, which I'm glad about, but we get very little chapters establishing Waya's home life before he instantly goes on his journey to find his grandparents. And since his family is such a core part of the story I'd have liked to have seen them established just a tad more before he and Tikaani left to find his grandparents. Right now we only get a few quick chapters establishing the bare bones of Waya's family and their situation, before Waya goes on his quest. So a slightly better pacing and a little more depth to establish the famiily in the first few chapters would've been nice.

But otherwise this was a great story. The world it took place in was creative, the characters around Waya and Tikaani are interesting and colorful and you do root for them, the journey felt pretty grand, and I liked the theme of stories and storytelling being very important. In the end, it is also storytelling that saves Nanuk from King Navi. Just neat to see. It overall has a bit of a fairy tale-like feel to it which I loved.

So while not perfect, I had a good time reading this book. As far as I know this is a standalone, but I'd personally be open to more stories following Waya and Tikaani or at the very least more characters in the same universe.

Rating: 3.5/5