Random book I got just because it's about wolves. Honestly didn't look at the premise going in, I just wanted some lupine xenofiction. Spoilers ahead.
Dakar is a young wolf from his pack, being almost a yearling. One day, poachers attack and Dakar is injured, but manages to lead his pursuers away from his family. Dakar meets up with a new friend, a raven, and said raven takes him to see a family of Native Americans, who can hopefully heal the young wolf. But will Dakar and his family truly be safe with the poachers out there still looking for them?
Honestly this is just an okay book. If you're looking for a simple wolf xenofiction this will probably be something that at least interests you, but I'd hesitate to call it really good. It's just a pretty simple and straightforward story with not too many interesting twists and turns. There's really only two goals in the book: for Dakar to get to the Native Americans so they can heal him, and to stop the poachers in whatever way possible. Both goals Dakar are succeeded in without too much fanfare.
I also personally found the characters to be kind of lacking in this book, I was honestly not really attached to anyone here. Dakar is too bland and forgettable to make for a compelling protagonist. His pack are barely characters, except his mother, who is just generic worried mother character, and his father who isn't particularly sympathetic. The two Native Americans (and their dog) Dakar ends up befriending are just very generically nice and again, just not very interesting characters. The lack of depth for most of these characters and their blandness is really what just makes me disinterested in the lot of them.
The only character I found to be kind of interesting what Rahwa, a raven who is implied to be some sort of spirit or a supernatural entity of some sort. He was pretty likable and I liked how with him you never quite knew what to expect, it made him stand out from the blandness that is the rest of the cast.
It also doesn't help that Dakar isn't the most proactive character out there. Seriously, he'll quite often end up in a bad situation and then it's Rahwa who provides the solution to said problem for him, instead of Dakar being proactive and figuring out a solution himself.
Also, while I'm not an authority on the subject as I'm white and not Native American, I'm not too sure if this portrayal of the Native character is really all that great. I mean, it's nice that they're characters on the side of good, but they also kind of fall into the stereotype of the Magical Native here. Also, the author consistently refers to them as "Indians" which felt a bit off, as I'm pretty sure this term has fallen out of use.
I also spotted several typo's in my edition. Not a distracting amount, but there were definitely some, so this book could've used another edit.
Overall this is just a very "mid" book, bland and pretty forgettable. I really think its biggest crime is having almost no memorable or distinct characters I could really get attached to, though.
Rating: 3/5
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