Book Review: Legend of the White Wolf by Max Elliot Anderson

 

Another book I just randomly checked out because it has a wolf in it. Spoilers ahead.

Brian is a boy who rescued a white wolf pup when he was younger, though almost nobody believes this story. Now that he's a little older, he and his friend Tommy go to look for the wolf, especially when poachers are taking wolves from the wild and killing them. 

I wish I had more to say about this book but it's just...a book that exists. It's decent. I lowkey enjoyed reading it. But that's really all the credit I can give this book. It's fine, but it also doesn't stand out in any way.

Take for example the characters. Brian and Tommy, the boys, are our leads, and there's also Windwalker the elderly Native American who plays a decently large role. But aside from that there's very little to the characters surrounding our two leads. Heck, even Brian and Tommy themselves don't really feel like fully realized characters. They feel like every generic animal-loving kid character you can think of. The only notable different between them aside from Brian's bond with the wolf is that Brian isn't a Christian, when Tommy is. But these character otherwise feel paper-thin.

The villain's plan also feels way too overblown. And the villains themselves aren't really characters. None of them are named, they're just faceless nobody who want to kill wolves. Wouldn't it have been much more interesting if Brian got to know one or a few of these poachers, so the conflict between them felt more personal? Instead of them just being a bunch of faceless over-the-top evil rando's?

There's also a subplot about Tommy trying to get Brian to come to church with him, and while I don't mind the idea of a plot about a character finding faith or spirituality in something, the way in which it was implemented here just came right out of nowhere and didn't feel like it tied to the rest of the story at all. We're just quite far into the book when there's suddenly a Christianity plotline coming out of nowhere and it hardly in any way ties to the main conflict of the poachers and finding Snowball (the wolf) that's going on. 

If this plotline had been implemented cleverly, it could've been a poignant story of Brian finding faith after some incredible experiences with this wolf he shares a close bond with. Which is what I think is what the book is trying to do. But in the execution this just fails miserably. The subplot of Brian deciding to go to church with Tommy feels almost entirely separate from the wolf-plotline and in no way is ties cleverly to it. In fact, when Brian does finally agree that he'll go to church with Tommy, it feels more like a reluctant "ugh, let's get this over with because I promised" than a genuine story of Tommy finding faith. Again, I don't mind there being religious elements in my stories, but the way it was executed here feels so tacked-on and insincere that it doesn't work. 

So yeah, just a very generic book. I don't hate it or anything, but nothing here really feels fleshed out and the religious subplot doesn't work at all.

Rating: 3/5