Book Review: Wolfke by Mariska Overman

 

It has a wolf in the title so obviously I had to read it. Spoilers ahead.

Holly is a girl who loves to draw and lives alone in the woods with her mother. One day, her mom brings home a mysterious girl, whom Holly is not allowed to interact with whatsoever. Ignoring her mother's rules, Holly does form a connection with the girl, whom she nicknames Wolfke. It doesn't take long for her to see that Wolfke is anything but a usual little girl, however.

This was a nice, pretty atmospheric read. It doesn't feel very rushed (except near the end) and I liked just reading the interactions between this small cast of characters. Holly was an enjoyable lead (and relatable, I love how she and Wolfke tend to communicate through drawing, being a hobbyist artist myself). Wolfke is a silent deuteragonist, but she still has a clear personality and is also pretty likable. The friendship between the girls felt really sweet and pretty genuine. 

You also just feel so bad for Wolfke, she was forcefully taken (or "rescued", as the adults put it) from her home in the wild and now is being forced to acclimatize to modern human society, something she's just incapable of because she's a wild shapeshifter, and nobody but Holly (and later Oskar) seem to understand this. To everyone else, particularly Holly's mother and the adults of the village, she's just a feral child in need of some proper upbringing. I like how in the end Holly's side won out and Wolfke was able to return to the wild, and she wasn't forced into this human life which was obviously hell from her because she's not a normal human.

I also like the message of not buying into conspiracies. I get being cautious, but the way the people of the village were treating Wolfke is absolutely terrible. So I'm glad that Holly managed to return her to her pack. 

The only things I didn't vibe with as much were the character of Oskar (who is obsessed with doomsday prepping and uses ChatGPT) and the ending, like mentioned before, did feel a bit rushed. The book overall has a pretty mellow pace, but the ending suddenly goes very fast, which feels a bit uneven.

Overall a solid read, though.

Rating: 3.5/5