lilith_knight's review against another edition
3.0
2.75*
Wolf by Wolf has been on my reading list for a long, long time. It has an original premise (a motorbike race across the globe, sometimes to the death) based on an interesting historical twist (an alternate universe where Third Reich won WWII) and on top of all that a scarred heroine who is the main key to an assassination plot.
It should have worked for me. But unfortunately it didn't and I don't know exactly the reason.
You see, Wolf by Wolf isn't a terrible book. In all honesty, it's not even a bad book. As I mentioned above, it had a really original idea of a plot and the prose was very enjoyable, purplish and dramatic enough to set the right tone for the story. Hell, the characters weren't even annoying!
But unfortunately, for a reason that I can't pinpoint with certainty, the story failed to pull me in and keep me interested. I wasn't invested in the plot and I didn't feel any sort of connection to the characters. I even skim read the last 50 or so pages, probably losing a chapter or two. I just couldn't do it, but also, I didn't want to call it quits and put it in the dnf pile.
Maybe that was due to the fact that racing/travel books are not my cup of tea, or maybe because I wanted more of the characters. More depth, more characterisation, more originality.
So, for whatever reason, I was left unsatisfied, and it's sad because it seems that there is a certain cycle of disappointment over books I am excited about, that keeps repeating over and over this year.
All in all, Wolf by Wolf ended up being an unsatisfactory read. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, except, maybe, for the fact that it was forgettable.
Wolf by Wolf has been on my reading list for a long, long time. It has an original premise (a motorbike race across the globe, sometimes to the death) based on an interesting historical twist (an alternate universe where Third Reich won WWII) and on top of all that a scarred heroine who is the main key to an assassination plot.
It should have worked for me. But unfortunately it didn't and I don't know exactly the reason.
You see, Wolf by Wolf isn't a terrible book. In all honesty, it's not even a bad book. As I mentioned above, it had a really original idea of a plot and the prose was very enjoyable, purplish and dramatic enough to set the right tone for the story. Hell, the characters weren't even annoying!
But unfortunately, for a reason that I can't pinpoint with certainty, the story failed to pull me in and keep me interested. I wasn't invested in the plot and I didn't feel any sort of connection to the characters. I even skim read the last 50 or so pages, probably losing a chapter or two. I just couldn't do it, but also, I didn't want to call it quits and put it in the dnf pile.
Maybe that was due to the fact that racing/travel books are not my cup of tea, or maybe because I wanted more of the characters. More depth, more characterisation, more originality.
So, for whatever reason, I was left unsatisfied, and it's sad because it seems that there is a certain cycle of disappointment over books I am excited about, that keeps repeating over and over this year.
All in all, Wolf by Wolf ended up being an unsatisfactory read. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, except, maybe, for the fact that it was forgettable.
readingwithhippos's review against another edition
This gave me a lot to think about. Removed my star rating.
sara_evaney's review against another edition
4.0
Wait. That was a sudden end. I suppose have to read the sequel then?
I really enjoyed the story, I got sucked in and that hasn’t happened in way too long. I’m not really into motorcycles or into World War Two. I suppose that’s because I’m german and I‘ve just studied that topic basically ever year and it’s just enough. So this was an interesting twist.
What I thought was interesting, was that Hitler is probably the only real person you can assassinate in a book without causing huge discussion of that’s allowed or not. Try imagining that concept with any other person and whoosh - uproar.
The only thing that bothered me was actually that this was written in English with all the German words in there. Some things didn’t make any sense, others just sounded so cringy. I would have switched to the German version of it because it really bothered me, but there is none as far as I could see, so that sucked.
I really enjoyed the story, I got sucked in and that hasn’t happened in way too long. I’m not really into motorcycles or into World War Two. I suppose that’s because I’m german and I‘ve just studied that topic basically ever year and it’s just enough. So this was an interesting twist.
What I thought was interesting, was that Hitler is probably the only real person you can assassinate in a book without causing huge discussion of that’s allowed or not. Try imagining that concept with any other person and whoosh - uproar.
The only thing that bothered me was actually that this was written in English with all the German words in there. Some things didn’t make any sense, others just sounded so cringy. I would have switched to the German version of it because it really bothered me, but there is none as far as I could see, so that sucked.
tiffyofthemonts's review against another edition
4.0
Many thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (and NOVL) for sending me this electronic copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Holy Scheisse!!! What a book. And what a thing to write about: a world in which Hitler won the war.
Let me start with my favorite thing about this book (a challenge, for sure, given the number of things I love about this book), and that is Ryan Graudin's writing, which is nothing short of remarkable. The subject of this novel is not, I imagine, an easy thing to write about – the events were ugly enough the first time around. To imagine some alternate universe in which those events only get amplified? Unthinkable. And yet, Graudin does an incredible job representing not only those events but also the internal thoughts and feelings of those who live them.
The writing is wild when it needs to be – a rhythmic beat that makes you feel primal and crazy and aligns perfectly with the savageness of this version of 1956. She writes about the human experience in such an accessible way, but it leaves you feeling raw and wondering how such ordinary words could make you feel so much. It's poetry, stark and brutal, and it makes you want to chant the words and stomp your feet on the ground.
Beyond the writing is the story itself: one girl's mission to get into the Axis Tour, win the race, and kill Hitler. Which is easier said than done, of course. And is layered with even more complexity when we discover the results of the Nazis' human experimentation and the main character Yael's ability to "skinshift" and take on other appearances. We get to watch as Yael fights against all odds to win the game. It's an exhilarating ride, and the story just propels forward.
This is a character-driven novel, and it's not. There isn't character development so much as character revelation, especially since we start from a place of unknowing. We meet Yael and right off the bat we can tell she's a tough one, a girl who has gone through unspeakable horrors and has somehow lived to tell the story, but we learn more and more about her – her weaknesses and insecurities, her self-perceived identity (or lack thereof), her history and the people who have made a mark in it (and upon in her skin in the form of a tattoo of wolves) and what has become of them. Wolf(e) by wolf(e), we discover all these things that make her human, even while she sees herself as a tool.
And the discovery starts with Yael, but it doesn't stop there. We realize that Felix Wolfe (twin brother of Adele Wolfe, last year's winner and the first and only female victor of the Axis Tour) is perhaps more than just an overprotective brother, and that Luka (Adele's former love interest and Yael's competitor) carries his own complicated and intriguing secrets. Even with Hitler and the Third Reich, there is more than meets the eye.
They're definitely not joking around when they say it's Code Name Verity meets Inglourious Basterds. Wolf by Wolf is brilliant and exciting and suspenseful and mind-blowing, and I already can't wait to get my hands on the sequel (Fall 2016!) that concludes this duology.
More reviews, including this one, on my blog: Bookplates for Brunch.
Holy Scheisse!!! What a book. And what a thing to write about: a world in which Hitler won the war.
Let me start with my favorite thing about this book (a challenge, for sure, given the number of things I love about this book), and that is Ryan Graudin's writing, which is nothing short of remarkable. The subject of this novel is not, I imagine, an easy thing to write about – the events were ugly enough the first time around. To imagine some alternate universe in which those events only get amplified? Unthinkable. And yet, Graudin does an incredible job representing not only those events but also the internal thoughts and feelings of those who live them.
The writing is wild when it needs to be – a rhythmic beat that makes you feel primal and crazy and aligns perfectly with the savageness of this version of 1956. She writes about the human experience in such an accessible way, but it leaves you feeling raw and wondering how such ordinary words could make you feel so much. It's poetry, stark and brutal, and it makes you want to chant the words and stomp your feet on the ground.
Beyond the writing is the story itself: one girl's mission to get into the Axis Tour, win the race, and kill Hitler. Which is easier said than done, of course. And is layered with even more complexity when we discover the results of the Nazis' human experimentation and the main character Yael's ability to "skinshift" and take on other appearances. We get to watch as Yael fights against all odds to win the game. It's an exhilarating ride, and the story just propels forward.
This is a character-driven novel, and it's not. There isn't character development so much as character revelation, especially since we start from a place of unknowing. We meet Yael and right off the bat we can tell she's a tough one, a girl who has gone through unspeakable horrors and has somehow lived to tell the story, but we learn more and more about her – her weaknesses and insecurities, her self-perceived identity (or lack thereof), her history and the people who have made a mark in it (and upon in her skin in the form of a tattoo of wolves) and what has become of them. Wolf(e) by wolf(e), we discover all these things that make her human, even while she sees herself as a tool.
And the discovery starts with Yael, but it doesn't stop there. We realize that Felix Wolfe (twin brother of Adele Wolfe, last year's winner and the first and only female victor of the Axis Tour) is perhaps more than just an overprotective brother, and that Luka (Adele's former love interest and Yael's competitor) carries his own complicated and intriguing secrets. Even with Hitler and the Third Reich, there is more than meets the eye.
They're definitely not joking around when they say it's Code Name Verity meets Inglourious Basterds. Wolf by Wolf is brilliant and exciting and suspenseful and mind-blowing, and I already can't wait to get my hands on the sequel (Fall 2016!) that concludes this duology.
More reviews, including this one, on my blog: Bookplates for Brunch.
taylorreadsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Imagine if you will, what life might have been like if Germany didn’t lose WWII. If Japan succeeded in winning Pearl Harbor and the East. If the concentration camps and labor camps and attempts at perfecting and extending the Aryan Race were not stopped.
Ryan Graudin has written a chilling and mesmerizing tale surrounding the two biggest “what ifs” to WWII. What if Hitler and the Third Reich won. What if the experiments on the members of the concentration camps actually worked.
Wolf by Wolf caught me and pulled me into this alternate path of history before the end of the first chapter. I was hooked. Still am. I can’t stop thinking about it.
I grew up reading all kinds of historical fiction surrounding WWII and I’ve never read anything like this. The year is 1956 and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. Every year to commemorate their great victory Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents call the Axis Tour. The victor of this tour is awarded and audience with the now highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victors Ball. This being a big deal because the Führer no longer makes public appearances. This would be the perfect chance, the only chance really, for an assassination attempt. Enter Yael. Yael, a jewish girl who escaped from a death camp and into the resistance, intends to win the race and kill Hitler. While in the death camp Yael had many painful experiments done on her by doctors trying to perfect the Aryan race. These experiments gave Yael the power to skinshift, to take on the appearance of another or bits and pieces of many to become one person. This is how she plans on entering the race and completing her mission, by impersonating last year’s only female victor, Adele Wolfe. Becoming Adele is one thing, but tricking Adele’s twin brother Felix who knows every little detail of her outside of Yael’s understanding as well as Luka Löw, a former Victor who may have had more then just an alliance with Adele the previous year will be harder then she anticipated.
Yael was an interesting character and my heart broke for her. At 16 years old, after years of impersonating others to keep off the Gestapo’s radar, she doesn’t even remember what she really looks like. She has memorized so much information on Adele Wolfe and her Axis Tour that sometimes she isn’t sure if the choices she is making are her own or what the real Adele would have done. She had 5 wolves tattooed over the death camp numbers on her left arm, 4 deaths and one memory. The smoke that haunts her nightmares. You get her backstory in spurts though out the book giving you a deeper understanding of just how much Yael has lost and how important it is, for her personally, to succeed in her mission.
I really loved the secondary characters too, Felix Wolfe, Adele’s twin brother, enter’s the race last minute surprising Yael who then has to then scrabble from more in-depth information on Felix to keep up her Adele-ness. He is everything you could want from a brother. All he wants to do is protect his sister and bring her home. Luka Löw is the 1954 Axis Tour Victor. He also has a history with the real Adele, one that is not in the papers or anywhere in the files that Yael has meticulously studied. I love how she describes herself, the “cobweb version of Adele Wolfe” to many holes that both of these boys can see right through if given the chance. The development of Luka throughout this book intrigued me, there seems to be so much more to him. And there totally is as I discovered when I devoured Iron by Iron, a novella from Luka’s POV from the 1955 Axis tour. Oh Luka. This whole situation is giving me a strong Warner vibe from Shatter Me and I am loving it. I can’t can’t CAN’T wait until Blood for Blood comes out November 1st.
Ryan Graudin has written a chilling and mesmerizing tale surrounding the two biggest “what ifs” to WWII. What if Hitler and the Third Reich won. What if the experiments on the members of the concentration camps actually worked.
Wolf by Wolf caught me and pulled me into this alternate path of history before the end of the first chapter. I was hooked. Still am. I can’t stop thinking about it.
I grew up reading all kinds of historical fiction surrounding WWII and I’ve never read anything like this. The year is 1956 and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. Every year to commemorate their great victory Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents call the Axis Tour. The victor of this tour is awarded and audience with the now highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victors Ball. This being a big deal because the Führer no longer makes public appearances. This would be the perfect chance, the only chance really, for an assassination attempt. Enter Yael. Yael, a jewish girl who escaped from a death camp and into the resistance, intends to win the race and kill Hitler. While in the death camp Yael had many painful experiments done on her by doctors trying to perfect the Aryan race. These experiments gave Yael the power to skinshift, to take on the appearance of another or bits and pieces of many to become one person. This is how she plans on entering the race and completing her mission, by impersonating last year’s only female victor, Adele Wolfe. Becoming Adele is one thing, but tricking Adele’s twin brother Felix who knows every little detail of her outside of Yael’s understanding as well as Luka Löw, a former Victor who may have had more then just an alliance with Adele the previous year will be harder then she anticipated.
Yael was an interesting character and my heart broke for her. At 16 years old, after years of impersonating others to keep off the Gestapo’s radar, she doesn’t even remember what she really looks like. She has memorized so much information on Adele Wolfe and her Axis Tour that sometimes she isn’t sure if the choices she is making are her own or what the real Adele would have done. She had 5 wolves tattooed over the death camp numbers on her left arm, 4 deaths and one memory. The smoke that haunts her nightmares. You get her backstory in spurts though out the book giving you a deeper understanding of just how much Yael has lost and how important it is, for her personally, to succeed in her mission.
I really loved the secondary characters too, Felix Wolfe, Adele’s twin brother, enter’s the race last minute surprising Yael who then has to then scrabble from more in-depth information on Felix to keep up her Adele-ness. He is everything you could want from a brother. All he wants to do is protect his sister and bring her home. Luka Löw is the 1954 Axis Tour Victor. He also has a history with the real Adele, one that is not in the papers or anywhere in the files that Yael has meticulously studied. I love how she describes herself, the “cobweb version of Adele Wolfe” to many holes that both of these boys can see right through if given the chance. The development of Luka throughout this book intrigued me, there seems to be so much more to him. And there totally is as I discovered when I devoured Iron by Iron, a novella from Luka’s POV from the 1955 Axis tour. Oh Luka. This whole situation is giving me a strong Warner vibe from Shatter Me and I am loving it. I can’t can’t CAN’T wait until Blood for Blood comes out November 1st.
roseybot's review against another edition
4.0
So overall I enjoyed this book. There were flashbacks that I actually liked (SHOCK AND HORROR, I know). I enjoyed the race, the pacing was great, Yael was a really cool protagonist and there were a lot of themes and feelings that I felt like mattered and worked well.
So why only four stars?
Cause it felt a little icky. The problem with alt-history where the Third Reich wins is that you then have to sympathize with people who are Nazi's. The book tries to distance them, tries to show you how they are different, but in the end, they are Nazi's. And it's a problem with this specific kind of fiction. Alt-history interests me a lot, but like with Underground Airlines, when you take something horrible like the Holocaust, or American Slavery, and extend it past where it went, you're automatically setting yourself up for a place where you're asking readers to sympathize with oppressors, and not the oppressed. And it's icky.
Anyways, I'll probably read the next one because I liked the main character and am curious about the continuation of this story, but I did want to write down why it feels weird, and now I've done that, I'm wondering about how I'd write an alt-history without perpetuating this problem. It's tough.
So why only four stars?
Cause it felt a little icky. The problem with alt-history where the Third Reich wins is that you then have to sympathize with people who are Nazi's. The book tries to distance them, tries to show you how they are different, but in the end, they are Nazi's. And it's a problem with this specific kind of fiction. Alt-history interests me a lot, but like with Underground Airlines, when you take something horrible like the Holocaust, or American Slavery, and extend it past where it went, you're automatically setting yourself up for a place where you're asking readers to sympathize with oppressors, and not the oppressed. And it's icky.
Anyways, I'll probably read the next one because I liked the main character and am curious about the continuation of this story, but I did want to write down why it feels weird, and now I've done that, I'm wondering about how I'd write an alt-history without perpetuating this problem. It's tough.
jollymo9's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. This book, drew me in. And swallowed me up until I finished it. I am now longing to read the sequel, and Wolf by Wolf is now one of my top ten.
amberrose's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
camilacadibe's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting!
I liked it well enough, but don't think I'll be continuing on with the series.
I liked the prompt and I liked the main character and a few other characters but like... Nothing mindblowing.
Not a bad read, and it is very compelling, but... A3 star read.
I liked it well enough, but don't think I'll be continuing on with the series.
I liked the prompt and I liked the main character and a few other characters but like... Nothing mindblowing.
Not a bad read, and it is very compelling, but... A3 star read.