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A review by astridrv
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
As with Migrations, it took me a few chapters to get into the voice - something about the overtly rebelious tone always initially irks me. And then, somehow, magic happens: a scene, a paragraph, an image of utter awareness and connection to the natural world, a burst of intense emotion, and I'm hooked. Can't stop reading. Inti, like Franny, stays with me in between pages. The writing is poetic as fuck, and yes, the story could be more restrained, less dramatic. But so what? We are alive in this raw rare miracle and Charlotte McConaghy not only gets that but also shares it on an instinctive level. She might say, from her wild parts to ours.
That said, I have issues with the way the theme of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and PTSD was portrayed in here. It feels unnuanced, and one character especially felt like a metaphorical device at times more than a person. I'm increasingly upset about how their arc ends. In attempting to do three things at once, I feel like this book was mostly successful as an eco-fiction work (although I raised my eyebrow atgiving birth in a snowy forest ), rather unconvincing as a murder mystery, and widely immature as a commentary on misogynistic violence and PTSD.
That said, I have issues with the way the theme of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and PTSD was portrayed in here. It feels unnuanced, and one character especially felt like a metaphorical device at times more than a person. I'm increasingly upset about how their arc ends. In attempting to do three things at once, I feel like this book was mostly successful as an eco-fiction work (although I raised my eyebrow at
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Grief, and Pregnancy