Once There Were Wolves

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Manufacturer: Charlotte McConaghy
Brand: Fiction
Brew: Audiobook
Steeping Time: 8 hours
Tea Service: Book Club
Strength:

Synopsis: Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.

Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?

If I’m being honest, Once There Were Wolves is not a book I’d have picked up on my own.

The wolf part interested me, but not the interpersonal drama. But joining book club was all about reading outside of my comfort zone, so I decided to go with it.

This is the weirdest rating I think I’ve ever had, in that I liked Once There Were Wolves; I thought it was a good story, I was very engaged, and I thought a lot about it in between reads. But I don’t think I’ll ever recommend it. It was so incredibly heavy. As someone who doesn’t want to know trigger warnings, I feel like this book should definitely come with some. The things that happened in the book didn’t trigger anything personal for me, but they were so bad that I think if I’d have known, I’d have passed on reading this one. I’ll list them at the very bottom so other readers can avoid spoilers.

Across the board, the characters made some very questionable decisions that were, at times, hard to believe. As a true crime aficionado, I know that people do weird things, so I didn’t find it too far a stretch. Everyone else in book club? Hard disagree. They had trouble buying into some of the choices Inty made, along with a few of the other characters, and I totally understand where they’re coming from. A few even said it took them completely out of the story, so that’s something to keep in mind.

The characters were layered, although our book club disagreed heavily on whether they were likable or not.

There were some characters that I absolutely hated, but for the most part, I liked Inti and a handful of the other main cast. Of course, the characters I liked the most were the wolves. One thing we all agreed on was that there wasn’t enough of the wolves. We all thought the wolves would play a much bigger role in the story. Unfortunately, were were all disappointed on that front.

While I didn’t learn as much as I’d hoped about wolves, I did learn about something else entirely.

Inti has mirror-touch synesthesia, a condition that causes her to feel the physical sensations she sees happening to others, which made for a very interesting narrative. It was great to learn about a diagnosis I didn’t know anything about, or even know existed, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. I also loved that it wasn’t an easy plot point manipulator. Inty’s diagnosis is obviously a part of who she is and contributes to her character greatly, but it wasn’t cheaply used to further the story, something I greatly appreciated.

This book definitely had me RAGING at certain points and crying in others. I felt joy, apprehension, fear, annoyance, thankfulness, everything. Once There Were Wolves ran the entire gamut of emotions. It was an interesting read, albeit a tough one. Give it a shot at your own risk!

Have you read Once There Were Wolves? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it! Want to read it for yourself? Click here to get a copy of your own.
Cheers,
Lydia

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

A few trigger warnings that would have turned me away are: animal death, animal mutilation, rape, sexual assault.

Other trigger warnings include: domestic abuse, PTSD, self-harm, trauma.

I can’t express enough how intense and graphic some of these trigger warnings were. The small amount of words doesn’t seem like enough to cover how hard this book was to read at times. Again, I enjoyed the story, but it was one of the most difficult reads I’ve ever had.