Audio Review: The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson

A captivating tale of humanity pushed beyond its breaking point, of family and bonds of love forged when everything is lost, and of a heroic young woman who crosses a frozen landscape to find her destiny. This debut novel is written in a post-apocalyptic tradition that spans The Hunger Games and Station Eleven but blazes its own distinctive path.

Forget the old days. Forget summer. Forget warmth. Forget anything that doesn’t help you survive in the endless white wilderness beyond the edges of a fallen world.

Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As the memories of her old life continue to haunt, she’s forced to forge ahead in the snow-drifted Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap and slaughter.

Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who brings with him dark secrets of the past and sets in motion a chain of events that will call Lynn to a role she never imagined.

Simultaneously a heartbreakingly sympathetic portrait of a young woman searching for the answer to who she is meant to be and a frightening vision of a merciless new world in which desperation rules, The Wolves of Winter is enveloping, propulsive, and poignant.

I forgot what blog I saw this on, but I do know that the blogger had a gushing review. I think it must have been one of my favorite bloggers, but I don’t know. I had it on my list in Goodreads, and when I saw it on Scribd, I downloaded it. I have started putting down where I hear of books though with the Rock Your Reading Spreadsheet, so I will know whose blog I reaaaaalllllly like. That way I can understand which blogs to pay attention to.

What I liked

Omg, I don’t know where to even start with this! This book was almost pure perfection. I KNOW it is going to be on my top ten list at the end of the year. I have no idea why this book is not better known. The story, plot everything is pure perfection

There were no gaping plot holes, and you did not even have to suspend disbelief to get into the story. I mean a world that is colder and harsher because of Nuclear War? With the way everything is at the moment it is so possible that the scary part was not that it happned but that it COULD happen. That was what freaked me out because I don’t think I would last one day in a place such as the Yukon.

I felt that the pacing was on point. There was no info dumping here. That is one of my pet peeves is info dumping. There is info dumping that bores the shit out of me then there is an expertly built world, and Wolves of winter is the latter.

What I did not like

Idid not liek the narrotor much when she tried to imitate a man’s voice. Even to my implanted ears, it sounded horrible. I don’t know why they couldn’t have gotten a male narrator to narrate the males. The women’s sounded ok it was just when the female narrator attempted to switch to a man’s voice that threw me off. It sounded more as if she were in the throes of death than it did a battle scene. Or at least how I imagine the throes of death would sounds.

At first felt that the whole be the mystery of what the McBride family was running from was kinds meh then I thought about it some more, and I realized that if it was to happen REALLY that in real life would be super scary. I don’t want to say more because of spoilers. Know that what comes out requires a bit of thinking through to get to the horror of it.

I LOVED this book. The only thing I would have done differently is to read it in print as the narrator annoyed me that much. Overall though the story and the book itself was one of the best dystopian books I have read.

Buy Borrow or skip

Rating Report
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