Strongfemale - Blog Posts
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Man oh man oh man oh man OH MAN OH MAN. This book was ammmmaaazzzziinnnngggggg. So good. Wow. Five stars. Fiver.
Let me break it down for you. So let’s pretend that Hitler and the Axis powers never actually lost WWII. IN FACT, they won and slowly began taking over the world, filling it with death camps and just lots more death. Enter Yael. She and her mother were taken to a camp, and Yael became the subject of some extremely nasty German experiments. Unfortunately for the Germans, the experiments that were just supposed to change the pigment of Yael’s skin to that trademark Aryan White actually gave her the ability to skinshift, i.e. the ability to change all aspects of her appearance.
Fast forward ten years, and Yael has found the perfect opportunity for revenge. Every year the Third Reich hosts a cross-continental motorcycle race to commemorate their great victory, and the prize is an audience with Mr. Adolf Hitler himself. Yael only has to enter the race as Adele Wolf, the only racer and person Hitler has ever let close to him, win it, and then kill Hitler. Easy Peasy!
Unfortunately killing Hitler is not as easy as that, especially when Adele’s older, overly-protective brother Felix enters the race, along with past love interest Luka–two people who know Adele PRETTY well. WOWWWW.
Let me further break this down for you:
Alternate history!
Sci-fi skinshifting!
Super attractive love interest with murky past!
Hunger Games-like competition that pits teens against one another at the expense of their safety and lives!
Knife fights, and fist fights, and gun fights, oh my!
Death
Basically everything you could ever want from a YA.
ALSO let me just say that Yael is the most badass girl I have ever encountered. She puts Katniss Everdeen TO SHAME. She’s super complex, cares a lot about people, and has trained to KILL HITLER. idk what else you could really want.
I am also going to add that I have an extremely awful habit of reading the ends of books before actually finishing them (I am fully aware that this is shameful bye). I did that while reading this book. I WAS STILL COMPLETELY BLINDSIDED BY THE ENDING. Don’t ask me how that happens, idk. And predicting endings is kind of my job (editor over here y’all). Surprise endings don’t really happen for me anymore. But this IS an alternate history with skinshifting and motorcycle races, so what really could I have predicted lol
Read this book. It’s amazing.
~Melissa, Book Wench