Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Synopsis
It's 1956, and Hitler won WWII. Every year, the Axis powers (the Third Reich and Imperial Japan) hold a motorcycle race across the two continents. The victor gets to attend a fancy ball in Tokyo and have a meeting with the Führer himself. Enter Yael, a Jew whose time in a concentration camp as a medical experiment left her with the ability to skinshift. Her goal? Win the race and kill Hitler. To enter the race, she poses as the previous year's winner, Adele Wolfe. But things prove even more challenging when Adele's brother enters the race, and Yael finds out that Adele had secrets of her own.
Review
I love books that take history and say "What if..." and create an entirely new sequence of events. I think the events surrounding WWII are especially interesting due to the enormous impact the war and the outcome had on the world. I had been eagerly waiting to read this book since it came out in October and I was not disappointed.
The story is told alternating between the motorcycle race in the present, and flashbacks explaining Yael's past and the stories behind the five wolves she has tattooed on her arm. The pacing between these two stories is excellent, as well as the pace of new information that we learn. They balance and contribute to one another and come together seamlessly in the end.
The characters were great. The main character, Yael, is done so well, especially since she also has to impersonate another well-rounded character (Adele). It's interesting to see that as she steps into Adele's life and pretends to be her, Yael starts learning how to build friendships and finds something almost like a family. You almost forget she isn't Adele... But then, just as Yael does, you realize it's all a lie and fake, though the implications and emotional consequences are real. Yael herself is a fascinating character. She's super bad-ass, trained in fighting and espionage by the Resistance and motivated by supreme hatred of Hitler, but she also flaws: she's sometimes a bit too foolhardy and hasty when it comes to pushing herself to win, and she has to learn to navigate new social relationships. It was fascinating to watch and very well written.
Secondary characters include Felix, Adele's brother, who enters the race to try and persuade "Adele" to come home. You see the love and loyalty he has for his sister, even when he tries to do things that will get her out of the race. There's also Luka, another previous winner, whom Adele has some sort of past with, though Yael has no idea what the details are. He comes off as haughty and arrogant at first, but Yael comes to realize that he, as well as Adele, is much more multi-faceted than she had previously expected.
This is all set against the background of the RACE. Starting in Germany and racing down to Rome, over to Africa and across the Sahara to Cairo, then overland to Baghdad, Delhi, Hanoi and up through China to the finish Tokyo. You see how the victory of the Third Reich has impacted the rest of the world. The race itself would have been a great story on its own, and brings to mind a little bit of the Hunger Games, as some of the contestants would do anything to win. Yael gets into some serious trouble, but is able to use her resourcefulness and tough grit to get out of them, sometimes only barely, and often not how you would expect. I found myself wondering how everything was going to play out, and wondering if she would succeed or fail in winning the race.
Perhaps the only downside is that the ending is left fairly open, which makes me wonder if there's a sequel* (which I hope for because I wanted more!). But at the same time, the way it ended had a certain poetry to it and you're left to continue the story in your mind. In any case, the ending WAS good and brought together the events of the book.
This book had great writing, fabulous pacing, and tackled some gruesome history and human nature, all set against an action-packed motorcycle race across the world (I've decided that I absolutely need a motorcycle someday). I couldn't put it down and totally enjoyed the ride! Highly recommend.
Rating
I give this book 5 stars.
Details
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy.
Sex: None.
Violence: There is violence between some of the contestants. Plus the book describes the horrors of the concentration camps.
Language: Some language.
*[Edit 01 Mar 2016: There IS a sequel, due out in November of this year. YAY!!!]
Synopsis
It's 1956, and Hitler won WWII. Every year, the Axis powers (the Third Reich and Imperial Japan) hold a motorcycle race across the two continents. The victor gets to attend a fancy ball in Tokyo and have a meeting with the Führer himself. Enter Yael, a Jew whose time in a concentration camp as a medical experiment left her with the ability to skinshift. Her goal? Win the race and kill Hitler. To enter the race, she poses as the previous year's winner, Adele Wolfe. But things prove even more challenging when Adele's brother enters the race, and Yael finds out that Adele had secrets of her own.
Review
I love books that take history and say "What if..." and create an entirely new sequence of events. I think the events surrounding WWII are especially interesting due to the enormous impact the war and the outcome had on the world. I had been eagerly waiting to read this book since it came out in October and I was not disappointed.
The story is told alternating between the motorcycle race in the present, and flashbacks explaining Yael's past and the stories behind the five wolves she has tattooed on her arm. The pacing between these two stories is excellent, as well as the pace of new information that we learn. They balance and contribute to one another and come together seamlessly in the end.
The characters were great. The main character, Yael, is done so well, especially since she also has to impersonate another well-rounded character (Adele). It's interesting to see that as she steps into Adele's life and pretends to be her, Yael starts learning how to build friendships and finds something almost like a family. You almost forget she isn't Adele... But then, just as Yael does, you realize it's all a lie and fake, though the implications and emotional consequences are real. Yael herself is a fascinating character. She's super bad-ass, trained in fighting and espionage by the Resistance and motivated by supreme hatred of Hitler, but she also flaws: she's sometimes a bit too foolhardy and hasty when it comes to pushing herself to win, and she has to learn to navigate new social relationships. It was fascinating to watch and very well written.
Secondary characters include Felix, Adele's brother, who enters the race to try and persuade "Adele" to come home. You see the love and loyalty he has for his sister, even when he tries to do things that will get her out of the race. There's also Luka, another previous winner, whom Adele has some sort of past with, though Yael has no idea what the details are. He comes off as haughty and arrogant at first, but Yael comes to realize that he, as well as Adele, is much more multi-faceted than she had previously expected.
This is all set against the background of the RACE. Starting in Germany and racing down to Rome, over to Africa and across the Sahara to Cairo, then overland to Baghdad, Delhi, Hanoi and up through China to the finish Tokyo. You see how the victory of the Third Reich has impacted the rest of the world. The race itself would have been a great story on its own, and brings to mind a little bit of the Hunger Games, as some of the contestants would do anything to win. Yael gets into some serious trouble, but is able to use her resourcefulness and tough grit to get out of them, sometimes only barely, and often not how you would expect. I found myself wondering how everything was going to play out, and wondering if she would succeed or fail in winning the race.
Perhaps the only downside is that the ending is left fairly open, which makes me wonder if there's a sequel* (which I hope for because I wanted more!). But at the same time, the way it ended had a certain poetry to it and you're left to continue the story in your mind. In any case, the ending WAS good and brought together the events of the book.
This book had great writing, fabulous pacing, and tackled some gruesome history and human nature, all set against an action-packed motorcycle race across the world (I've decided that I absolutely need a motorcycle someday). I couldn't put it down and totally enjoyed the ride! Highly recommend.
Rating
I give this book 5 stars.
Details
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy.
Sex: None.
Violence: There is violence between some of the contestants. Plus the book describes the horrors of the concentration camps.
Language: Some language.
*[Edit 01 Mar 2016: There IS a sequel, due out in November of this year. YAY!!!]
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