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The Wolf Wants Answers
“Josh Mohr is a kind of punk rock arc-angel, and this wildly sacred book is on fire with his genius. It’s everything. The whole horizon, within and without.” —Luis Alberto Urrea
Volume #2 of Joshua Mohr’s VIKING PUNK SAGA
It’s a few weeks after Saint and Trick Wilma defeated Wes than Zero, the nihilistic punk criminal terrorizing the Oakland warehouse scene. Now officially a member of Trick’s band All the Fuss, Saint is ready to live his best life, and move on from the demons of his past. The only problem is the demons have other plans. On the way to the next show, the band is intercepted by a nasty cartel that insists Saint has a debt to settle–one that will eventually lead to a riverboat in China.
In The Wolf Want Answers, Mohr raises the stakes for our one eyed punk rock anti-hero, picking up where he left off in his wise-cracking critique of rampant gentrification, and introducing us to a new character, Mad Cassidy – a love interest from the past who presents the only threat to Saint’s future with Trick.
Volume #2 of Joshua Mohr’s VIKING PUNK SAGA
It’s a few weeks after Saint and Trick Wilma defeated Wes than Zero, the nihilistic punk criminal terrorizing the Oakland warehouse scene. Now officially a member of Trick’s band All the Fuss, Saint is ready to live his best life, and move on from the demons of his past. The only problem is the demons have other plans. On the way to the next show, the band is intercepted by a nasty cartel that insists Saint has a debt to settle–one that will eventually lead to a riverboat in China.
In The Wolf Want Answers, Mohr raises the stakes for our one eyed punk rock anti-hero, picking up where he left off in his wise-cracking critique of rampant gentrification, and introducing us to a new character, Mad Cassidy – a love interest from the past who presents the only threat to Saint’s future with Trick.
- GenresFiction
236 pages, Paperback
Published June 3, 2025
1 person is currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Mohr
16 books358 followersJOSHUA MOHR is the author of five novels, including “Damascus,” which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool.” He’s also written “Fight Song” and “Some Things that Meant the World to Me,” one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as “Termite Parade,” an Editors’ Choice on The New York Times Best Seller List. His novel “All This Life” was recently published by Counterpoint/Soft Skull.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 1, 2025
Book 2 in his Viking Punk series is just as badass and ball smashing as the first and now I'm dying for the final installation.
In The Wolf Wants Answers, we're following Saint as he heads out on the road with Trick and their band when they are intercepted by a group of masked thugs demanding a debt be paid. And zip tied between them is a woman who shares a dark and complicated past with Saint.
We lean in with our chin in our hands, elbows on table, as Saint takes us back to his release from prison, his search for his guitar and the woman who raised him, and how he first stumbles across Cassidy, an eyebrowless relator who is tired of being mistreated by Tonys.
Strap in for a punk rock adventure through a haunted waterpark, abandoned real estate properties, and some pretty gnarly torture scenes involving a chicken shawarma.
It's all hitter-quitters and nine balls in socks and failing to be a touch careful. And you should get on this because you can never have enough Mohr in your life.
In The Wolf Wants Answers, we're following Saint as he heads out on the road with Trick and their band when they are intercepted by a group of masked thugs demanding a debt be paid. And zip tied between them is a woman who shares a dark and complicated past with Saint.
We lean in with our chin in our hands, elbows on table, as Saint takes us back to his release from prison, his search for his guitar and the woman who raised him, and how he first stumbles across Cassidy, an eyebrowless relator who is tired of being mistreated by Tonys.
Strap in for a punk rock adventure through a haunted waterpark, abandoned real estate properties, and some pretty gnarly torture scenes involving a chicken shawarma.
It's all hitter-quitters and nine balls in socks and failing to be a touch careful. And you should get on this because you can never have enough Mohr in your life.
June 18, 2025
The punk rock Viking series continues in this second of three volumes. It’s a rollicking ride—so excited to read the final book.
June 4, 2025
Joshua Mohr cranks the distortion even higher in The Wolf Wants Answers, the wild, whip-smart second volume of his Viking Punk Saga. Picking up just weeks after the chaos of Saint/Nero, Mohr wastes no time throwing readers—and his one-eyed antihero Saint—right back into the pit of anarchy, addiction, and existential reckoning.
This time, the stage is bigger, the stakes are higher, and the riffs are weirder.
Saint, fresh off his battle with the warehouse-scene villain Wes Than Zero, is settling into life as the latest member of All the Fuss, the grimy, heart-on-sleeve punk band fronted by Trick Wilma. Just when it seems he might finally outrun his haunted past, the ghosts come knocking—this time in the form of a violent cartel with a grudge and a plan that leads the band far from Oakland’s gentrified alleys to the decks of a riverboat in China. Along the way, a new (or old?) face emerges: Mad Cassidy, a flame from Saint’s past who could burn everything down if he’s not careful.
Mohr’s prose remains as jagged and electric as ever, spitting out noir-poetic one-liners and surreal set pieces that feel like Hunter S. Thompson doing a set with Black Flag. He mixes real-world commentary—on gentrification, addiction, capitalism—with the punk-rock absurdity of brain-bending genre mashups. The result is a novel that feels like a mosh pit: chaotic, exhilarating, and often unexpectedly tender.
Saint continues to be a mesmerizing protagonist: part street philosopher, part wounded wolf, always on the edge of collapse or transcendence. Trick Wilma remains his North Star, a figure of creative chaos and emotional depth. But it’s the arrival of Mad Cassidy that turns this installment into more than just a sequel. She brings romantic tension and the emotional heft of unresolved history, complicating Saint’s already shaky sense of self and direction.
The Wolf Wants Answers is bigger and bolder than its predecessor, without losing the raw emotional core that made the first book so compelling. It’s punk rock lit with a soul, a beat-up love letter to the misfits and dreamers fighting to stay human in a world that wants to grind them down.
This time, the stage is bigger, the stakes are higher, and the riffs are weirder.
Saint, fresh off his battle with the warehouse-scene villain Wes Than Zero, is settling into life as the latest member of All the Fuss, the grimy, heart-on-sleeve punk band fronted by Trick Wilma. Just when it seems he might finally outrun his haunted past, the ghosts come knocking—this time in the form of a violent cartel with a grudge and a plan that leads the band far from Oakland’s gentrified alleys to the decks of a riverboat in China. Along the way, a new (or old?) face emerges: Mad Cassidy, a flame from Saint’s past who could burn everything down if he’s not careful.
Mohr’s prose remains as jagged and electric as ever, spitting out noir-poetic one-liners and surreal set pieces that feel like Hunter S. Thompson doing a set with Black Flag. He mixes real-world commentary—on gentrification, addiction, capitalism—with the punk-rock absurdity of brain-bending genre mashups. The result is a novel that feels like a mosh pit: chaotic, exhilarating, and often unexpectedly tender.
Saint continues to be a mesmerizing protagonist: part street philosopher, part wounded wolf, always on the edge of collapse or transcendence. Trick Wilma remains his North Star, a figure of creative chaos and emotional depth. But it’s the arrival of Mad Cassidy that turns this installment into more than just a sequel. She brings romantic tension and the emotional heft of unresolved history, complicating Saint’s already shaky sense of self and direction.
The Wolf Wants Answers is bigger and bolder than its predecessor, without losing the raw emotional core that made the first book so compelling. It’s punk rock lit with a soul, a beat-up love letter to the misfits and dreamers fighting to stay human in a world that wants to grind them down.
May 9, 2025
"Our heads were slaughterhouses and nurseries, insane asylums and courtrooms, concert halls and art museums, carnivals and orgasms, bubble baths and war. And if our heads were so many things at once, what did that say about the peculiar music in our skulls?
Joshua Mohr's second book in the Viking Punk Saga follows on with the story of Saint. After he and Trick Wilma defeated Wes than Zero, the nihilistic punk criminal terrorizing the Oakland warehouse scene. Now officially a member of Trick’s band All the Fuss, Saint is ready to live his best life, and move on from the demons of his past. The only problem is the demons have other plans. On the way to the next show, the band is intercepted by a nasty cartel that insists Saint has a debt to settle, one that will eventually lead to a riverboat in China.
I was excited to read this next book in this series. Much like the first book the reader gets to experience moments from Saint's past that have shaped him into the person he is today.
He revisits his Norwegian past while trying to fight his demons that come as debt collectors and other disturbing figures. Along the way he speaks of those he cares about and why. His constant battle with life and his desperation to keep playing punk music because it's the only thing tethering him to a successful future.
There are many twists and messed up events that occur in this book which not only give the reader a deeper insight into Saint's character but also his will to keep on going despite the odds stacked against him.
Many thanks to @netgalley and @unnamedpress for a copy of this book.
Joshua Mohr's second book in the Viking Punk Saga follows on with the story of Saint. After he and Trick Wilma defeated Wes than Zero, the nihilistic punk criminal terrorizing the Oakland warehouse scene. Now officially a member of Trick’s band All the Fuss, Saint is ready to live his best life, and move on from the demons of his past. The only problem is the demons have other plans. On the way to the next show, the band is intercepted by a nasty cartel that insists Saint has a debt to settle, one that will eventually lead to a riverboat in China.
I was excited to read this next book in this series. Much like the first book the reader gets to experience moments from Saint's past that have shaped him into the person he is today.
He revisits his Norwegian past while trying to fight his demons that come as debt collectors and other disturbing figures. Along the way he speaks of those he cares about and why. His constant battle with life and his desperation to keep playing punk music because it's the only thing tethering him to a successful future.
There are many twists and messed up events that occur in this book which not only give the reader a deeper insight into Saint's character but also his will to keep on going despite the odds stacked against him.
Many thanks to @netgalley and @unnamedpress for a copy of this book.
June 5, 2025
I preface this with all my reviews of Mohr's books, but I had him as a professor at the University of San Francisco and enjoyed both him AND his class immensely. I also tend to like the vast majority of his work, though it is admittedly not the style I would seek out these days (I prefer the darker, the more surreal, the more experimental more often than not).
Having said that, this second entry into the Viking Punk saga was...a ride. I thought the first book was great. Mohr's prose makes it so readable that I recieved the book yesterday evening, started it this morning before work, and then finished it after I clocked out in the evening. Some 220+ pages.
I love these characters. And because I have a little insight into how Josh deep dives into the mannerisms and the patois of his characters (assuming it's still the same some 14 years later), I really appreciate how vivid his characters are when jumping off the page.
This book was more of a prequel than anything else, but straddles the line in a fun way by blending the current and the former into a single narrative. I loved the first book more because it felt more grounded in a number of ways. That's not to say this one went off the rails (it did, but in very great, very NANCY ways)...only to say that the narrative expanded out into revelations that felt bigger than Oakland, bigger than San Francisco, and bigger than the first book in exponential ways.
Still. An unbelievably enjoyable romp and some great background into the why and the where that brought Saint into our lives during the first book.
Having said that, this second entry into the Viking Punk saga was...a ride. I thought the first book was great. Mohr's prose makes it so readable that I recieved the book yesterday evening, started it this morning before work, and then finished it after I clocked out in the evening. Some 220+ pages.
I love these characters. And because I have a little insight into how Josh deep dives into the mannerisms and the patois of his characters (assuming it's still the same some 14 years later), I really appreciate how vivid his characters are when jumping off the page.
This book was more of a prequel than anything else, but straddles the line in a fun way by blending the current and the former into a single narrative. I loved the first book more because it felt more grounded in a number of ways. That's not to say this one went off the rails (it did, but in very great, very NANCY ways)...only to say that the narrative expanded out into revelations that felt bigger than Oakland, bigger than San Francisco, and bigger than the first book in exponential ways.
Still. An unbelievably enjoyable romp and some great background into the why and the where that brought Saint into our lives during the first book.
June 18, 2025
More punk rock, more Norse mythology, more beautiful musings about seeking joy in whatever form it needs to take. Mohr's one of my favorites for a reason, and Book 2 ruled. I'd like to say I'd kick a door down and set fire to my enemies' lairs to get Book 3 published faster, but that sort of joy's not for me. I'll wait, but I certainly don't damn want to.
July 5, 2025
Really enjoyed it. I love the way the author uses description. Tbh it feels pretty disconnected the first book in the series but it’s still a good read
December 25, 2025
Mohr Saint.
Mohr vikings.
Mohr punks.
Mohr skull-splitting debauchery.
Can't wait to read the final installment!
Mohr vikings.
Mohr punks.
Mohr skull-splitting debauchery.
Can't wait to read the final installment!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews