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Children of the Wolf: A Novel
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A woman notices a pattern of men disappearing in her small town, reawakening memories of her childhood raised by a father obsessed with his violent Viking heritage.
As an adult, Liv leads a quiet life, tending to the beekeeping business that supports her and her brother. But when a dead body is discovered in her town, she is forced to grapple with a legacy of violence from when she was small.
As a child, she shared a home in rural Iowa with her brother Finn and their father Ulf. Swedish-born Ulf, a direct descendant of the infamous Erik the Red, raises his children as if they are Vikings. They are homeschooled, speak only Swedish, learn swordplay and archery, celebrate the Norse holidays, and worship the old gods with blood sacrifices.
But when Liv is fourteen, her family’s sanctum is broken apart by an FBI raid. Separated from their father, Liv and Finn must learn to adapt to normal life.
Now, twenty years later, Liv and Finn have changed their last names and moved to Haven, Michigan. Through her work as a beekeeper, Liv meets Penny, a secretive, unusual, beguiling woman. Just as her life is beginning to open up in a new ways, she notices a strange and upsetting pattern in the area around men are disappearing. As she tallies up the missing men, her anxieties over Ulf's incarceration are renewed.
While she's thrown back into the uncertainty she felt after Ulf's arrest, Liv struggles to hold on to what she knows to be true, she must decide how to whether to involve her loved ones in her suspicions, leave the whole matter alone, or take action to solve—and stop—the same kind of violence she always hoped to escape.
As an adult, Liv leads a quiet life, tending to the beekeeping business that supports her and her brother. But when a dead body is discovered in her town, she is forced to grapple with a legacy of violence from when she was small.
As a child, she shared a home in rural Iowa with her brother Finn and their father Ulf. Swedish-born Ulf, a direct descendant of the infamous Erik the Red, raises his children as if they are Vikings. They are homeschooled, speak only Swedish, learn swordplay and archery, celebrate the Norse holidays, and worship the old gods with blood sacrifices.
But when Liv is fourteen, her family’s sanctum is broken apart by an FBI raid. Separated from their father, Liv and Finn must learn to adapt to normal life.
Now, twenty years later, Liv and Finn have changed their last names and moved to Haven, Michigan. Through her work as a beekeeper, Liv meets Penny, a secretive, unusual, beguiling woman. Just as her life is beginning to open up in a new ways, she notices a strange and upsetting pattern in the area around men are disappearing. As she tallies up the missing men, her anxieties over Ulf's incarceration are renewed.
While she's thrown back into the uncertainty she felt after Ulf's arrest, Liv struggles to hold on to what she knows to be true, she must decide how to whether to involve her loved ones in her suspicions, leave the whole matter alone, or take action to solve—and stop—the same kind of violence she always hoped to escape.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 15, 2026
About the author
Abby Geni
12 books276 followersAbby Geni is the author of The Lightkeepers, winner of the 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction and the inaugural Chicago Review of Books Awards for Best Fiction, and The Last Animal (2013), an Indies Introduce Debut Writers Selection and a finalist for the Orion Book Award. Her short stories have won first place in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open and the Chautauqua Contest and have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Geni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship. Her website is www.abbygeni.com.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I enjoyed Ms Geni's other novels immensely and recommended them to friends. “Children of the Wolf” disappointed me. Not enough to keep me from finishing it, but less than satisfied.
The first chapters of the book set a noteworthy scene. A father and his two children living in rural Iowa. Mom apparently passed away some time ago. The land they inhabit is not a Fram but a compound protected by razor-sharp barbed-wire, bear traps, and broken glass. They are not off-grid or prepper types; no, they are Vikings. In fact, theyre descendants of Erik the Red. Dad’s name is Ulf Thorvaldsson. The children are Finn, a boy, and a girl named Liv, who is the book’s narrator. They eat as Vikings did, pray as they did, had Viking values, especially loyalty to the tribe ("only other Vikings could be trusted"). They worship as the Vikings did, marking their holidays “with blood, as the gods demanded." Finn began learning how to use Viking weapons at a very young age. Liv, a mere girl-chid, was given "a slender six-inch knife named Vargbett: Wolf's Bite." A lesser weapon, but Pappa did teach her how to use it in self-defense.
The story Liv tells is filled with Viking mythology: Odin the Allfather, Thor, Loki, Jörmungandr the World Serpent, the Nine Realms, Yggdrasil the tree that connects them all, Ragnörok, the Norse apocalypse. It's all much, much darker in every conceivable way than what Marvel movies or Neil Gaiman would have us think.
Little House on the Prairie this ain’t.
This was the only life the children knew (although, oddly, they had a TV set and a VCR). They occasionally went into town for groceries and, for the kids, visits to the library, but Pappa always finds these excursions infuriating: “he did not want to be noticed, yet he could not help but stand out among the small, soft locals.”
Well, yeah: Dad is seven feet tall, we are told — though that might not be quite accurate — "wore his hair and beard long, usually in intricate braids" and had a fierce and cruel temper. He has “a strange passion for burying dead animals around [the] property." Large graves, bigger than one would expect given the size of the animal in question. He often works in the basement that the children are absolutely barred from entering.
You see where this is heading. Pappa’s work, whatever it is, follows a pattern: a phone call, an absence, and then the cellar.
“America was so different from our Viking enclave, Liv tells us, “that each world seemed to render the other impossible. Was reality made of swaying grasses and rocky ills, or was it made of buildings and vehicles?… Was Pappa our own familiar father, or was he a glowering behemoth who made every other adult look small?”
This entire alternative world comes violently crashing down, of course, and we pick up the story years later. The children, adults now, are living in the real world. They interact with other people, mostly by selling the honey they collect from their bees, but in a reserved and secretive way. No one knows anything about their past. As for 7 foot tall father, he's elsewhere.
As for the plot -- there's a lot of it. I'm reluctant to say much about it -- spoilers, you know -- but here's a subtle hint from the very first words in the book: "I have always hated the word murder. It sounds like the end of a human life. Listen to the temp of rhyming syllables, then consider the pause that follows. One final use of the heart -- then silence." (Well, yes, "murder" sounds like the end of life because that's exactly what it is. But maybe Geni is suggesting something about the narrator with this language.)
The bulk of the novel focuses on the relationship Liv and Finn have formed and how they fit into the community. Liv falls in love, Finn bonds with dogs, men go missing. And in time, Pappa comes back into their lives.
As I said, I found "Children of the Wolf" engaging enough to finish, but it felt flawed, contrived. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention well enough or I simply missed the point. But it left me cold and kind of glad when it was done. The many long, into-the-weeds set pieces about bee behavior and biology, and how bee societies mirror human societies in some ways but are vastly superior in others (a pretty low bar, it seems to me) were interesting for a while but became wearisome.
I found "Children of the Wolf" satisfactory enough to earn three stars. Abby Geni is too good a writer to produce anything less. But that's just me. Other GR reviews are more favorable.
Thanks too Ballantine Books/Random House and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
The first chapters of the book set a noteworthy scene. A father and his two children living in rural Iowa. Mom apparently passed away some time ago. The land they inhabit is not a Fram but a compound protected by razor-sharp barbed-wire, bear traps, and broken glass. They are not off-grid or prepper types; no, they are Vikings. In fact, theyre descendants of Erik the Red. Dad’s name is Ulf Thorvaldsson. The children are Finn, a boy, and a girl named Liv, who is the book’s narrator. They eat as Vikings did, pray as they did, had Viking values, especially loyalty to the tribe ("only other Vikings could be trusted"). They worship as the Vikings did, marking their holidays “with blood, as the gods demanded." Finn began learning how to use Viking weapons at a very young age. Liv, a mere girl-chid, was given "a slender six-inch knife named Vargbett: Wolf's Bite." A lesser weapon, but Pappa did teach her how to use it in self-defense.
The story Liv tells is filled with Viking mythology: Odin the Allfather, Thor, Loki, Jörmungandr the World Serpent, the Nine Realms, Yggdrasil the tree that connects them all, Ragnörok, the Norse apocalypse. It's all much, much darker in every conceivable way than what Marvel movies or Neil Gaiman would have us think.
Little House on the Prairie this ain’t.
This was the only life the children knew (although, oddly, they had a TV set and a VCR). They occasionally went into town for groceries and, for the kids, visits to the library, but Pappa always finds these excursions infuriating: “he did not want to be noticed, yet he could not help but stand out among the small, soft locals.”
Well, yeah: Dad is seven feet tall, we are told — though that might not be quite accurate — "wore his hair and beard long, usually in intricate braids" and had a fierce and cruel temper. He has “a strange passion for burying dead animals around [the] property." Large graves, bigger than one would expect given the size of the animal in question. He often works in the basement that the children are absolutely barred from entering.
You see where this is heading. Pappa’s work, whatever it is, follows a pattern: a phone call, an absence, and then the cellar.
“America was so different from our Viking enclave, Liv tells us, “that each world seemed to render the other impossible. Was reality made of swaying grasses and rocky ills, or was it made of buildings and vehicles?… Was Pappa our own familiar father, or was he a glowering behemoth who made every other adult look small?”
This entire alternative world comes violently crashing down, of course, and we pick up the story years later. The children, adults now, are living in the real world. They interact with other people, mostly by selling the honey they collect from their bees, but in a reserved and secretive way. No one knows anything about their past. As for 7 foot tall father, he's elsewhere.
As for the plot -- there's a lot of it. I'm reluctant to say much about it -- spoilers, you know -- but here's a subtle hint from the very first words in the book: "I have always hated the word murder. It sounds like the end of a human life. Listen to the temp of rhyming syllables, then consider the pause that follows. One final use of the heart -- then silence." (Well, yes, "murder" sounds like the end of life because that's exactly what it is. But maybe Geni is suggesting something about the narrator with this language.)
The bulk of the novel focuses on the relationship Liv and Finn have formed and how they fit into the community. Liv falls in love, Finn bonds with dogs, men go missing. And in time, Pappa comes back into their lives.
As I said, I found "Children of the Wolf" engaging enough to finish, but it felt flawed, contrived. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention well enough or I simply missed the point. But it left me cold and kind of glad when it was done. The many long, into-the-weeds set pieces about bee behavior and biology, and how bee societies mirror human societies in some ways but are vastly superior in others (a pretty low bar, it seems to me) were interesting for a while but became wearisome.
I found "Children of the Wolf" satisfactory enough to earn three stars. Abby Geni is too good a writer to produce anything less. But that's just me. Other GR reviews are more favorable.
Thanks too Ballantine Books/Random House and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I found “Children of the Wolf” to be a unique and riveting reading experience—one I’ll not soon forget. Part general fiction, part psychological thriller, part serial murder mystery, and part love story, it features wonderful world-building in settings of rural isolation, deeply drawn characters, excellent research, a mystery behind every locked door, and more than a few surprises.
The novel begins by introducing us to children Liv and Finn Thorvaldsson, who live with their widower father, Ulf, in a small house on a large piece of Iowa land far from any town. Ulf is a huge, fierce Swede, directly descended from Eric the Red, whose work is a mystery, but who keeps bees and lives in accordance with Viking traditions. Loving his children intensely, but brutally, he raises them in accordance with those traditions. Home schooling themselves with library books and television, Liv and Finn rarely leave the property which is surrounded by barbed-wire and various traps designed to prevent anyone and everyone from intruding.
But then comes the day that Liv and Finn are separated from their father by the most violent circumstances. Regardless of whether they’ll ever see Ulf again, Liv and Finn have been permanently marked by his teachings and by the Viking ethos, traditions, and mythology.
After years in foster care, Finn and Liv together move to rural Michigan where they share a home outside a small town and keep bees for a living. Their life in Michigan is less isolated than in Iowa. They get along well with the people of the town. But still, they hold themselves fairly separately. At least until Liv—who’s experienced only purely sexual relationships with other women—meets and falls in love, for the very first time in her life, with Penny, a mysterious young woman living on a farm as separate and secluded as Liv’s childhood home.
And then comes the day that violent circumstances again turn Finn’s and Liv’s lives upside-down.
Author Abbi Geni’s novel grabbed me at its very beginning and kept my interest throughout. I found the characters unique and compelling. Who is Ulf? How has he managed to keep himself and his children so separate from society, and why? He seems terrifying, and yet his children love him so very much. How is that possible? And how will his children, raised amid his ferocity and stoicism, ever be able to survive once they’re compelled to leave his home?
Ms. Geni writes well and has produced a story of high literary quality. She allows us to see inside her characters and to watch them grow and change. The isolated worlds she builds are finely wrought and very absorbing. She delves deeply into whatever subject matter she chooses to cover and writes about it convincingly. Topics covered include Viking culture and mythology, bees and beekeeping, other animal husbandry, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsession, stoicism, physical and emotional abuse, violence against women, LGBTQ relationships, and non-traditional morality.
In terms of cautions regarding content, there are references to sexual relations as part of the romance between Liv and Penny, but there are no graphic sex scenes. There are a number of violent ideas and images, including serial murder, bodily dismemberment, and animal consumption of human remains.
“Children of the Wolf” is due to be published on September 15, 2026.
My thanks to NetGalley, author Abby Geni, and publisher Ballantine / Ballantine Books for providing me with a complimentary electronic ARC. All of the foregoing is my honest, independent opinion.
The novel begins by introducing us to children Liv and Finn Thorvaldsson, who live with their widower father, Ulf, in a small house on a large piece of Iowa land far from any town. Ulf is a huge, fierce Swede, directly descended from Eric the Red, whose work is a mystery, but who keeps bees and lives in accordance with Viking traditions. Loving his children intensely, but brutally, he raises them in accordance with those traditions. Home schooling themselves with library books and television, Liv and Finn rarely leave the property which is surrounded by barbed-wire and various traps designed to prevent anyone and everyone from intruding.
But then comes the day that Liv and Finn are separated from their father by the most violent circumstances. Regardless of whether they’ll ever see Ulf again, Liv and Finn have been permanently marked by his teachings and by the Viking ethos, traditions, and mythology.
After years in foster care, Finn and Liv together move to rural Michigan where they share a home outside a small town and keep bees for a living. Their life in Michigan is less isolated than in Iowa. They get along well with the people of the town. But still, they hold themselves fairly separately. At least until Liv—who’s experienced only purely sexual relationships with other women—meets and falls in love, for the very first time in her life, with Penny, a mysterious young woman living on a farm as separate and secluded as Liv’s childhood home.
And then comes the day that violent circumstances again turn Finn’s and Liv’s lives upside-down.
Author Abbi Geni’s novel grabbed me at its very beginning and kept my interest throughout. I found the characters unique and compelling. Who is Ulf? How has he managed to keep himself and his children so separate from society, and why? He seems terrifying, and yet his children love him so very much. How is that possible? And how will his children, raised amid his ferocity and stoicism, ever be able to survive once they’re compelled to leave his home?
Ms. Geni writes well and has produced a story of high literary quality. She allows us to see inside her characters and to watch them grow and change. The isolated worlds she builds are finely wrought and very absorbing. She delves deeply into whatever subject matter she chooses to cover and writes about it convincingly. Topics covered include Viking culture and mythology, bees and beekeeping, other animal husbandry, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsession, stoicism, physical and emotional abuse, violence against women, LGBTQ relationships, and non-traditional morality.
In terms of cautions regarding content, there are references to sexual relations as part of the romance between Liv and Penny, but there are no graphic sex scenes. There are a number of violent ideas and images, including serial murder, bodily dismemberment, and animal consumption of human remains.
“Children of the Wolf” is due to be published on September 15, 2026.
My thanks to NetGalley, author Abby Geni, and publisher Ballantine / Ballantine Books for providing me with a complimentary electronic ARC. All of the foregoing is my honest, independent opinion.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Ballantine Books (Taylor) and NetGalley for an ARC of the novel.
When I read the short description of Abby Geni's Children of the Wolf in the email from Ballantine Books, in my mind I imagined a novel concerned with familial violence and its aftermath on those who survived. And the description in Goodreads where the main character has to make a choice to "solve--and stop--the same kind of violence she always hoped to escape" also added to my mental image of the novel as a story where a regular person has to solve some mystery the police or others have been unable to crack. It all sounded somewhat familiar, but the elements of Viking heritage and the prospect of a mystery novel (which I haven't read in a long while) were enough to make me give Children of the Wolf a read.
My preconceptions as I read had me waiting for those familiar moments in a mystery novel: the crime happens, the slow reveal of clues, the list of possible perpetrators. And there are definite moments when the narrator, Liv, tells the story in such a way as to meet those expectations. Murder is the seventh word in the novel! Yet as I kept reading I realized that Children of the Wolf was not conforming to what I was expecting of a mystery novel. Yes, there is a murder and we follow Liv as she tries to figure out who the murderer is. But the novel evolved into something else, something beyond the mystery at its heart. For me, it turns out the novel is a love story, or, more correctly, a story about love and its capabilities.
Children of the Wolf is definitely "unsettling" as the email from the publisher stated, and a story that "lingers" for sure. But it isn't for the violence that occurs in the novel; it's for the idea that love has a place, and maybe even a purpose, within a world of violence. Even now, as I write this review, I'm torn between whether I agree with Liv and her actions or whether I think she is completely mad. In the novel, I find her actions completely justifiable. Abby Geni does a great job at allowing us to see the world through the eyes of someone whose perspective and perceptions come from a world completely foreign to ours. But once I put the novel down and I look out the window at the real world, I'm not so sure I would want to live in the same town as Liv. It's that unease that I think makes Children of the Wolf a much deeper novel than the description suggests. This would be a great book club novel because its fundamental premise would be a fantastic topic for debate.
Fundamentally, Children of the Wolf is a meditation on family and inheritance, on the power of stories to enlighten and even protect us, and on love and its power to bind us together despite our natures. It is an intriguing novel about violence and justice, and one that will make you pause and think about how much you can love another person.
When I read the short description of Abby Geni's Children of the Wolf in the email from Ballantine Books, in my mind I imagined a novel concerned with familial violence and its aftermath on those who survived. And the description in Goodreads where the main character has to make a choice to "solve--and stop--the same kind of violence she always hoped to escape" also added to my mental image of the novel as a story where a regular person has to solve some mystery the police or others have been unable to crack. It all sounded somewhat familiar, but the elements of Viking heritage and the prospect of a mystery novel (which I haven't read in a long while) were enough to make me give Children of the Wolf a read.
My preconceptions as I read had me waiting for those familiar moments in a mystery novel: the crime happens, the slow reveal of clues, the list of possible perpetrators. And there are definite moments when the narrator, Liv, tells the story in such a way as to meet those expectations. Murder is the seventh word in the novel! Yet as I kept reading I realized that Children of the Wolf was not conforming to what I was expecting of a mystery novel. Yes, there is a murder and we follow Liv as she tries to figure out who the murderer is. But the novel evolved into something else, something beyond the mystery at its heart. For me, it turns out the novel is a love story, or, more correctly, a story about love and its capabilities.
Children of the Wolf is definitely "unsettling" as the email from the publisher stated, and a story that "lingers" for sure. But it isn't for the violence that occurs in the novel; it's for the idea that love has a place, and maybe even a purpose, within a world of violence. Even now, as I write this review, I'm torn between whether I agree with Liv and her actions or whether I think she is completely mad. In the novel, I find her actions completely justifiable. Abby Geni does a great job at allowing us to see the world through the eyes of someone whose perspective and perceptions come from a world completely foreign to ours. But once I put the novel down and I look out the window at the real world, I'm not so sure I would want to live in the same town as Liv. It's that unease that I think makes Children of the Wolf a much deeper novel than the description suggests. This would be a great book club novel because its fundamental premise would be a fantastic topic for debate.
Fundamentally, Children of the Wolf is a meditation on family and inheritance, on the power of stories to enlighten and even protect us, and on love and its power to bind us together despite our natures. It is an intriguing novel about violence and justice, and one that will make you pause and think about how much you can love another person.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Liv and Finn live with their father Ulf on a multi-acre, solitary and barricaded piece of land in the midwest. Their father is formidable, cold, detached and quite mysterious, raising the children to be Vikings, from which he says he is descended. Swedish is the primary spoken language in their home. Liv and Finn are homeschooled and their only contact with the outside world is when they go to their small town for groceries and the library. Ulf is a huge presence in stature and presence.
The children both worship and fear their father, observing his rules to the letter. He teaches Finn how to be a Viking by staging sword fights with him. Finn has only a wooden sword as a child but Ulf still manages to injure him repeatedly, sometimes quite seriously. This may sound romantic or even idyllic but it is not. There is a basement under their living quarters, a space that the children are forbidden to enter, with the entrance door always locked.
Ulf's profession is a mystery. All the children really know is that he disappears for days at a time and then returns just as mysteriously. He hates small animals and kills them with relish, burying their small carcasses all over their land.
Suddenly, when Liv is 14, the FBI attacks their home and takes Ulf away to prison. The children become aware of his horrendous crimes and history.
At this point, the novel moves forward twenty years. Liv and Finn have changed their last name and are peacefully raising bees in the midwest. What happens next is mind blowing. Liv reads about some crimes in her area that mirror those of her father's. Her father, however, is in jail so he cannot be the criminal. What is happening?
I love Abby Geni's work and have read her other novels. I found this one somewhat off-putting. The narrative is clear and unambiguous, and the psychological roots quite disturbing. The aspect of trauma bonding is well-researched and developed. What bothered me was the incessant historical data about Vikings and the minutiae of bee keeping. I understand the metaphorical aspects of both but felt it was just too much.
This novel is very disturbing and will be a difficult read for many. It is, like Geni's other works, beautifully crafted. It will stay with the reader quite disturbingly, and perhaps intrusively, for some time.
Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this novel.
The children both worship and fear their father, observing his rules to the letter. He teaches Finn how to be a Viking by staging sword fights with him. Finn has only a wooden sword as a child but Ulf still manages to injure him repeatedly, sometimes quite seriously. This may sound romantic or even idyllic but it is not. There is a basement under their living quarters, a space that the children are forbidden to enter, with the entrance door always locked.
Ulf's profession is a mystery. All the children really know is that he disappears for days at a time and then returns just as mysteriously. He hates small animals and kills them with relish, burying their small carcasses all over their land.
Suddenly, when Liv is 14, the FBI attacks their home and takes Ulf away to prison. The children become aware of his horrendous crimes and history.
At this point, the novel moves forward twenty years. Liv and Finn have changed their last name and are peacefully raising bees in the midwest. What happens next is mind blowing. Liv reads about some crimes in her area that mirror those of her father's. Her father, however, is in jail so he cannot be the criminal. What is happening?
I love Abby Geni's work and have read her other novels. I found this one somewhat off-putting. The narrative is clear and unambiguous, and the psychological roots quite disturbing. The aspect of trauma bonding is well-researched and developed. What bothered me was the incessant historical data about Vikings and the minutiae of bee keeping. I understand the metaphorical aspects of both but felt it was just too much.
This novel is very disturbing and will be a difficult read for many. It is, like Geni's other works, beautifully crafted. It will stay with the reader quite disturbingly, and perhaps intrusively, for some time.
Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this novel.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Absolute must-read! I've read a lot of books about serial killers, and a lot of books about isolated, cult-like groups/families, but this one combined those two ideas in such a unique and fascinating way. I don't when I've encountered a character like Ulf Thorvaldsson unless it was maybe Henry from The Secret History - someone so immersed in their idealization of an ancient world that it completely drives their worldview and actions to the point that they become a monster by modern-day standards. Ulf's daughter, Liv (the POV character) is fascinating and complex, and his son, Finn, is the most precious angel of a man who must be protected at all costs. There are several twists and spoilers along the way, including some beautiful nature writing. I'll be thinking about this one for a while and it's definitely going to be on a future re-read list. Also with its theme of children growing up basically alone in nature, its an antidote to Where the Crawdads Sing.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book grabbed me from the very first page, but then it kind of let me go a bit.
Present-day Liv is tending her bees, living with her brother, and minding her own business when she notices a pattern of crime eerily similar to one she was involved in as a child. After the first teaser of a chapter, we're thrown straight into the middle of that childhood Incident. Liv recounts growing up with her recluse of a father who rarely let her off their little home patch of land and has some...interesting customs and habits that Liv only starts to understand after she's gone.
It's really hard to weave this all together without spoiling aspects of the plot, but Liv's growth through trauma and beyond leads to and ending that I genuinely did not expect. At once heartbreaking, creepy, and mysterious, Children of the Wolf was a genuinely fun read (even if I was flabbergasted at the end).
Another reviewer mentioned the Viking aspects were incorrect, so if that's something that will bother you, steer clear. I can't speak to the authenticity as I know absolutely nothing about Vikings whatsoever.
3.5 stars - thank you to author, publisher, and Net Galley for the offer to read.
Present-day Liv is tending her bees, living with her brother, and minding her own business when she notices a pattern of crime eerily similar to one she was involved in as a child. After the first teaser of a chapter, we're thrown straight into the middle of that childhood Incident. Liv recounts growing up with her recluse of a father who rarely let her off their little home patch of land and has some...interesting customs and habits that Liv only starts to understand after she's gone.
It's really hard to weave this all together without spoiling aspects of the plot, but Liv's growth through trauma and beyond leads to and ending that I genuinely did not expect. At once heartbreaking, creepy, and mysterious, Children of the Wolf was a genuinely fun read (even if I was flabbergasted at the end).
Another reviewer mentioned the Viking aspects were incorrect, so if that's something that will bother you, steer clear. I can't speak to the authenticity as I know absolutely nothing about Vikings whatsoever.
3.5 stars - thank you to author, publisher, and Net Galley for the offer to read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
♫ An aging wolf who has *not* lost the taste for blood. Even anxious pups need the moon ♫
This book was absolutely wild. I read it in a few hours this evening because I couldn't put it down. I know this combination is going to sound unhinged, but somehow it all came together and was utterly gripping to me.. This story has serial killing, Viking mythology, a heartwarming brother and sister duo, shocking twists, a romance, cute dogs, and beekeeping. It's one of those stories too where you find yourself wanting to look up the characters as if they're real people with backstories to investigate further. Now I want this story made into a movie. The scenery, the characters, the flashbacks, etc. were all so vivid and unsettling, which would be interesting adapted on screen.
Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC!
This book was absolutely wild. I read it in a few hours this evening because I couldn't put it down. I know this combination is going to sound unhinged, but somehow it all came together and was utterly gripping to me.. This story has serial killing, Viking mythology, a heartwarming brother and sister duo, shocking twists, a romance, cute dogs, and beekeeping. It's one of those stories too where you find yourself wanting to look up the characters as if they're real people with backstories to investigate further. Now I want this story made into a movie. The scenery, the characters, the flashbacks, etc. were all so vivid and unsettling, which would be interesting adapted on screen.
Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Children of the Wolf took me on a very unexpected journey. It begins with young Liv and Finn living deep in the remote woods with their father, who teaches them about their Viking ancestry and survival skills. A major event during their teen years changes their lives forever. Even though I sensed part of what was coming, I definitely did not see the twist that unfolded in their adult lives.
This story stayed with me long after I finished reading as it explores how childhood trauma and violence can shape the choices people make later in life. It was a strong, compelling story with emotional depth and suspense throughout. I rated it 4 stars and definitely recommend it!
This story stayed with me long after I finished reading as it explores how childhood trauma and violence can shape the choices people make later in life. It was a strong, compelling story with emotional depth and suspense throughout. I rated it 4 stars and definitely recommend it!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Based on the description, I thought this book would be something like Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss. It's true that both books feature abusive fathers who are obsessed with the "old ways" and hold warped views on masculinity and strength.
But Children of the Wolf just didn't do it for me. Liv's narrative voice was somewhat irritating, and I never quite warmed to her as a character. While her childhood was undeniably horrific, the book utilizes telling over showing, so nothing was as impactful as it should have been. I was absorbing information but not really reacting to it. I gave up around 40% because it just became such a slog to read.
Also, I'm by no means an expert on ancient Norse culture, but the misinformation in this book drove me crazy. No, Easter wasn't originally a pagan holiday called Ostara; that's a misconception. And the people we call Vikings didn't even refer to themselves that way.
But Children of the Wolf just didn't do it for me. Liv's narrative voice was somewhat irritating, and I never quite warmed to her as a character. While her childhood was undeniably horrific, the book utilizes telling over showing, so nothing was as impactful as it should have been. I was absorbing information but not really reacting to it. I gave up around 40% because it just became such a slog to read.
Also, I'm by no means an expert on ancient Norse culture, but the misinformation in this book drove me crazy. No, Easter wasn't originally a pagan holiday called Ostara; that's a misconception. And the people we call Vikings didn't even refer to themselves that way.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I give this one extra stars for the sheerly original premise in a field so saturated with serial killer novels. Liv and her brother live a quiet life in Michigan, tending their bees and trying to forget about the tragic events that shaped their childhood - until men start disappearing in a very familiar way. This one was gripping and completely unforgettable.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The information about the Vikings and the Viking lore is interesting. The murders are intriguing.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
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