Talking to the Wolf: A Novel

by Rebecca Chace

"Love, first periods, last periods, bullying mothers, disappeared fathers, crazy sisters, children unborn, found, or gone, parents dying too fast or too slow, this apartment, that apartment, an eyebrow raised across a crowded room.” Four women are steeling themselves for their 35th high school reunion dinner. Lifelong friends, they have seen each other through They are a failed rock star, an awarded scientist, a work-obsessed misanthrope -- and one of them is a deeply grieved ghost, whose untimely death has ruptured the once-solid quartet. Set over the course of one day running up to the reunion as a surprise snowstorm falls over New York City, and moving amongst the four perspectives, TALKING TO THE WOLF is like a Meg Wolitzer novel shot by filmmaker Nicole Holofcenerand blessed by Virginia Woolf. (It pole-vaults over the Bechdel Test.)

Genres: Fiction

251 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2026

About the author

Rebecca Chace’s fifth book, Talking to the Wolf, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in 2026. She is the author of Leaving Rock Harbor (New York Times, "Editors Choice" and New England Book Award Finalist); Capture the Flag, Chautauqua Summer (New York Times Notable Book and Picks of Summer); June Sparrow and The Million Dollar Penny (middle-grade). Chace adapted her novel "Capture the Flag" into a short film with director, Lisanne Skyler. The film was awarded the Showtime Tony Cox Best Screenplay short film award at the Nantucket Film Festival. She is a contributor to The New York Times and has written nonfiction essays and reviews for The Yale Review, LA Review of Books, Guernica, Lit Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, Bookpost, and many other publications. Fellowships include Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Yaddo, Dora Maar House, American Academy in Rome (visiting artist), and others. She is a Faculty Associate at the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking.

Reviews

[emma ꪆৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for providing me with the ARC

One of the most complex human relationships is friendship, and in "Talking to the wolf", its capacity to define your life plays a central role. It took me a few chapters to really get into the story. Even though at the beginning the pacing felt a bit off, it picks up towards the middle of the book, and as the tension towards the climax where all the different stories converge grew so did my interest in the story, and i wasn’t disappointed, considering that the best developed part in my opinion was in fact the reunion and all the reflections and resolutions it brings. The relationship between the four friends i feel like kinda fades into the background opposing their own personal lives, though it was interesting to see how their shared past had an influence on their lives. The presence of Cara’s spirit was another compelling aspect, the fil rouge that connected all of them and that lured over all their lives, especially Val’s and her relationship with Cara and her death was to me another of the more engaging aspects. Her confused but deep feelings and constant thinking about their last encounter while navigating Cara’s death depicted in such an insightful way grief and one of the many ways it is handled, complex and frustrating it might be.

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so love when a five-star read catches me by surprise. It took a minute for the characters to click for me—I had a bit of trouble keeping them straight until I got a bit into the narrative—but once they did, I was fully invested. My guess is that this will get pegged as a book about female friendship, but it's more about the way we all reckon with our lives shifting as we get older. These four friends are less interrogating their relationships to each other as they are their relationships to themselves.

Pick this up if:

* You're looking for a crew of characters who are strongly bonded and struggling to stay connected as they look back on their lives.
* A true ensemble of misfits experiencing varying degrees of professional and familial success/strife is your jam.
* You love a ghost narrator. (Val was my favorite character, but Cora's ghost was a close second.)
* Hanging out in NYC with some aging punks who have gone in very different directions sounds like a good time.
* Your 35th high school reunion is on the horizon. (I'm not quite hitting this milestone, but I'm close enough to see it coming!)

It's never the wrong time to interrogate your life, and I'll be thinking about Val, Sasha, Lauren, and Cora for a long time. So glad to have met them.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of the story sounded interesting and immediately drew me in. I appreciated having women at the centre of the narrative. Each bringing their own life experiences, whether good or bad - facing their own unique challenges. Themes of heartbreak, motherhood, and the struggle to find one’s footing in life were explored in a relatable way.

The story is told through four different POVs. Three of them are still alive, while one…is not, yet continues to provide context and perspective. All of them have known each other for a long time and once shared a very close bond. This history came across clearly, and I also got the sense that after losing one of them, they drifted apart a little bit. There’s a subtle distance between them now, which creates cracks in their relationships. These cracks might seem easy to fix, but they highlight something very real. No one is perfect, and sometimes we struggle to deal with things on our own.
That said, the storytelling felt a little uneven at times. It’s also not the kind of book that ties everything together in a neat, satisfying ending. While it won’t become one of my favourites, I can still appreciate it for what it is and what it was trying to achieve.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Vince · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book not really being the target demographic, but I was surprised by how quickly it pulled me in. It is a fast-paced look at a group of women in their late fifties, but the rock-star flashbacks to Val’s band, the Joypoppers, and her general life, give it a grittier edge than your typical domestic drama.
The most interesting element for me was the ghost of Cora. Whether she is a literal spirit or a manifestation of Val’s grief, her voice throughout the book acts as the glue that holds the narrative together. Hearing her talk about the reunion attendees while reflecting on her own life in the Bardo added a unique, slightly supernatural layer to the story.
The structure is what really kept me turning pages. It builds up a lot of anticipation for a 35th high school reunion, and when the story finally shifts into that circle format where all the women are talking about their past, it really pays off. I found myself caring about Lauren the most. Her story does not have a perfect ending, but it felt honest to the character. The metaphor of talking to the wolf was a great way to describe how we have to face our own trauma to move on.
Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for providing me with an advanced copy.

[Paula W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Red Hen Press, Rebecca Chace (author), and Netgalley for a digital review copy of Talking to the Wolf. Their generosity did not influence my review in any way.

** This is a case of reviewing on the story alone; the digital ARC I received was sort of a mess (very common) and I had some difficulty trying to figure out what the final result would look like. And yes, the structure and visual presentation of the author’s concept does often make a big difference in my enjoyment and understanding of it.

Four old friends prepare for their 35th reunion dinner on the day of a New York City blizzard, but one of them is a bit of a ghost. It is told in four separate POVs in a very stream-of-consciousness way. Some readers won’t like it for sure. Fans of Virginia Woolf —ME!!!— will really enjoy the voices of each character, though.

I thought the book would be one thing, but Talking to the Wolf is less about female friendship and more about four distinct personalities with a shared past. And that’s good, too. Life experiences created a new person out of me at least twice per decade since I was born. Overall, I very much enjoyed the book once I got settled in. 3.5 stars

[Carol Pierson Holding · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I loved about Talking to the Wolf was first the premise—the action is all in a single day a la Mrs. Dalloway, here the day of a thirty-fifth high school reunion when a snowstorm envelops New York City (a nod to time travel?) Then there are the four primary characters’ friendships and fights, the settings all around New York, and the wonderful ending. Talk about pitch perfect! A harmonic chime that induced chills in me as the classmates and especially her former best friend Val make their peace with their dead friend Cora.

Reminded me of the feeling I got at the end of Less by Andrew Sean Greer, that after lots of searching, once again all’s right with the world.

Four female characters share that most fundamental transition, menopause. Rebecca Chace gives plenty of ink to physical changes. One of the characters has just discovered she has breast cancer. A gynecologist in the reunion scene offers an antidote to vaginal dryness. And the central conceit is a friend who died, presenting the primary tragedy of getting old, that our friends die.

But even more fascinating for me were the psycho dramas of aging. The way Chace pulls in events from grammar and high school again and again and their profound influence thirty-five years later. How careers or lack of them can be annihilating. That many of the classmates feel impossibly stuck, some enraged by their perceived lack of options, and how the allegory of the wolf offers a way out.

[Anna Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows four friends (one an omnipresent ghost whose recent death the others are mourning) around New York City on the day of a snowstorm prior to their 35th high school reunion. Three friends - a workaholic, an ex-punk rocker, and a scientist - are all struggling with grief, difficulties of midlife, and processing their friendship/youth as they go about their day in the city. Their stories are told in stream-of-consciousness musings and flashbacks. This format works very well at times and at others loses the thread and it takes a minute to get back.

I think this book does a great job of navigating grief, midlife crises, and the nuances of female friendship. The build-up to the reunion party is a smart move, but the payoff doesn't quite get there. I very much appreciate that this book addresses these ideas, as the story of four middle-aged women and their friendship over time is not exactly what is represented in a lot of media. Aptly, the book starts with a quote from the Neapolitan Quartet, and I think readers of Elena Ferrante (like myself) will overall jive with this book.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talking to the Wolf is a thoughtful, character-driven, multi-POV story of friendships, grief, and the messy realities of getting older. Following four women on the day of their 35th high school reunion, it explores decades of shared history, regrets, losses, and the ways people continue to shape each other's lives long after adolescence ends.

The friendships felt authentic, these women are flawed, complicated, and often frustrating, but their bond carries the weight of years spent navigating life's highs and lows together. The inclusion of Cora's perspective added an interesting layer to the story, allowing grief to become an active presence rather than just something discussed by the living characters.

The snowy New York setting creates a cozy backdrop while the characters examine everything from motherhood and marriage to career disappointments and unresolved trauma.

Overall, this is a poignant exploration of female friendship, aging, and learning to live with both the joys and heartbreaks that accumulate over a lifetime

Thank you so much Red Hen Press and Rebecca Chace for the #gifted arc!
All opinions are my own 🖤

[Alison FP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four women are coming up on their 35th high school reunion… except one of them is a ghost.

I read about this book and thought it would be right up my alley. Val is a former rock star, Sasha and Lauren I honestly had trouble keeping straight, and Cora is the ghost whose death impacted everyone. The novel is your typical “every chapter is a different character pov” and flips between the four. It doesn’t start off as a smooth read to me. It was very choppy and hard to get into or understand the characters and their relationships with each other. This may be due to poor editing, who knows. There were a lot of errors in my ARC PDF and they were really distracting. I really had to trudge through the first half.

Then the novel opens up a little, flows better and gets interesting. I think this author is a good writer, and the story gets more intriguing about halfway through. Interesting take on female relationships in the complicated modern age, and figuring out what happened to Cora was not a letdown. A slow start but enjoyable read in the end.

[Cherie Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always down to read about female friendships through the ages and this definitely delivered in that regard. Having recently lost one of their own, our three female protagonists brace themselves for a high school reunion, each confronting their own mixed bag of feelings about the good old days. In Woolfian stream-of-consciousness style (the references to Mrs Dalloway were not lost on me!), we oscillate between their perspectives, with interjections from their dead friend as an incorporeal, omniscient presence. It captures perfectly the transience of the human experience, but also how the binding power of a shared set of experiences - though, of course, the process of recall is necessarily distorted by one's own subjectivities. Elegant and heartwarming at times - enjoyed it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the published for the ARC.

[B K178 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talking to the Wolf is a novel exploring female friendship, memory, and change over time. The characters are vividly developed and unique, and I appreciated how the story traces their growth over decades with sensitivity and emotional depth. It excels in its honest portrayal of complex, long-lasting female bonds, illustrating how these relationships shift, break, and survive.

Set during a snowstorm on the day of a 35th high school reunion, it follows four women—one of whom is a ghost—as they revisit the friendship that shaped and fractured them. Rebecca Chace writes with poetic intensity that feels both personal and unsettling, revealing how memory warps, grief persists, and time both clarifies and erodes what once seemed solid. Thank you Red Hen and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Saray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about female friendship through the decades. Rebecca Chase wrote their friendship vividly and with imaginative characteristics. They were all written so differently. Nonetheless, I had some difficulty starting the book, I couldn’t really place where I was at in the story until a few chapters in but as I pressed on, I had trouble with the four multiple POVs, It was just a lot at once. I could not connect with them, perhaps due to the age difference between the characters and I, but I only really enjoyed one of the character’s story and was the only one that intrigued me; Val.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Lauren Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.


I really wanted to love this book. I enjoy stream of consciousness books and I love stories about middle-aged women. However, I found the pacing to be off and the characters all kind of blended together. Perhaps that was the intent. I found myself enjoying the rhythm of the writing and being pulled along with all of the characters. I could see these being older, cooler folks I know or what my friends and I might be in the not-too-distant future. Solid read if you're in it for the vibes and not the plot. 3.5 stars.

[Mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Red Hen Press for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I enjoyed this book quite a lot! I was instantly pulled into the stories of the four characters. I loved the dynamic that was created as we shifted between their point of views. All four felt so fleshed out, and had so many strengths and flaws within themselves and their friendship. Not a lot truly happened, but the pacing felt perfect, and their stories intrigued me enough to propel me through. I loved sitting down on a rainy day with a good friendship story to become enveloped in, and this accomplished that for me wonderfully.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book expands the premise of Mrs. Dalloway - a single day of setting up a party - into a tale of four best high school friends on the day running up to their 35th high school reunion. Each has her own challenges and regrets, particularly the one who is dead and appears only as a fairly mouthy ghost. The story is engrossing, but I wanted just a tiny bit more about how each resolved the challenges facing her. I hope Chace will use this book as a starting point for a novel or series of short stories about the three. Highly recommended as a beach read, despite the snow storm that plays an important role.

[Stroop · Rating 3 out of 5]

For readers interested in stories of long-lasting friendships and the toll that time takes on them. The story features multiple perspectives, with lots of names/characters mentioned throughout (I had trouble keeping track), and is a stream-of-consciousness style. I enjoyed the writing (particularly Cora's perspective) and think fans of books like Clutch will enjoy this.

Thank you to Red Hen Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was most interested in this book as I was heading into my 50th (!) high school reunion, having attended a school much like the one in this book. All girls, private school, NYC. It is an exquisite portrait of that time, in the 60s and 70s in NY, from the perspective of now(ish) in NY, and the characters are beautifully drawn. It's not easy to include a failed musician in a book like this - I was worried it would feel like a cliche - but Chace makes it work. Strongly recommend.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Talking to the Wolf" handles the complex relationship of female friendship.

The multiple POV's and I were unfortunately not a match this time. The characters blends together - but maybe that was the intent.

I believe readers who like Elena Ferrante will love this book more then I did.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Amy Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC at CALIBA Fall Fest 2025 -- this isn't my typical read but was such a beautiful study in character, in grief, and in how the smallest moments of life can become big parts of ourselves as we age. I found the chapters, though short, to be dense with detail and feeling. It was not a fast read, but didn't feel tedious. I wanted the last chapter to go on forever.

[Brook · Rating 5 out of 5]

The levels of nuance and emotion unfold continually in this captivating story of four female best friends on the day of their 35th class reunion as they navigate the turmoil in their personal lives. At the end, I felt that this book took me to a place of revelation and reverence for the capacity of the human heart and friendship to heal and nourish us. There are some good laughs too!

[Priscilla Cobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved this book! All four characters completely came alive for me (even the dead one), and their relationships are real and deep. And, the city is depicted so lovingly and intimately that it too became a character. The writing is beautiful. So many gorgeous passages! I was sorry when the book was over and I wanted to begin reading it again - there is so much there to ponder.

[Lara Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost DNF’d it and was struggling soooo hard to keep reading. I didn’t want to spend money buying a new book so I just accepted the L and continued.
It definitely got better around 50% but was still so hard to get through, almost like it was badly edited.

I’m disappointed

[Ronald Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books entertain you. This one quietly moves in and stays awhile. I came for the reunion story, but I left thinking about friendship, grief, and all the conversations we never get to finish. Beautifully written I have a feeling I'll be recommending this one for a long time.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Had the pleasure of reading this early! Rebecca Chace wrote the exact book I dream of writing.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Won this from Goodreads. I read the first few chapters and the writing style didn't pull me in. Too many unimportant details, rambling, disjointed writing style, and weak character development.

[Alana · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF’ing at 91 pages. I’ve just been so bored every time I’ve picked up this book over the past few weeks. It’s helped me fall asleep at night, but I’m moving on.

[Chelsea Hufford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not vibe with the story and wasn't a big fan of the writing style.

[MyReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talking to the Wolf by Rebecca Chace is a journey worth taking. I felt lucky to spend the day with Val, Lauren, Sasha and the ghost of Cora as they each weathered the snow storm in the city.

Even days after reading I found myself reflecting back to their lives and their stories or remembering a scene and thinking “That was so on par with Val.”


Overall this is a beautiful tale about friendship, grief and growth. These are characters that will stay with me for a long time and I know will find myself going back to them.

[HER Books · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

I completely understand that I am really not the target audience for this book. However, that usually isn't such a massive hurdle for me.

This was an incredible in-depth exploration of the minds of four people. These characters were so incredibly three dimensional and that was the most impressive and enjoyable part of this novel.

However, I found the pacing frustrating. Not the overall story but the in-chapter pacing. I found myself really pulled out of the story because I was so unclear on what was physically happening in between the self-reflection, reminiscing, and metaphors.

I also just found the overall exploration of four unique individual women quite terrifying. I hope I don't become so pessimistic and angry in my future despite the challenges of life.

Perhaps this is the perfect book for many someones, I am just not one of them.

[Stephanie Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. I wasn’t sure I’d stick with this at first, but I’m glad I did. Love and loss and music and female friendship through life’s ups and downs over decades.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review