The Wolf Road

by Richard Lambert

A tale of loss that is also a gripping thriller, a realistic study of grief that skirts the margins of fantasy, it walks wolf-like between worlds and genres. Richard Lambert writes with a poet's eye; he has created something magical here. The storytelling is as bold, sinewy, and uncompromising as the beast that shadows Lucas in the mountains above his home. This is a wonderful read and the advent of an exciting new voice in children's fiction.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Audiobook, Middle Grade, Contemporary

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This is Richard^^Lambert

Richard Lambert was born in London. He has had many different jobs including teaching medieval history and working for the NHS. He currently lives in Norfolk where, when he isn't working, he writes stories and poems. His poetry has featured in the Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator, and The Forward Prize Anthology.

Shadow Town is Richard Lambert's first novel for children and follows his debut YA novel, The Wolf Road.

Reviews

[Nicky Neko]

I wolfed this down! Absolutely brilliant book about Lucas, and his struggle to readjust to life in the Lake District with his Nan after he loses his parents in a car crash (which he survives). And what about the rumours of a wolf killing sheep on the fell? I found this an utter delight to read, with a really great quirky offbeat humour about it. It deals with a dark subject matter, bereavement, and handles it deftly. It reminded me a lot of Patrick Ness's brilliant novel A Monster Calls, but with its own unique spin.

Would definitely recommend this book – perfect to curl up and read now the nights are drawing in...

[Kirsten Hamilton]

I really enjoyed reading this. It’s so difficult to explain grief, or to understand your own feelings as a teenager about it, and even when you’re an adult. You never truly understand it until you lose someone and realise the world carries on. A stunning book delving deep into a difficult subject. Reading The Wolf Road really resonated with me. Latching onto something mythological and giving it the embodiment of all your fears and pains and grief like Luke does in this book is a perfect way of portraying the feeling of grief and death. Written with a poetic flare, and a sense of adventure into the unknown, this was a wonderful read.

[Ljwatts]

Stunning! Powerful and raw exploration of a boy's grief after his parents are killed in a car crash and he has to live with his prickly grandmother in the wilds of the Lake District. Lucas is convinced a wolf caused the car crash by stepping into the path of his parents' car. Once he is in his grandmother's cottage he believes the wolf is shadowing him as well as killing the neighbouring farmer's sheep. Lucas cannot concentrate at school and is too angry to respond to those people who try to help him or form a relationship with him. Nothing in this book is cosy or easily resolved. Just like the short, vivid depictions of the natural world that surrounds Lucas, everything is raw and messy and wild. It also has one of the best descriptions of bullies and bullying in teenage literature.

[MrsB]

I appreciated the grief of adult vs child, particularly from the child’s perspective. I also appreciated that grief was shown as ongoing anger (and fear). I felt that the beginning and end were strong, but the middle felt a bit meandering when it took on not only PTSD, a large move, bullying, and isolation from others. I’m not saying this wouldn’t happen in real life, just that the short book didn’t have enough time to set them up. The wolf metaphor was interesting, but felt like the weakest part (from my purely personal opinion). Overall, it was an ok book.

[Lucy Coates]

3.5 - Loved the premise, but felt like a few characters could have been fleshed out a bit more and the book could have been longer for it. Did a good job of demonstrating the different shades of grief felt by each character, but a lot was left unexplained (Eve being so cold and unwelcoming to Lucas, the brutality of the bullies etc.)

[Stephen]

A very decent young adult tale with a touch of magical realism from an author I have come to enjoy. This is the tale of a lad who is orphaned in a car crash in Somerset, caused by a wolf on the road. So then he is taken to live with his grandmother in Cumbria. His grandmother is an interesting character. Maternally flawed, reserved, estranged from her deceased daughter. But it is the only family Lucas now has. Add to that Lucas' struggles with grief and the wolf who has followed him and is now killing Cumbrian sheep, and some good characterisations of people in his school, and there is plenty to keep the reader reading.

There is also the adept prose of the author, which makes this a good read. The wolf is a natural phenomenon, not magic, but the way he intertwines the narrative, pulling it together and acting as a metaphor too, make this a clever work, without being pretentious.

[Lucas]

Poetic, dark story about a boy who loses his parents, great read.
Full review here: https://bit.ly/3d6c1ye

[Miriam Morgans]

🛣🐺 ▓▒­░⡷⠂ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʟꜰ ʀᴏᴀᴅ⠐⢾░▒▓ 🐺 🛣
By Richard Lambert

I listened to the audio version of this Young Adult book.

This is a brilliant story. it's a tale of loss that also has a touch of thriller, a realistic study of grief that skirts the margins of fantasy, it walks wolf-like between worlds and genres.
The author Richard Lamberts writing is poetic; he has created something with a magical element.

We follow fifteen year old Lucas and his struggle to readjust to life in the Lake District with his Nan after he survives a horrific car crash that takes his parents' lives. The silhouette of a wolf stands over the wreckage.

The storytelling is as bold and uncompromising as the beast that shadows Lucas in the mountains above his home.
Lucas becomes obsessed with the idea of the wolf as it follows him around with the dark feeling of oppressive grief. So when he hears about the sheep killings on the fell, he has to investigate.
It deals with a dark subject matter of bereavement, and It reminded me a lot of Patrick Ness's brilliant novel,'A Monster Calls', but with its own unique spin.

It's a perfect book to curl up with now that the nights are drawing in...

🖤 Bereavement and Loss
❤️‍🩹 Coping with trauma and change
🐺 Realism and Fantasy
😢 Emotional trauma
✍️ Poetic storytelling

It's ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me! 🤓

[Anne]

Luke and his parents are in a car crash when they swerve to avoid a wolf. His parents die and he goes to live with Nan in the Lakes. He has only seen her twice. New school, new bullies, a counsellor, and a wolf on the fells attacking the sheep. First Luke wants the wolf gone, then he wants (and does) protect it (so that there is no more death), and sees image of his parents as the wolf escapes the shooters.
Disappointed in this book. I found parts of the dialogue very stilted and there were needless, sometimes incomprehensible similes throughout (« cloud the colour of slate. Slate the colour of cloud. » « Manchester. A cold as deep as England. » ).
Short sentences used to ramp up the pace and the drama worked better towards the end of the book.
The aftermath of the crash seemed rushed and nothing was done to explain why Nan was so unwelcoming nor how Luke would have coped with that. He seemed to be expected to get on with school and living in a new place without his parents. The scenes of bullying by the gang are horrendous and well-drawn, but how were they not stopped? Even after the police got involved.
The story of the wolf was too muddled for me. The endless walking across the fells in the dark tedious. And, really, the wolf got away?!

[Debra]

Lucas is sent to live with his Nan after his parents are killed in a car crash in which Lucas survived. He moves from Somerset to the Lake District in Year 11, finds it difficult to settle in school and doesn't;t really know how to relate to his distant Nan, who his mum had not got on with. The parallel story is that of the wolf that Lucas first saw just before his parents' car crashed. A wolf now appears in the Lake District and starts to prey on sheep. The wolf is both real and metaphorical which is a curious aspect of the book. The descriptions of bullying are raw and realistic, the depiction of a silent teenager resonates and I did appreciate that by leaving so many threads unanswered, the book is telling us that grief is raw and we often have no answers to why something happened with such horrific consequences. However, I wish there had been a glimpse of hope for Lucas at the end. I also felt the book got a bit bogged down in the middle and I also hope our schools and external counsellors are better at supporting young people like Lucas.

[Lesley]

4⭐️ 🎧

I had the audiobook read by Ross Dwyer. He does a good job.
I like the cover, it’s a bit different.

Young adult fiction about Lucas a 15 yr old who survived a car accident which killed his mom and dad. He has to move to the Lake District to live with his Nan who he doesn’t know.
It follows Lucas’s journey through bereavement, navigating his way through new relationships, bullying, partially coming of age story. It’s a tale of love,compassion acceptance and in a way forgiveness.
The common link between the accident and his new life is a wolf. Not totally realistic, but it doesn’t need to be to get the message across.
The writing is poetic, some wacky similes though.
Everything is not all neatly sewn up at the end which is good as it demonstrates that it’s on ongoing journey that becomes more manageable.
It’s an emotional story, which impacted on me more as I’m mourning a recent loss.

[Apoorva]

This is a story about grief that can turn into an obsession mixed with fear. There are some nice things about the book. The language is good and easy to read. I felt connected with the raw English landscape the author presents. The book also has parts where not so much happens. The characters all seem to reside in their minds than through words. It's not a bad thing but feels there is no reason for them to be like that given they are well intentioned. The wolf remains a shadow in the book to the very end. I did like the slow development of obsession and fear Luke develops. Reminded me of my childhood fears while curling in the bed at night or while crossing a dark corridor in a building. Overall the book may not appeal to all readers. But because of the subject but because of the story.

[Alison Palmer]

This book stays with you.

The Lake District is often seen as a place of freedom, a chance to be outdoors and away from the pressures of every day life. However for Lucas at the start of the book the opposite is true - it feels brooding and oppressive, as he settles into his new life and he finds it impossible to navigate school he decides that being out in the wilderness as far from people as possible is actually better. His story of loss is mixed up with the stories of sightings of a wolf on the mountainside. The story is heartbreaking and beautifully told and whilst I am still not sure if the wolf exists, it is central to the story and all that unfolds.

[grilled cheese]

I was not a big fan of this book at all. The writing was simply just not for me and as much as I’ve tried, I simply cannot understand the target audience for this book. There is so much turmoil and grief for this poor little boy and his Nan, not to mention all of the unnecessary tormenting he faces from school and the police (and also his Nan?). Also what actually was the deal with the wolf??!!! I still don’t really get it.

I think parts of this book addressed the grief of a parent really accurately which I appreciated, but overall I do not recommend.

[Joanna]

This was okay. Took me longer than usual to read but I think that was me hun and not the books fault.

It’s written in short snappy chapters which I did like tbh cos they were straight to the point and the story flowed, basically what happens is a lads parents get killed cos there was a wolf on the road and he goes to live with his nana in the arse end of nowhere and keeps thinking this wolf is watching him and at one point I was like is he just being abit para but then he meets the wolf and it’s actually kinda sweet how he looks after it and how they separate

[Saskia The Book Dragon]

Ummm, I appear to be in the minority for this one ... others have LOVED this book. For me, the premise is great (Lucas has lost his parents in a car crash and has to cope with the aftermath), but the execution is not good enough. The author is attempting tovuse the 'wolf' motif in both a physical and allegorical way, and I'm not convinced it actually works. It also reads like a very young
protagonist, but Lucas is mid-teens. Hmm.
Others might really enjoy it. #itisjustnotforme

⭐️⭐️

[Lorraine]

An absorbing story of Lucas and the grief he feels over the death of his parents in a car crash. Living with his Nan - who he hasn't really seen -in the Lake District, Luke channels his anger into finding a wolf that is killing sheep in the surrounding area.

[Candy]

A story about loss and grief and the different ways people deal with this. The book is full of a range of characters who you can empathise with and picture. It also has the mysterious wolf.
Age 13+

[Ella Storey]

Honestly, I chose this book at random. I was having one of those days when I was willing to read anything so I randomly chose a random and fate united me with this one. It was amazing! It did end on a bit of a cliffhanger, which was a bit annoying, but apart from that I can't fault it.

[Vincent Ripley]

Come and visit the early book review here: https://www.mrripleysenchantedbooks.c...

[Debbie Gascoyne]

This will likely be one of the, if not THE, best of this year. Quite extraordinary. Review to follow - will link from book-blog. Right now all I can say is "wow." And I'm still catching my breath.

[✿Juli✿]

Patrick ness vibes

[Shanna]

A journey through grief. (13-16)

[Corinne Bell]

Interesting story line Quite poignant in places

[Flo]

It was a bit different than what I'm used to but it still had a couple of nice moments in it.
The story was a bit confusing here and there but was something to listen to on the side.

[Sophie]

I also read this book at school. It was a good book and I would recommend it. I only rated this book a 3 because it's not something I would normally read, but it was still enjoyable.

[Kate Brokken]

Not enough development and depth to the book. Felt like an overwhelming about of incomplete ideas.

[Eva Shannon]

no thanks

[Freya S]

A beautiful story about grief

[Millie]

all of the characters in this book are annoying