The Wehrwolf

by Alma Katsu

Alma Katsu, the visionary author of The Fervor, The Hunger, and The Deep, brings readers a terrifying short story about monsters among men—and the thin lines that divide them.

Germany, 1945. In the waning days of World War II, the Nazis have been all but defeated. Uwe Fuchs, never a fighter, feels fortunate to have avoided the front lines as he cared for his widowed mother.

But Uwe’s fortune changes when Hans Sauer, the village bully, recruits him to join a guerilla resistance unit preparing for the arrival of Allied soldiers. At first, Uwe is wary. The war is lost, and rumor has it that Hans is a deserter. But Hans entices him with talk of power, brutality, and their village’s ancestral lore: werewolves.

With some reluctance, Uwe joins up with the pack and soon witnesses their startling transformation. But when the men’s violent rampage against enemy soldiers takes a devastatingly personal turn, Uwe must grapple not only with his role in their evil acts but with his own humanity. Can he reclaim what this group of predatory men has stolen from him?

Or has he been a monster all along?

Genres: Horror, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Werewolves, Audiobook, Fantasy

79 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2022

About the author

"Hard to put down. Not recommended reading after dark." -- Stephen King

"Makes the supernatural seem possible" -- Publishers Weekly

Award-winning author of eight novels, including historical horror (The Hunger, The Deep, The Fervor) and spy novels (Red Widow, Red London). Coming September 2025: FIEND (Putnam)

Reviews

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyday people, becoming monstrous people, become literal monsters.

[Luvtoread (Trying to catch up) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The year is 1945 in a very small village in Germany where mostly farmers and old people are living right now since all the men of age are out fighting in the war. Uwe Fuchs has been a hard working farmer all his life raised by his widowed mother and now has a wife and child whom he adores. When a dead body of an ally soldier is discovered by Uwe while he was collecting wood in the forest one of his neighbors, Hans Sauer decides the men need to create a guerrilla group to fight off any ally soldiers who want to take over their village. Poor Uwe is a simple man but has always felt intimidated by Hans since he was never a brute or strong like most of the men although he could hold his own if need be. Hans has always been more of a bully and has been putting pressure on all the men to do their duty and join the group but Uwe's wife is completely against it. There is also an old folk legend about the forest and werewolves that none really believed except as children while growing up but Uwe will soon find out that sometimes behind legends there is always a bit of truth and his neighbor Hans has been keeping many secrets and by the time Uwe realizes he has made some grave mistakes it may be too late to save himself.

I just love Alma Katsu! The historical writing intertwined with the supernatural is always engaging and enjoyable to read. The characters and the atmosphere of her writing are spot on and never overdone in all of the books that I've read so far. Uwe was such a terrific character and I could understand his dilemma and his questioning his own manhood. This was a short story which was long enough to leave no stone unturned because of the quality of great storytelling. This book was cleverly written and would make an interesting and creepy movie in the future. I highly recommend to all horror readers although not too scary yet still carried tremendous depth within the pages.

I want to thank the publisher "Amazon Original Stories" and Net galley for the opportunity to read this short story by Alma Katsu and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 HOWLING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

[Debra - can't post any comments on site today grrr · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And otherwise normal men become monsters, too." - Patrick Ness


Germany, 1945

Uwe Fuchs, a famer, has avoided the front lines and instead stayed home to care for his mother. He is a husband and father doing the best he can to provide for his family. When news arrives that the Allied Soldiers will be arriving, he and others in his village are concerned.

Hans Sauer, a bully and deserter, recruits Uwe and other men to form an allegiance to fight the Allied Soldiers. Wary at first, Uwe agrees to join Hans and becomes a werewolf. What could possibly go wrong???

This book is about monsters and who is a monster. How seemingly good men can be transformed by greed, a thirst for power and strength.

I believe this book can be read in two ways. A.) To simply read it and enjoy it as I choose to do, or B.) look at the political slant of the book where the Author is making a statement about how power corrupts and changes people. Her Author's note talks about Nazi Germany and the events which occurred on January 6, 2021, in the United States.

I enjoyed how this book showed how power can corrupt, how bad choices/judgement calls can have horrible consequences. This was a unique slant on werewolves, history, and choices.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator.

**Alma Katsu's short story is available for free now on Amazon if you have Amazon Prime.

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to Amazon, Alma Katsu and Netgalley.
I adore Ms. Katsu so thought I'd give this story a chance. Big mistake.
It wasn't the writing, it was the subject matter. Nazi's, Germans and werewolves. Not a fan of the time period or subject.
Katsu of course rocks! She's one of my favorite authors. Just, sometimes subject matter...?

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read this last night and I loved it! It's available on Kindle Unlimited and less than $2 gets you into the Audible edition. In classic Alma Katsu tradition this is historical, horror fiction richly detailed and grounded to its place in time. In this case, World War II.
In just a short amount of time, Alma establishes an immersive setting, transporting readers to war torn Germany. Our protagonist, Uwe, escaped the battlefield caring for his mother but the battle comes right to his door.
Uwe finds himself recruited by rogue extremists who will not go down without a fight. More beasts than men.
Alma Katsu tells the absolute perfect human monster story...
...a cautionary tale playing on the timeless theme of the proverbial saying absolute power corrupts absolutely.
As a person's power increases, their moral sense diminishes. The depravity of man.

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 5 out of 5]

And the main lesson history has to teach us is that it’s easy to slip the skin of humanity and become a monster.

This was absolutely brilliant. So powerful. The layers of metaphor woven into this story were beautifully done and I felt completely transported during this short little piece. This was my first time reading Alma Katsu's work, but it absolutely won't be the last; in fact, it made me immediately want to read more of her books.

What a horrifying reminder of how easily, and how painfully frequently humans become monsters.

✨ Content warnings for: Nazi rhetoric, racism, war, violence, murder, child death (vague), grief

———
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[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Believe it or not, this is not the only tale out there about werewolves during WWII. This, however, is a completely different type of story from The Wolf's Hour, by Robert McCammon. In that tale, the werewolf is actually a spy. In this case, the main character joins a group to protect his village against the invading allies.

The story itself was good and draws parallels between actions that happened in Germany during that time, as compared to what is happening in the U.S. right now. If we do not learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it.

I did not care much for this narrator, though I cannot pinpoint exactly why.

Overall, this is a decent tale, it just didn't knock my socks off. 3.5/5 stars.

Read 10.17.322-10.18.22. Removing reading dates so as not to include this in my yearly reading challenge.

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4★
“Germany, 1945
It started with a splash of crimson blood on snow.”

This short story is something like one of the grim stories from the original Grimm's Fairy Tales, on which many readers were raised. The Brothers Grimm grew up in the area where this takes place, near the Reinhardswald, a wooded area that is now a nature park.

In 1945, Uwe Fuchs is pulling his sledge into these dark woods to collect firewood. There are almost no animals left either on farms or in the woods, all hunted to feed the starving villagers.

But there are wolves, and Uwe found not only a splash of blood, but the mangled body of what was probably an itinerant Romani (gypsy). He is sure this was the work of wolves, not the feared American or Russian soldiers who are said to be on their way.

“The one story from the Reinhardswald that no one disputed was the tale of the ‘Werwolf.’ The only matter open to argument was whether the Reinhardswald had been home to the first tale set in Germany, because there were many stories of werewolves throughout the country.”

At night, Uwe reads to his little girl, whose favourite fairy tale is one we know as Little Red Riding Hood. She loves the wolf! He, on the other hand, has seen the bloody body and is nervous.

Gathering firewood, he is on high alert, listening.

“Uwe snorted at his foolishness. He was a grown man with no time for fairy stories. Yet it had been fairy tales that led Germany into war, the Nazis wanting everyone to believe Aryans were descended from mythic god-men and that they could regain godlike powers if their blood were pure enough.”

Suddenly, Uwe is aware of an enormous silver wolf, watching him. It is a giant. But it turns and walks away.

The men of the village meet, and Uwe, who has always felt like an outsider, finds he belongs to the group, and his life changes forever. It is horrifying and unreal, yet it is all too real.

I thought it read as if it had been translated from another language, but it hasn’t. In fact, I now think that the style may have helped give it a fable-like quality, a Grimm’s fairy tale for today.

The author adds a note about her background, which I feel sure is not a spoiler, but just in case, I’ll hide it.

“As an intelligence analyst in the 1990s, I worked on genocides and mass atrocities. One thing I learned from that experience was that no one involved in this kind of violence believed they were wrong. They always felt justified—until, like Uwe in this story, they were forced to confront the consequences of their actions.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this most original story.

[John (JC) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short novella with much to say, power held and power lost. A simple man given a horrible addictive gift, not truly grasping the concept of what has been bestowed upon him. Decisions that he would not normally face comes into play. What to sacrifice, what to keep, what is important, what is not. Taking place in 1945 Germany, and its history, adds a new twist that captivates the reader. It is an enjoyable read. I feel other GR readers will find this a worthy read.

[Bon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently this was inspired by January 6th events in the U.S., and I can appreciate the messaging, otherwise average citizens caught up in something bigger than themselves due to political fervor or their own feelings of inadequacy or peer pressure.

As a werewolf fan I was not delighted to see them used as a white supremacist cishet alpha male power tool but I begrudgingly acknowledge the apt pack/mob violence metaphor.

This was alright for a short read/listen, the narrator on my Audible edition was pretty good. Incredibly predictable though. That's the extent here for me, and it's not the first time. Katsu has really fascinating history meets horror ideas that have consistently underwhelmed me in the past...But I have hope for The One to come along.

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea behind this one and the message (how easy it is for well-meaning ordinary people to get swept-up into regrettable movements/ideas) it was trying to convey but I think it needed more space to be really effective and that a different setting might have helped it.

More of a 3.25 than an actual 3.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent short story that would've worked better as a full novel but did well enough as it was.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Wehrwolf, the latest historical horror story from Alma Katsu, is a dependable enough read, but not one that breaks any new ground. Inspired by the atrocities of World War II and America's recent brush with fascism under the Trump administration and his attempted overthrow of the US government, The Wehrwolf is explicit in its brief explorations of how easily it is for common men to become monsters.

In 1945, on the cusp of the Allied invasion into Germany, the farmers and their families in the small village of Scharweg are bracing themselves for the atrocities of war to hit home. Many of them live in denial of the Nazi's actions, or fear what the Allies might do to them simply for being German. Hans Sauer is forming a guerrilla army based on Himmler's plans for dealing with the enemies on German soil and his creation of an elite team of fighters called Werwolf. Lured into Hans private army is Uwe Fuchs, an otherwise gentle but naive soul desirous of power and wanting to keep his wife, daughter, and home safe.

Katsu does a terrific job incorporating Germanic myth and folklore surrounding werewolves into the narrative, giving this brief historical work a deeper and more ancient underpinning, one for which the Devil himself may be responsible. The first half of this slim narrative is devoted to character development and world building, and works well enough even as I spent the bulk of it wondering when and where the werewolves were at, especially given how short this work is. Horror hounds with an insatiable appetite for werewolf action may find themselves disappointed, as we simply do not get enough of the creature feature component to truly satisfy.

The Wehrwolf also lacks much in the way of originality, opting instead to trade in the obvious. The tropes employed are almost as old as the werewolf myth itself - Uwe naturally finds himself at odds with the alpha dog that is Hans, and is a weak man who finds himself emboldened by power only to pay the deepest consequences for his poor choices. The story itself isn't particularly surprising or inspiring, its few plot points broadcast loud and clear ahead of time, and decidedly carries the whiff of been there, done that for the bulk of its page count. Much of it, sadly, feels like a retread of other better stories in werewolf-centric pop culture.

What Katsu does well, however, is showcasing the power of the werewolf as an analog for the myth of Aryan superiority and the ways in which Hitler's forces sought occult practices to ensure their military might. Her explorations of this creature in Germanic myth is truly intriguing and consistently interesting, as is Uwe's realization that, once infected, he is essentially akin to a god even as it becomes clear just how pathetic and compromised he really is.

That all this ultimately boils down to a riff on absolute power corrupting absolutely and weak men paying for their bad choices is a foregone conclusion, and that's this short story's biggest problem. The narrative too often trades the possibilities for fresh twists and turns for the safety of the obvious and expected. Katsu's central message and her exploration on the themes of how easily men can become monsters are certainly important ones, particularly in this day and age, but it lacks any degree of freshness to make it interesting in either concept or execution. Sadly, I also suspect that for any readers, like those who slip on a red ballcap as easily as Hans or Uwe transform into a wolf, who genuinely need to take Katsu's warnings to heart, she's barking at the moon.

[Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set at the end of WWII, this is a short story with political undertones, about a group of German villagers who can transform into werewolves to allegedly protect their town from the advancing Allied army, but with more sinister intentions in mind.

[Steve Stred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, SHAME ON ME! That’s right. SHAME ON STEVE! Chant it – go ahead. I deserve it.

Why? Well, first – you should know my love of werewolf fiction by now. Second – Alma Katsu is not only a phenomenal writer, but also one of the kindest people in the dark fiction community. Not that she’s lost sleep over me not having already read this and reviewed it, but she deserves better from me and I’m happy to say I’ve rectified that by devouring this tasty piece of fur and fanged fiction.

So, as for the novella, back in 1944 the Nazi’s developed a program called Werwolf in which they were attempting to create a force of soldiers that would operate behind enemy lines. This idea was created in the hopes of infiltration and ambushing an unsuspecting group of soldiers.

Katsu takes that idea and marries it with the Brother’s Grimm lore to give us a rollicking fun story.

What I liked: The story follows feeble farmer Uwe, who lives in the deep forests of Germany, far away from the front lines. His wife and daughter are his everything, and up until now, the war has stayed away from them. The village does it’s best to remain away from the war itself and to not choose sides, knowing that whether the Nazi’s win or the Allied forces are victorious, they’ll need to adapt in order to survive post war.

Katsu ramps things up early on, when a body is found, ripped apart, not far from Uwe’s farmhouse. From there, he is pressured to join a militia group, led by bully Hans, to patrol their village at night and keep threats away. What Uwe doesn’t know, is that the group has the ability to transform into the fabled beasts and will do whatever it takes to keep their homes safe.

We get a really solid look at the inner workings of a conflicted man. One who has never been included, never been strong enough to stand up for himself and never developed friendships. Now, that he has joined Hans and his crew, he gets all of that and more, but at what cost? It’s a great metaphor for the real-life political turmoil we often see daily in the news in the US, but up here in Canada, it also rings home with what we saw with the Anti-Vax movement and the ridiculous Freedom Convey. It demonstrates just how quickly someone can change given a little bit of self esteem and comradery and shows the all-too-real threat of peer pressure.

The ending is a blistering climax of decisiveness and horror. We see Uwe seek revenge over a horrific turn of events and how he seeks out others to aide him with what needs to be done.

What I didn’t like: Straight up – if you hate overtly political based fiction, you may want to skip this one, especially if you are a raging fan of the former orange douchebag that somehow was elected. This one’s probably not for you. You can gloss over the political aspect and simply read it as a werewolf story, but that’ll be hard to do and you’ll not want to read the afterword.

I thought the political angle worked really well for this piece, but as always with my reviews, I try to state what someone diving into this may not enjoy.

Why you should buy this: Well, as I said in my hilariously ridiculous intro – if you like werewolf fiction, buy it. If you like Alma’s work, buy it. If you want a piece of dark fiction that’ll have you ripping through it in a single sitting, buy it. It was a blast and definitely one that’ll make you think and question what you would do in that situation.

[Gareth Is Haunted · Rating 3 out of 5]

'A simple thing can turn you into a monster.'

A short story about werewolves, our battles with ourselve and our morals.
As a whole not a bad short story but nothing spectacular either.

[(Grace) Kentucky Bohemian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Story Ruined by Author's Note
This short story is definitely interesting and thought-provoking (not sure how often you can write that about a shifter tale...). The setting, the characters, and the storyline all held my attention well. In fact, I really enjoyed this tale until it ended, and the author declared what the reader should have learned from the book.

The problem isn't disagreement with the author's opinion. It's the fact that the author felt compelled to tell the readers how we should see this warning tale. Thank you, but I'm quite capable of making my own decisions, especially when it comes to politics and social justice. Having the creativity to write a good story, sing a good song, or act well in a blockbuster movie does not give one the authority to tell others how to view the world.

I keep my reading to entertainment value unless I choose a book specifically for enlightment. But to each reader his/her own. I've learned my lesson and will not choose this author's works again.

[Barbara Behring · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a good short story but nothing spectacular or original. I typically don't like werewolf stories but I thought I would try a short story and now I am going to read more about Werewolves.

[B.D. Carlzer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can We Stop Pretending Katsu Is a Good Writer?

When I read Katsu I feel like I’m the only one in the room not in on a funny joke. She has excellent ideas but no ability whatsoever to execute them. She might be the most amateur professional writer I’ve read, and “Wehrwolf” is the worst offender yet.

I commented to a friend as I neared the end of the story that it would have been three or four times as long in a capable author’s hands. Katsu spends no time on character development, pays little attention to the setting, and cuts straight to the action every chance she gets. “Wehrwolf” is the literary equivalent of a contemporary top-40 pop song—it’s catchy, but there’s no depth or soul to it at all, and you’ll see what’s coming next from a mile away.

Though I also didn’t like Katsu’s novel about the Donner Party, I can at least respect the care and attention she paid to its historical detail. “Wehrwolf,” on the other hand, is historically illiterate. Though it’s never specified where the fictional village of Scharweg is, its inhabitants encounter both Russian and American soldiers in winter 1945, which makes zero sense since they didn’t link up until April of that year. Similarly, one character is supposed to have deserted the Army after fighting near Munich, which didn’t occur until the very final phase of the war.

Readers who know anything about Nazi Germany will also be left wondering how the protagonist, Uwe, avoided conscription. Katsu’s explanation (his mother was sick and required care) is nonsensical. By 1945, the regime was sending every male aged 16-60 to the front. If Uwe and the other men in Scharweg were found by German soldiers or the Gestapo at the time this story is supposed to have taken place, they would have been impressed into service or shot on the spot.

I’m not even going to comment on the lunacy of Katsu’s thinly-veiled comparison of the Nazi regime to recent American political events.

To recap:
-Katsu’s writing is poor.
-The story is predictable and bland.
-She didn’t even do enough research to get basic historical details correct.
-The story is a transparent vehicle for ridiculous political comparisons.

I don’t like to harp on Katsu, because I really do enjoy her penchant for adding a horror twist to historical fiction, but this will be my last foray into her work. It just… isn’t any good.

[Suhailah · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Available for free Prime Reading October 2022**

Though this was only supposed to be a short historical horror story, it was so much more than I expected! It was overflowing with philosophical tones, morals, choices/consequences, and power/corruption. Storytelling at its finest. This was a very interesting take using the supernatural vs history theme in the setting of 1940s Germany. I’ve always been fascinated by the creativity authors use in shaping normal history by throwing in supernatural twists ever since reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It’s super exciting, and when well crafted can actually be almost quite believable!

This was my first time reading any of Alma Katsu’s work, and I’m hooked. Can’t wait to explore her other work.

I listened to this on audio - the audio version was very entertaining and very well done!

NOTEWORTHY QUOTES:

"A nation that put children in harm’s way while its leaders cowered in bunkers had already lost; it just wouldn’t admit it."

"The wolf is no animal, but a type of man."

"After all, who was to say conventional wisdom was correct? The Devil made Uwe feel strong and powerful and accepted by his fellow man, and there was a goodness there. When had God ever made Uwe feel good? To the contrary, his every encounter with the pastor and the church made him feel guilty, unworthy, or unclean. The church always demanded more: You’re not tithing enough. You should do more for your mother. Whereas the Devil granted favors. Obviously, if the Devil could make your life easier than God could, then God just chose not to. Maybe the Devil was the good one. Maybe it was a fairer fight than church people would have you believe, a lie devised by God’s people to trick others into coming over to their side. Perhaps it had all been propaganda and they’d been worshipping the wrong one all along."

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

WEHRWOLF, a glowing work of historical fiction, hinges on the nearly century-old question: "What were ordinary German citizens doing/thinking during the Third Reich? Were they really unaware of the Holocaust? Did they concur?" Or as Edmund Burke orated, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” WEHRWOLF postulates one such "good man," who keeps to himself with his wife and young child on a farm near a Spooky forest. Near the end of World War II, he is presented with a bizarre dilemma, and his decision has unforeseen and tragic consequences. The reader will not leave this story lightly. I predict its questions and themes will surface at odd moments, demanding consideration.

[Cherye Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good fairytale until the end

I enjoyed this book until the very end.
If I wrote this book and at the end to sum up the story said " Then on November 5, 2019 Biden was elected President through fraudulent voting practices ", Amazon would not publish the book. I would be chastised because I was comparing Biden to the people in power of Germany during WWII.
But the author says what she did and she is praised? What does that say about free speech.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite the psychological horror tale. Who is the real monster? Man is, of course.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m the first person to rate and review this. Fresh off the presses, read all about it here.
I selected this one because it’s Katsu – the author who has impressed me so much with her story of cannibals once upon a time. Plus, it was short.
Katsu has done many different things during her writing career from outright garbagey romancey looking series to spy fiction to (my favorite) historical fiction based literary frights. This story is definitely of the latter variety, which is good. It’s the execution of it that left a lot to be desired. Surprisingly so.
Inspired by January 6th 2021 events, the story is set during the end of WWII. Because authoritarianism, jingoism, and lie-based ultranationalism translates well throughout time and offers plenty of examples.
This is the story told from the losing side of war, where one village decides to pick up the metaphorical pitchforks and fight the Allies in a very area-specific, local folklore-based fashion. Which the title explains quite plainly.
Primarily it is a story of one man who gets caught up in the fervor and madness of the moment and compromises his principles for false ideology.
Good idea, sure, and the historical fiction aspect is done nicely, but the writing itself is so oddly flat here. More than plain, it’s practically amateurish in its blandness. You’d never know this was the same author if the cover didn’t tell you so.
It’s still entertaining enough and, being so brief, it reads quickly, but it certainly isn’t author’s best. Still, fans of weres might have fun. Thanks Netgalley.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wild things were beautiful, maybe their wildness was their beauty. The knowledge that you could never possess them."

This little book shows how quickly man can become monster, and how devastating that transformation can be.

[Lukasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

For whatever bizarre reason, my love for horror rekindled in 2022. As if the world outside weren't monstrous enough.

Alma Katsu's The Wehrwolf is a dark novella that spins the traditional werewolf narrative while delivering genuine suspense and horror, all wrapped up in a thrilling, fast-paced piece. The ending feels rushed, but other than that, it's a brutal and engaging story.

[Dartanyan Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the most non-horror horror I have ever read...😒

[ᛚᚨᚱᚲᚨ × ᚠᛖᚾᚱᛁᚱ (Semi hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wolf is no animal, but a type of man. And this man is dangerous.

Germany, 1945.

Something is lurking in the forest, surrounding the village of Scharweg. Are they Allies? Are they wolves? Or is it something coming directly from Grimm’s fairy tales?

I’ve had my eye on Alma Katsu for years – thanks to her Finnish-sounding name (which it is actually Asian!), I’ve been gifted a book of hers… and unfortunately never got around reading it.

Over the years I saw her name popping out from time to time, even adding some to my tbr… and if all her books are like this one, her fame is well-earned.

There is so much to talk about this short book, I can’t believe it’s only 79 pages!

The story doesn’t suffer from it, it’s barely touched – it develops organically, slowly and steadily, and the conclusion doesn’t feel particularly rushed.

I loved how she manages to draw you back in time, in the legends and believes of a small town, but more broadly German culture. I was surprised she was not German herself, but she did work as an intelligence analyst in the 1990s, and worked on genocides and mass atrocities.

That must be one of the reasons the themes of this book are so on topic.

And here is another thing that I loved about this book – the ease with which she can fit subtopics into the bigger one, without having the story to suffer from it.

In the bigger scope of the nature of men and what we perceive as monsters, a big topic on itself, she touches sexual harassment perpetrate by men with the excuse “boys will be boys“, the national pride that easily stirred some wicked men, the desire of belonging and doing anything in one’s power not to give up on it, and even putting up for discussion the degree of actual evil the Devil can be, if he can grant something good that God actually is not, not willing to.

Tell me something she did NOT discuss!

And the great thing is – nothing is pushed down your throat. Her style is so fluent and smooth, she doesn’t have to force reflection into it: they just fit perfectly. I was shocked.

Speaking of shocked: the folklore in this book was actually delivered, and the athmosphere is beautifylly crafted around it. It seems like you are experiencing first hand the power of the Reinhardswald, a near sacred place for Germans, where Grimm’s fairy tales come to life… or are they only fairy tales?

Whatever it’s lurking in those woods, monsters are real. Which brings us to the main character.

Meet Uwe Fuchs: a simple man that would do anything for his family. When the occasion acctually arises he doesn’t shy away, but what did he agree to?

Maybe other characters are not so well developed like Uwe, serving only the purpose of the story. But for the good job done on him, and the brevity of the book, I think we can condone her.

The character of Uwe starts with being a pure good one, and during the arc of the story we can follow him as he changes some aspects of his character under our eyes, never breaking the coherence with what he once was. He had some tough decision to make during the story, and he was often naive, but you can always trace it back to the man he was.

That is not only the point of the story, but it also shows how men are just that: men. The atrocities committed by mankind are not coming from some depraved monster, if you don’t take into account the dark part that resides in each of us, the wolf. It’s dangerous to presume that there is a distinction between men and evil, not to let mistakes from the past happen again.

More at Inky Lighthouse.

**Thanks to NetGalley, Alma Katsu, and Amazon Original Stories for an ARC of this book.**

[Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Alma Katsu’s work, I love the way that she weaves horror into history (not that history isn’t filled with enough horrors as it is). A quick little under 100-pager as Halloween approached seemed like a fabulous idea.

The short story is a particular beast. The author doesn’t really have the time to tell a complete story filled with detailed and developed characters. The story must move quickly, the characters have to be straight forward or there isn’t much of a point. There is no time for dilly-dallying.

Personally, I love the short story that leads me down the garden path, only to have that shocking twist at the end; you know the ones where you have to kick yourself and wonder how you did not see that coming.

Katsu had a different purpose with The Wehrwolf. She had a point to make, a message for her readers. Katsu is drawing parallels between history and today, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Wehrwolf is more about the message than it is about the story; and in this Katsu did a great job.

*I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via NetGalley).

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

The small German village of Scharweg is terrified by the advancing Allied troops; though most no longer believe the Nazi messages of martial superiority, the villagers are convinced the enemy troops will hurt and kill them.

One of the villagers, a known bully and possible deserter, whips several young men up, convincing them to form a militia to defend the village. One of these men, mild-mannered farmer Uwe Fuchs, is reluctant, but eventually succumbs, and is transformed, during a ritual, into a powerful, deadly being.

Is dealing with one possible threat ever enough for a bully? And why do good people, or apparently good people, willingly look away when terrible things happen around them? These are questions author Alma Katsu asks in this short story. Genocides require the complicity of the aggressor’s people. Exhortations and justifications built on myths, legends, nostalgia and national pride, allow many to look away from, and support, brutality and atrocity. Alma Katsu shows us just how easily Uwe is swayed, and willingly participates until the personal cost is too high. But that even a seemingly good man is taken in by the idea of strength, and being a member of a group of strong men, is enough to throw out his scruples. It’s a sad conclusion, and an entertaining short.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Amazon Original Stories for this ARC in exchange for my review.