The Pack

by Tom Pow

Bradley, Victor, and Floris live with wild dogs on the dark, forgotten edge of a devastated city. Haunted by memories and abandoned by society, they have learned to survive on their own. But when Floris is kidnapped the others must venture into the unknown to save their friend. It is a dangerous journey--violent gangs walk the streets, and corrupt warlords viciously guard their territories. But it is also a journey of discovery...

Genres: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Tom Pow is a Scottish poet, travel writer and teacher. He was born in Edinburgh in 1950. Several of his collections have won awards and three of his poetry collections have been short-listed for Scottish Book of the Year. Most recently, Dear Alice – Narratives of Madness (Salt Publishing) won the poetry category in the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust’s Scottish Book Awards in 2009. He has also written young adult novels, picture books, radio plays and a travel book about Peru. In the Becoming, Selected and New Poems was published by Polygon in June 2009.

He has held various writing posts, including that of Scottish/Canadian Writing Fellow, based at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and Virtual Writer in Residence (Scotland’s first) for the Scottish Library Association’s Scottish Writers Project. He was the first ever Writer in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival from 2001 to 2003.


From 2000 to 2009, he worked for the University of Glasgow in Dumfries, latterly as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Storytelling.

He is currently Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow University Dumfries and a part-time lecturer on Lancaster University’s distance learning Masters in Creative Writing.

Reviews

[Laura Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Ramos
The Pack
Tom Pow
218
~ This book is a memorable fable of a few children and dogs clawing their way through a distopian world. Bradley, named by the shop where he was found begging, is the leader of the Pack. The Pack has three children, recently returning to human form after living as dogs, and three dogs, one of whom is part wolf. Destitute and hungry, their only adult contact is an Old Woman who tells them tales of their mysterious, semi-forgotten pasts. When a warlord kidnaps one child, Bradley must follow. He leaves his Zone, dirty but safe, and ventures through the dangerous Forbidden Territories and Invisible City. The Pack survives capture, caged fights and difficult travel to reach the Land of Wolves, sadly familiar to them from a tale. Pow explains certain details of the Pack members’ history and leaves others cryptic; he does the same for the society’s crash. A humbly beautiful ending brings plot and genre full circle.

~ Themes: Friendship, Survival, Chaos, Empowerment, Growing up, Injustice, Isolation.
~ I thought this book was very interesting. It has very original content. I really reccommend it to all young readers who like dramatic literature. It´s captivating and you go through a lot of emotions while reading it. I just really enjoy it.

~ Antiseptic: scrupulously clean
Asylum: a place of refuge or protection
Indignation: anger aroused by something unjust
Twinge: to feel a sharp, sudden pain
Menace: a threat or danger

[Aaron Milton · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do you do when you lose one of your best friends. The book The Pack by Tom Pow is a thrilling and strange adventure book. I liked this book because of how unique the story was.

This book takes place in a dark town called the invisible city where there are areas divided into territories controlled by powerful people. In this book there are three main characters and they are mysterious and thrilling kids trying to survive with their dogs. I like how the dogs all have special names and the kids have such a good relationship with each other and their dogs. I like how the book was very mysterious and suspenseful and it would leave you trying to predict what would happen on the next page and also in the end, about how they would survive or if they might not. It's very intriguing and draws you in and makes you want to know more about them and what happens. The book is also very exciting because the characters run into a lot of situations where they are in danger and have to find a way to survive and save their friend. The book shows what life is like when the people don't have any rules and society is uncivilized and fighting for power or to survive.

Overall I believe this book was very fun to read and really drew the reader to read more. I would recommend you definitely read this book if you like danger, suspense, conflict resolution, and mysteriousness.

[P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bradley, Victor, and Floris share a basement hideout with Hunger, Fearless, and Shelter. They have combined themselves into a pack to eke out a survival after the Dead Time. The inhabitants of the Invisible City have returned to a lifestyle similar to the previous civilization but, for those outside the city, life is a struggle. When Bradley helps the Old Woman bilk the Weasel out of some food, the Weasel plots revenge which leads to his kidnapping Floris and sending her to a workhouse in the city. This kidnapping sends Victor reverting to his dog persona while Bradley and Hunger try to track both lost members of their pack. When they are captured by Red Dog's boy soldiers, Bradley wonders if that will be the end. But Skreetch, a.k.a. Martha, switches sides and helps them escape. Martha's previous residence in the workhouse enables her to formulate a plan to rescue Floris. Then it's an all-out race to reach some sort of haven in the north. I liked this book and wondered how these kids could keep going through all the trials they faced. It was another of those dystopian books that I really enjoy. The ending seemed a bit abrupt and would like to know more about the Old Woman. Overall it was a good read.

[Paul Guthrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd one. A classic post-apocalyctic story on the one hand, but so much is unexplained, I fear it might confuse young readers. Ambiguity can be great, but this book has it in spades.

My young reader enjoyed the book, but, although she is a strong reader, was confused by some of the pacing, flashbacks, flashforwards and dreams.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just plain didn't like this one. I thought it read like a first draft, so many sentences seem disjointed and incorrectly constructed. And there is rapid overuse of the word "for" at the beginning of sentences. "For of course no Zone could contain his appetite for space.", "For when the trucks run out," etc. It's as though the author wants them to have some dramatic impact, but the overuse prevents this from happening.

Maybe rapid is the wrong word, but it's one of those things that you start to notice and then every time it happens again you cringe.

It's one of those stories that doesn't really explain itself. Something has happened to the world, there are Zones and Invisible Cities and people shunned by society; but no real reason as to why. There is very little world building but things are obviously immensely different.

The characters don't seem to go by their real names and, again, there's no real explanation as to why (except for Skreech, who is feigning life as a boy), but everyone else seems to get this big end of chapter moment when they reveal their name. Again, it's never explained why people are like this. Why do they hide their names or give themselves other names? Why is that such a big deal?

Another unexplained plot-line is that Bradley can talk to his dog, and I'm still yet to figure out if this is just Bradley thinking his dog is replying or if they do have some sort of telepathy going on, it's not really explained. Or if it is, I missed it. There's a lot of boring and lengthy discussion between characters that just seem to stop the narrative in its tracks.

The novel is interspersed with chapters of random flashbacks that immediately stop the action of the narrative. Our protagonist, Bradley, and his dog have been captured by this street gang of dog fighting kids led by a maniac, and we break away for pages and pages about Bradley's life with his family before whatever happened to the world happened. They are explained as Bradley's dreams, but a character experiencing a dream does not take up an entire chapter. Ditto for storytelling. As in characters in the narrative sitting down to listen to an Old Woman tell them stories. They don't do this once, they do it often. Again, it slows the story to a crawl.

It also relies on one of my least favourite narrative tropes, where the weak girl in the gang is the one who gets kidnapped and the boy has to save her. I get annoyed reading on and on about Bradley's adventure to find and save his friend, Floris, but I would rather be reading Floris saving herself. Maybe that's just me!

Avoid this one, took me forever to finish it. Very disappointing, I expected a lot more from the author with his credentials.

[Ryne Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you had a friend who had been kidnapped would you try and save them.The adventure book called the pack by Tom Pow to me i thought it was a good book.

The setting of the book is the invisible city during the Dead time where the city is divided into forbidden territories where gangs and warlords guard and zones. The conflict would be person vs.person. In the pack three kids Bradley,Floris,and Victor live with wild dogs watched by the old woman.One day Floris gets kidnapped, so the others go to try and save her.on their journey their lives get endangered more than once by gangs and warlords who guard thier territories viciously,but they discover alot of things on their journey to save her.

I thought the book was good at some points i didnt know what would happen and i wondered how they would survive. I liked the suspense it caused when they had trouble with the gangs and warlords. The book can make you wonder how they'll survive at tough situations with gangs.

Another this book did was show what a city with no laws or order would be like, it showed how a poor city would be like and how kids like Bradley,Floris,and Victor would survive, it could make you wonder what you would do in a city like this or what you would do in situations the characters had to face.

In conclusion overall i thought this book suspenseful and good out of 10 i would give it a 7 out of 10.Anyone who likes adventures or stories about survival and saving a friend is who i would reccomend this book to. So think about what you would do if you were in situations like this.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked The Pack, though it was confusing at times.
It's about 3 kids (Bradely, Floris, and Victor) living with 3 dogs and an old woman (appropriately named "the Old Woman") in a run-down "zone" of a giant city. They survive by begging and having the Old Woman play tricks on passing patrolmen. But one day, she tricks the wrong person and he tracks them down in their abandoned basemnent home. He kidnaps Floris and takes her to a "forbidden territory", the places between the zones that are run by all-powerful gang leaders. Bradley, Victor, and one of the dogs go after her, but when they get to the "headquarters", Floris is gone. The leader, Red Dog, keeps them prisoners and uses their dog as his new dog fight champion. But soon, they get the chance to escape with the help of one of Red Dog's boy soldiers, Skreech. They all head to The Mountain, a giant factory where children are forced to work, where Floris was sent. They find her and get her out easily, and they head north to live in the forest. On the way they have some trouble with Red Dog and briefly with some "Wolf People", which I found a bit weird and confusing. Also confusing was the timeline of the story and the flashbacks the characters have throughout the story. I loved the characters, though, and their strange relationships with each other. Overall, it was a good book.

[P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bradley, Victor, and Floris share a basement hideout with Hunger, Fearless, and Shelter. They have combined themselves into a pack to eke out a survival after the Dead Time. The inhabitants of the Invisible City have returned to a lifestyle similar to the previous civilization but, for those outisde the city, life is a struggle. When Bradley helps the Old Woman bilk the Weasel out of some food, the Weasel plots revenge which leads to his kidnapping Floris and sending her to a workhouse in the city. This kidnapping sends Victor reverting to his dog persona while Bradley and Hunger try to track both lost members of their pack. When they are captured by Red Dog's boy soldiers, Bradley wonders if that will be the end. But Skreetch, a.k.a. Martha, switches sides and helps them escape. Martha's previous residence in the workhouse enables her to formulate a plan to rescue Floris. Then it's an all-out race to reach some sort of haven in the north. I liked this book and wondered how these kids could keep going through all the trials they faced. It was another of those dystopian books that I really enjoy. The ending seemed a bit abrupt and would like to know more about the Old Woman. Overall it was a good read.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing style and the atmosphere drew me in. Suspenseful - I found it hard to put down.

From School Library Journal:
Grade 6-9–In a dystopian future where children are expendable and society is in chaos, Bradley, Victor, Floris, and their canine companions fight for survival. The children are kept from becoming feral by the stories of the Old Woman who watches out for them, stories of a time where humanity wasnt in ruins. One night, Floris is kidnapped and taken to the Invisible City, from which no child ever returns. Bradley, his dog, and Victor set out through the Forbidden Territories, which are ruled by vicious warlords, to rescue the girl. The world depicted in this novel, with its cinematic pacing and well-drawn characters, is brutal. The violence is not overly graphic, but there are several dogfight scenes that might be disturbing to sensitive readers. A thrilling adventure reminiscent of Rodman Philbricks The Last Book in the Universe

[Erin Sterling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bleak book for teens, The Pack is set in a post-apocalyptic future and about 3 kids living with wild dogs on the edge of a devastated city, supported by an Old Woman who first taught them how to survive. When one of the kids, Floris, gets kidnapped, the kids venture into the "Forbidden Territories" to save her, which is a place overrun by criminal masterminds and gangs. The question looming in the back of my mind the whole time was whether there was any redemption or any place to flee to which was better than where they were. The ending is somewhat satisfying, but there's much that I wish had been explained.

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a promising start and one of my favorite themes -- survival in a harsh, post-apocalyptic, burned-out cityscape -- but ultimately I felt it did not live up to my expectations. The fairy-tale tie-ins were a little too obvious and trite, especially at the end of the book. More often than not the language veered into the portentous. I liked the Skreech character though -- and the dogs were great. There's a fair amount of violence in the book and stark depictions of child abuse and abandonment, so if those things make you nervous this may not be the book for you.

[Brianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

THis book was ok...but it was very dragged out. It seemed a little monotonous and had a sort of repetitive voice to it. It had a good idea but got a little confusing. It should have had an introduction to set the setting so that the reader understood about all these diffrent time periods and zones, better yet would be a map. I think the author could have made the book shorter. It was very hard to get through. I would suggest this to young readers who like an adventure.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book I couldn't even understand half the time, was actually pretty decent. I couldn't really figure out which characters were actually dogs and which were humans. But this was a pretty good book, a good book for a rainy day.

[Dwayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post-apocalyptic world where a group of kids stick together in order to survive. The dog Hunger is my favorite character in the book. Is a dark book for young adults and a reasonably good read.

[Greta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another distopia. Yawn.

[7709kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a post-apocalyptic world, three kids and their dogs fend for themselves in a dangerous place. They have to outwit adults to survive.