Thursday 1 March 2018

Book Review - The Wolves of Winter

I just finished The Wolves of Winter by Canadian writer Tyrell Johnson.

Forget the old days. Forget summer. Forget warmth. Forget anything that doesn’t help you survive.

Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As memories of her old life haunt her, she has been forced to forge ahead in the snow-covered Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap to survive.

But her fragile existence is about to be shattered. Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who sets in motion a chain of events that will force Lynn to fulfill a destiny she never imagined.

I really enjoyed the book. It's not your normal 'end of the world' kind of story but one more of survival in the north. This is a family that fled the big city life of Chicago to live in a community in Alaska, then had to pack up whatever belongings they could carry and head to the Yukon in order to find a secluded place to live away from all mankind.

I hold back the reasons why, which is all part of the back story. Suffice to say that when they are discovered by the outside world, their lives become complicated.

Tyrell Johnson is a very descriptive writer and has an excellent way of setting the scene in the readers mind. The story is told in first person by Lynn, who I found to be torn by her need to be alone, and a hunger to venture to find out what is out there beyond their valley and to meet new people. People she is not related to.

I liked Tyrell's style of writing and would not hesitate to go out and read his next book.

About the author:

Tyrell Johnson is originally from Bellingham, Washington and studied at the University of California Riverside before he got married and moved to Kelowna, BC. He has two children "and can often be found on the mountain with my Siberian Husky" (there is a husky in the story)

I did have a chuckle in the Acknowledgements at the end of the book where he thanks his mother- and father-in-law for providing him a place to write. Then he thanks his wife Tessa, "for believing in me and for doing all the hard work while I sat in a horse barn and wrote stories."

The Wolves of Winter is his debut novel which I guess was written in a horse barn. Just goes to show you that when you have a good story to tell, neighing horses can't slow you down.

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