Series: Wolf by Wolf #1
Author: Ryan Graudin
Published November 5th 2015 by Orion Children's Books
Goodreads Synopsis
Over ten years since the Nazis won the war, 18 yr old Yael has one mission: to kill Hitler - a captivating second novel from Walled City author, Ryan Graudin.
Once upon a different time, there was a girl who lived in a kingdom of death. Wolves howled up her arm. A whole pack of them-made of tattoo ink and pain, memory and loss. It was the only thing about her that ever stayed the same.Her story begins on a train.
Germania, 1956. Over ten years since the Nazis won the war. 18-year-old Yael is part of the resistance, and she has just one mission: to kill Hitler.
But first she's got to get close enough to him to do it.
Experimented on during her time at Auschwitz, Yael has the unique ability to change her appearance at will. The only part of her which always remains are the five tattooed wolves on her arm; one for each of the people she's lost. Using her abilities, she must transform into Adele Wolfe, Germany's most famous female rider and winner of the legendary Axis Tour; an epic long distance motorcycle race from Berlin to Tokyo, where only the strongest (and wiliest) riders survive. If she can win this, she will be able to get close enough to kill the Fuhrer and change history forever.
But with other riders sabotaging her chances at every turn, Yael's mission won't be easy. . .
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
It's been over a decade since the Nazi's resoundingly won the Second World War, and now most of the world is ruled by the combined Axis Powers of the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire. As a child, Yael was transported to Auschwitz, and experimented on, which has left her with the ability to skin shift, and change her appearance at will. Losing her family, and seeing all of the horror and destruction that the Nazi's, and particularly Hitler, have wrought on the world, she will stop at nothing to be able to change the world, and kill Hitler. But to do so, she must become Adele Wolfe, the only female Victor of the Axis Tour (a motorcycle race across three continents, from Germania to Tokyo), and get close enough to Hitler to deal a killing blow. Will Yael have the strength and will to be able to succeed, or will the efforts of the other competitors be too much for her to overcome?
I'm going to hold my hands up and say this is one of the oldest books I have had on my TBR for the longest. I was approved for an ARC of it way back in 2016, and for some reason, never read it until 2021. And, I'm both angry and glad that I waited so long: angry because it's a fantastic book, glad because I have the sequel to read straight away! You might not know that I'm a teacher, and I trained as a history teacher, and studied history for one of my degrees. I've always been interested in the wars, and the question of what if? And Graudin, I think, perfectly executed the premise. We all know the horrors that the Nazis caused, and the sheer magnitude of the death and destruction is still felt by communities today. I'm not Jewish, I can't speak of the representation in this book from that point of view, but I believe that the notion of the Holocaust, and the horrors of the death camps, were dealt with so delicately, and allowed readers who might not know the whole truth of the events, to access it in a thoughtful way.
Yael was a character you couldn't help but love. She was tough, and sometimes had to be cruel, but she had been shaped by her past, and we saw the vulnerabilities come out through the flash backs, and through her actions with her fellow competitors - particularly Luka and Felix. When she was about 6 or 7, she was transported to Auschwitz, with her mother, and selected for Experiment 85, given the number 121358ΔX. She was injected with needle after needle of poison and other 'medicines', in order for the doctor to try and transform her into the perfect Aryan figure. It left her ill, feverish, and eventually worked, but not without it's consequences. One of these consequences was the ability to transform into someone else, and this was her saving grace. She managed to see a photo of the camp commandant's daughter, took on her visage, and fled the camp. Now, she's found her people, and her place to do good, and even though the Axis Tour could kill her - and likely will if she succeeds to get close to Hitler - she's willing to sacrifice herself for the new Operation Valkyrie. What she doesn't expect, is for her (rather Adele's) brother Felix, to be in the Tour, nor the close relationship Adele seemingly had with Luka Lowe. She knows a lot about Adele, but not her ever nuance, and it changes the stakes of the mission. I loved her though, and though the book was so much more than a romance, the hint of chemistry and her friendships with the boys simply elevated the book. I'll be starting Blood For Blood straight away!
Dates Read:
June 26-27, 2021
Rating
4 Stars
