I love all things Alma Katsu from "The Deep" to "The Hunger" and everything in between.

Katsu's short historical novella is full of dark monsters and themes. Though not a fan of stories that usually feature Nazi's heavily, I was not disappointed by Katsu's writing (though I rarely ever am). Her writing style is on point and she packs so much in such a few short pages. Usually I would describe that as an issue, but here it isn't the case.

The Wehrwolf by Alma KatsuI was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. The story itself was good, gleaning from original Germany stories by the Brothers Grimm, BUT the author chose to get political in her end notes so that lost two points and I will not seek out her writings.

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.

I'm always a little hesitant going into stories with Nazis as a big focus, but I needn't be worried here: Alma Katsu pulled this off with very clear messaging, and I appreciated every second of it. This was as much fun as it could have been, all things considered, and I don't know how she consistently pumps out these awesomely horrified books, each so different from the last!

The Wehrwolf is the story of Ewe Fuchs, a farmer during WWII who stayed home from the war to care for his mother, and is now a farmer doing his best to care for his family. When news that Allied soldiers are approaching their village, the people become agitated, allowing a local bully and deserter, Hans Sauer whips the able bodied men into a furor.

He proposes a way for them to fight back against the Allied soldiers, and slowly against his will Ewe is pulled in until he, along with the other men, becomes a werewolf. From there, things quickly turn darker and darker.

This is a story about monsters, whether they are bestial or human, and what lives in the hearts of men, no matter their background. A story about how power can corrupt, and how good intentions can easily lead you down a path that you cannot turn away from.

An unexpectedly pleasant read. I was initially skeptical when learning that the story was going to revolve heavily around Natzi's being prevalent in the story. Yet the more I read, the more I got the message.

The story revolves more around social behavior and manipulation that a person can face. Uwe is the center of the story with small inclusions of his wife's POV to fully indulge the reader about Uwe's character. The story had the classic telling of werewolves with loving nods to the Grimm Brothers and how truly dark their stories actually were.

Overall, I would recommend this book if someone wanted a good short story.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for letting me receive this book as an ARC.
I want to start by saying that I normally love werewolf/paranormal books. This one was hard for me to really get into. It really was out of my wheelhouse with the relations to Germany in 1945 at the height of the war. There were a lot of historical references. I was not able to finish but I didn’t want to leave this book unrated. I believe that for someone who is a little more into history than I am would appreciate this. I am giving four stars because the writing style itself was great.

This author never let's me down, when I want to something , a little dark and spooky or even creepy , and once again she has a win from me , love how she wrote the story so much so it was hard to not stop reading .

4 stars. This was really good! It was like a fairytale woven inside another fairytale set during WWII. It has a very good storyline and an even better moral to it.

I went into this not knowing anything other than it was a werewolf book and usually I don’t love historical fiction, but this was fantastic!! Now I want to read everything Alma Katsu has written

Loved this story, Alma's historic fiction is always enjoyable and I tore through this one. Another really enjoyable WW2 era story.

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.

**This review has been posted on my website, as well as Goodreads and Bookbub.**
https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/2023/02/01/book-review-the-wehrwolf-by-alma-katsu/

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed this short story. The beginning took a little while to get into but once it got flowing I didn’t want to put it down. I enjoyed the mix of history and horror. This was my first book by Alma Katsu but it won’t be my last.

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.

4.25 This was another great read from Alma. Weaving fairy tales of werewolves into scary stories set on the back drop of WW2. Much like when I read The Hunger I’ll say if you’re a fan of guillermo del toro style of story telling. Stories that use historical moments to show the dark side of history. Then adding in folklore and fairytales to drive the message or purpose across. This is a must read.

This was a very interesting depiction of people who think they are doing the right thing actively causing harm to those around them. I haven't loved Alma Katsu's novels but I did enjoy this short story. I enjoyed how the author took something as simple and wellknown as Werewolves and turned it into something new. Unfortunately, I just think her writing just isn't for me so this fell a bit flat.

An interesting werewolf horror short story set in Germany in the early days of the ending of WWII. I thought this was an interesting look at how lies and propaganda help evil find a home. Unfortunately, it still relates to current history and events.

A really interesting short story/novella. Katsu blends history, myth and folklore to create a new take on the werewolf mythology. The author does a great job of situating the reader in the post-WW2 context of rural Germany. Katsu keeps the interpersonal relationships central to the story, and as a result this is an engaging story.

Excellent writing, a cool twist on werewolves... Really enjoyed it. Recommended for all fans of supernatural fiction.

A quick werewolf story set in the fairy tale forest of Reinhardswald, Germany 1945. The war is almost over and the small village of Scharweg is worried about approaching allies. I enjoyed how the author combined Grimm fairytales and folktales into this story, that made it an interesting read.

This was a masterpiece in storytelling, and in its message. With January 6th still very much in all our memories, this story is a reminder of how easy it is for the common citizen to become the monster. Katsu takes her years of knowledge, education and insight on working in intelligence for the government to create a realistic story from the realm of fairy tales.