The Wolves of Winter

Lynn McBride, 23, lives with her family in the Yukon wilderness, surviving off the land, after nuclear war and a flu pandemic have killed most of the world’s population, including her father. She is an accomplished hunter and while out trapping, meets a mysterious (but handsome, naturally) young man, Jax, who has been injured. Taking him home despite the suspicions of her uncle and mother, they are then visited by a group posing as traders, who are looking for Jax, but the same people find out that Lynn is also special herself, and will stop at nothing to capture her too.

I can’t say more without spoiling this, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a fast exciting read, well written, with a heroine who is actually quite believable: she may be immature and reckless, but she has hardly had a normal adolescence, and she learns from her mistakes. I loved the cover, and the title. This is being marketed as sci-fi/fantasy, as well as YA, but I wouldn’t call this sci-fi, rather it is tenuously plausible post-apocalyptic fiction - no zombies, aliens, magic or religious figures. It has been compared to the Hunger Games, but to me is the only similarity is the heroine’s prowess with a bow & arrow. Lynn is not as noble nor as tortured as Katniss, and the world she inhabits much closer to our potential reality. I was also relieved that there was no love triangle and refreshingly little romance, especially for a YA novel. The ending was satisfying and could stop there, although I suspect and very much hope that there will be other books. This would also make a great movie.

A nuclear war ends when a super flu spreads around the world. Those few who have managed to survive both of these events flee the cities, living off the land in isolated areas. Meanwhile, a secret government agency is carrying out experiments on children, supposedly searching for a cure to the flu, but more likely creating new weapons. And a young female protagonist learns she just might be the key to saving the planet. All sounds familiar, right? Doesn’t matter - I loved this book.

Johnson’s debut skips along at a fast pace which had me hooked from the first chapter. Lynn, our heroine, lives in a cabin in the Yukon woods with the rest of her surviving family members. Her days are spent hunting and wondering about the fate of the rest of the world. Little does she know, however, that some of the world is going to come crashing into her life soon enough.

There’s a nice build up to the action. I really liked how Johnson slowly increased the tension and created a real climactic scene along with some resolution.

The background of the war and disease along with Lynn’s family’s history is added with a deft hand. We never get tedious info dumps (maybe with the one tiny exception towards the end in the form of a letter). I also liked how everything that happened in the book felt real; the war and the flu were both plausible. (Shout out to Australia for trying to sort out peace. Hee.)

There’s a plethora of scenes of Lynn hunting and trudging through the snow. None of these ever get boring. (I must add reading about the snow during the grips of an Australian heatwave made it all sound quite appealing actually.)

Johnson also does a good job of writing from a female’s point of view. Lynn still felt very feminine even when she had to display her strength. If I had one whine, it would be her age. She seemed much younger than the character was supposed to be, but perhaps Johnson was trying to show us that she was this way from living in isolation for so long. And it did mean that we didn’t get a teenager thinking and acting inappropriately either, I guess.

I thought it was being marketed as Young Adult but apparently it isn't. I believe it would be okay for 15 plus though and think the book really has potential to become a bit of a sleeper hit. Personally, I can’t wait for part two (it's not really stated, but these things tend to be trilogies.)

I must mention if I had to chose between this and Nora Roberts’s recent Year One (which has similar themes) I'd chose this one any day. Roberts's effort seems so much more clunky and forced in comparison.

4 ½ out of 5

In his debut novel, Tyrell Johnson takes us into a harsh but beautiful post apocalyptic world. After nuclear world war destroyed New York, Lynne McBride and her family fled Chicago for Alaska where they lived quietly for a few years until a flu pandemic swept the world, taking the life of her biologist father. Lynne, her mother, brother and uncle then moved again to a remote region of the Yukon where they learned to fish and hunt to survive. Life is cold and rugged but with plenty of game and even a few vegetables in the summer they have adapted to their new life. Now seven years later Lynne, 23 is an accomplished hunter and loves the beauty of the Yukon but is lonely. They have met no other people since settling in the Yukon until one day a young man called Jax arrives, followed not long after by a group looking for him. Soon Lynne finds herself using all her survival strategies to fight for her freedom from a group called Immunity intent on capturing her at all costs.

Although this is a post-apocalyptic novel, the first half of the novel is more reminiscent of a novel about early pioneers trying to build a life in a harsh, rugged environment. The writing is very evocative and the descriptions of life in the Yukon are vivid with a sense of the extreme cold seeping through the pages. It is not until Jax is running for his life from Immunity, that a dystopian theme emerges and the reason for the family’s flight from Chicago starts to emerge. The plot is clever and not unrealistic, although I did feel the members of Immunity were a little stereotyped as villains prepared to slaughter innocent people in the name of doing good for mankind. Lynne is a well realised character, strong and spirited, trained by her father to be tough and resourceful and will do anything to protect her family and defend her home. Jax is more of an enigma but was emerging as a more fully formed character towards the end of the novel. The ending of the novel leaves enough of an opening for a sequel and I very much hope there will be one.