Review: History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Sometimes life just sucks and History of Wolves, the debut novel by Emily Fridlund does its best to drive that point home with a novel that is beautifully written but lacking in resolution.

Linda is a fourteen-year-old girl living with people who may or may not be her parents in a former hippy commune in the backwoods. Isolated and somewhat neglected, she lacks social skills and does not fit in with the people in her small town. From there, two separate plots develop about two very different, but equally broken people who try to reach out to her. In each instance, Linda knows that something is very wrong, though she cannot identify what it is, exactly. The book raises the question how can someone with such little understanding of the world possibly recognise signs that a child is being abused and speak up? Did Linda truly understand what was happening around her, and its implications?

And the answer is well ... you'll have to make your own mind up about that.

I found this novel uncomfortable, not so much for its subject matter, but for its lack of resolution. To me, it felt like a book with a lot of potential that never quite got there.

Not really recommended. 

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