Tina Reviews: Wolf by Wolf

Wolf by Wolf written by Ryan Graudin
Published October 20th 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 
Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Alternate History, Young Adult

Page: 400
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Review by: Tina
 

Synopsis

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor’s Ball in Tokyo.

Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year’s only female racer, Adele Wolfe.

Review

The fantasy aspect of skinshifting completely threw me off. I thought this is a "what if" type of scenario. What if Hitler won, what would the world look like? With the fantasy element, a story about the aftermath of WWII became more bearable to read.

The story begins with Yael's journey. Her arrival at camp, picked out of a cluster of kids by the camp doctor, her first experimentation, and the characters that shaped her life. She wants to do something, be more than who she is. She wants to see her skinshifting as more than a "monster" quality and make use of it for the resistance.

The story blew me away. At first, I wasn't sure where the story was heading and scenes fell into place, I began to wonder. I developed a theory for the book conclusion and it went exactly as I imagined. And more elements of surprise follows... wow this is a story that makes you dive into the next book right away!