History of Wolves: A Novel

This book is maddening. Emily Fridlund is a capable writer. But she spends too much effort on the details: the words, the phrases, the sentence. Pretty prose indeed. But what is this book about? I really couldn't say for certain even after slogging through the whole thing. Slogging, because the author does very little to push the plot. She forces the reader to concentrate on the small picture and partially formed characters.

The book is obviously a coming-of-age story. But too many side plots add nothing. The main plot appears to be an indictment of the Church of Christian Science-- something that could have been accomplished in an essay. There could have been scenes of high drama and tension, but instead we see characters stumbling and fumbling in pretty prose to communicate and make sense of their responsibility to protect a gravely sick child.

By the way, the title has little to do with the book. If you see History of Wolves, run away!

I listened to the book on audible along with occasional reads. Suspenseful, but not in the sense of a murder mystery, but in the drama of a young teenagers awakening to evil founded in religious dogma. Beautifully written, poetic. It could have been tightened, edited down hence 4 stars. Still getting over the tragedy inherent in the story.

Bought this book relying on good reviews but was disappointed. Thought it was just me feeling lost and confused after trying so hard to like it. After reading less favorable reviews feel that I am not alone in my opinion that characters are described in a superficial way, things are insinuated but there is no real consequence. Writing is not bad but in reality it is not a story with depth, the wolves are missing and the end is what?

Raised in a hippy commune which fell apart, Linda is unsure if her parents are actually her real blood kin. Her childhood has been devoid of love, compassion and the closeness she's seen other families naturally displaying for one another.
She's a loner at school, referred to with cruel nicknames. Her wardrobe consists of minimal pieces and is shared with her parents. Her "room" is a low loft over her parents' room, accessible by a ladder with a mattress crammed against the rafters.
Linda is now 37 and reflecting on her youth, in particular, events that happened when she was 14.
A teacher supposedly abused another lonely quiet girl whom Linda has an unhealthy fixation on. Across the lake from her families' shack, a mother and her 4-year old son move into their new home in the early spring. Again, Linda is strangely attracted and almost stalking them.
The young family is members of the Christian Science Church. The father Leo is controlling but often gone for long periods of time, and young son Paul doesn't seem to have the curiosity and energy of a typical 4-year old boy surrounded by nature.
As the events of that spring unfold, we begin to see just how unstable Linda is. Her personality has many layers and at no point will you fully understand her. You may have sympathy for why she's the way she is, but you're not quite sure what to expect.
This was a very fascinating read; one you have to work a little bit at to unfold. If you prefer books that spoon-feed you, this is not for you. It's dark, full of human angst and emotions, and not the sunniest of endings.
I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of reading it, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to others who aren't looking for another Cinderella story.

While reading this book, I could recognize that the writing was high quality, but I really struggled to stay interested. Much of the time, I was thinking “what is the point?” and I struggled with caring much about the protagonist. When the reveal came midway, I became more interested for a while, but then I lost interest as more than half of the book remained and I still couldn’t find any emotional connection to the characters. As this book was shortlisted for the Booker, I wonder if I’m missing something. I had read great reviews, and I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t mange it in the end.

This is a brilliantly written novel. But afterward, I felt as if I'd been picked up and thrown into someone else's world, somehow manipulated. It's like instead of a light summer read, it's a heavy winter read. But you might want to read it anyway, to share in the author's beautiful language and clever plotting. And then come up for fresh air.

The premise was good...and interesting. Somehow by the end, however, I was left with a little bit of "so what". I like the flavor of the writing, but it didn't really come together for me very well at the end.

I'm not sure who this book is meant for. I finished it but it was painful to do so. If you're into deep character driven literature you may find this more enjoyable but I couldn't relate or even find myself caring about anyone in this book. Just too weird and boring for me personally.

The writing is of very high quality: descriptive, imaginative, evocative and of strong voice and place.

The structure, however, results in a very driven first half and a back half that revolves all around a single incident, repetitively so.

kept waiting for it to get better - but it didn't, the story line was all over the place and there didn't seem to be any plot. If there was it was spoilt by the jumping back and forth in time for no apparent reason.

The writing was fine but the plot had too many twists and turns. I'm unclear what the author was trying to say about her characters, all of whom were deeply flawed. I couldn't relate to the main character (Linda) and her aimlessness and almost animalistic nature. Too bizarre for me.

Let me add my voice to the other voices who loved this novel. Such a quiet and lonely story. Who could not love the central character whose adolescence is so colored by her association with odd neighbors who make terrible decisions? I will want to read otber novels by this writer.

There have been some amazing debuts over the past few months, and History of Wolves is one of the best. The first chapter was intended as a standalone story, but the character interested Emily Fridlund so much, she knew she had to expand on it. This is a coming of age story unlike any other, and must be read carefully in order not to miss hints given almost as throw-aways about characters and plot and, most particularly, the perspective from which the story is being told. The northern forests have provided backdrop for some amazing books lately (Idaho, Wintering), and in each case, those woods have become characters themselves. Here, Madeline has been allowed a great deal of freedom growing up, has no fear of the outdoors, her best friends are the four family dogs. Her parents, latter day hippie relics of a failed commune, are barely there. She doesn't have much human contact, particularly at school, where she is treated as a "freak," an outsider. So it's no surprise that she attaches herself to Patra, a young mother and her four-year-old son, who have moved into the newly built "summer house" across the lake.

I was reminded somewhat of Normal Ollestad's memoir Crazy for the Storm, in which his father threw him into life threatening situations from an early age, trusting that survival techniques would kick in automatically and make him stronger. In this day of helicopter parenting, it's shocking to learn that such methods didn't result in the child's death or emotionally scarring. As she observes from an adult's perspective, "So many people ... admire privation. They think it sharpens you, the way beauty does, into something that might hurt them." To reveal more would be a spoiler, so I'll let the novel reveal its secrets as the author intended.

A fierce story with a main narrator who is both troubled and keenly observant of all that surrounds her. Madeline, aka Linda, is in many ways like the wolves she reports on in school: afraid of humans, would rather be left alone. Reluctantly finds herself intertwined in lives that alter the course of her own. Finished the book in one day. Looking forward to more from this author.

History Of Wolves is an intricately told tale of a teenager’s experience of being the outsider and the consequences of naively made decisions made in order to belong. To be honest, even after a few days mulling over this book I’m still not really sure what I think about it and have found this review quite challenging to write.

Written in the first person, Linda narrates as a thirty-seven year old reflecting on her life as a teenager, interspersed with glimpses of her life as an adult. There is no clear line of demarcation between these different time points as you see in other books, ie separation through chapters, however it flows well and is not confusing. I rather liked this more complex structure and it is well executed.

Linda grew up on an old hippy commune in Minnesota with parents who largely give her free rein. This causes difficulties for her at school as she is marked out as different by the other pupils. I didn’t particularly like Linda, or any of the characters, however this wasn’t a problem for me as I often get as much out of disliking a character in a book as I do those I like. Linda comes across as a voyeur as she comments and observes her fellow pupils, teachers and later her new neighbours who she becomes tied up with. Some of her actions and thoughts are questionable, yet understandable given her upbringing.

The pace is slow moving, taking a while in my opinion to get to the main crux of the story. What I initially felt was the main storyline turned out not to be so and this led to my interest in it waxing and waning as I read. When I eventually thought I knew where the story was going it changed again. Linda’s teacher is found guilty of possessing indecent images of children, however the story then becomes dominated by another theme. I still haven’t fully figured out the role this story line played, is it a red herring or have I just failed to see it’s relevance?

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away as it came as a surprise to me and I would hate to ruin this for future readers, but the eventual reason for the trial Linda refers to in the beginning relates to a religion and it’s devastating consequences. What eventually occurs is, however, both thought-provoking and shocking. Fridland is great at drip feeding snippets of information that eventually make sense and giving that feeling of something not being right that you just can’t put your finger on. Her use of prose wonderfully sets up the sense of time and place with the cold and barren nature of teenage Linda’s surroundings shining through from the pages.

An intriguing book that has certainly stayed with me, causing me to swing between liking it and not really liking it. It is a book that I may re-visit as I get the feeling it is a book that could be enjoyed more the second time around. Read it without the expectation that it will immediately grip you but will take you on a slow-burning journey you won’t forget in a hurry.

A waste of my money! It was so disjointed, it didn't make much sense to me. I'm not a professional reviewer, just a person who reads a lot, I bought this because I read someone else's review, and I wish I hadn't. It skipped all over the place, nothing interesting at all. Save your money!

This book was terrible. It's a pointless meandering through the forest with no plot and characters that nobody cares about. A better title would be:
"Grown Woman Reminisces About Very Mildly Traumatic Childhood"

Very fine novelist, very clearly thought through, imagined and written. Ever read one of those books where you admired the writer and were fascinated but the 'architecture' and artifice of the narrative and the narrator never got organic enough so that you found yourself living in the tale and forgetting that you were reading (a very clever and entertaining) novel?

Possible spoilers but I've been pretty careful!

Updating now that I've read the Acknowledgements. It seems the author actually doesn't have firsthand experience with the core subject matter, and her sources were a handful of negatively-biased memoirs that relate an atypical experience (read the reviews of these if you're curious). I read a lot of novels, and I'm not sure I've ever seen someone denigrate an entire religion to the point of calling it "evil," in a work of fiction. Which she actually does at one point in the book. It's especially odd given that the topic of pedophilia (this is not a spoiler) is also explored, and the narrator has nothing but affection and sympathy for a guy who planned to harm children. Next time, I hope for better.

This is, like everyone says, a highly well-written debut. And yes, it is meandering and it skips around in time, but that's how the mind kind of works, doesn't it? Particularly when you get into middle age. The central episode of the main character's life is this traumatic experience that unfolded when she was 15, and the context around it, and she's ultimately unable to move past it. It's well done in that regard, I think.

But, ugh. I look forward to this author's next book. She missed the mark with the complex subject matter that drives the tragic episode. I was raised in that background and, although I would guess from her writing that she has some experience with it, her understanding of it is shallow, and once I figured out where she was going with it, the book was ruined for me. Writing, again, excellent, but competence with the topic, poor. It becomes a "plucked from the headlines" kind of cheap way of creating a villain and a traumatic circumstance that's beneath her talent as a writer.

I read 3 to 4 books a month, fiction and nonfiction. Was looking forward to this book based on "best seller" notes. WRONG. Engrossing (and yes, often gothic) stuff, but the ending left me adrift on an unpleasant berg. What? What did I miss that left me feeling so lost? Not recommended for those seeking a satisfying read AND a satisfying ending. Bummer.

By this, I mean "skimming." Lots of words in a disjointed plot. Many parts seemingly written in the literary device of "stream of consciousness" (think Faulkner, e. g.). Disappointing for the most part.

This book wasn't an easy read for me. I almost stopped reading it a couple of times. The story was disjointed and confusing at times. I wasn't quite sure of what exactly happened. I kept reading to see if it got better. It was just okay

I gave this book one star because it never really explored any of the somewhat interesting themes it introduced. It seems to be a series of possible plots for a book, but instead of fulfilling one of the ideas, the author put them all together in one mish-mash of a book. Christian Scientists? Unresolved crushes? Child abuse? Pornography? Cults? Dysfunctional family? and somehow this one occurred to me--repressed lesbianism? A book should tell a story, make you understand its characters, and take you to a satisfying ending. This one threw everything on the wall to see what would stick. Guess what, nothing did. More money wasted.

One of those"new" books where it flips back and forth in time. Secondary characters are not well developed, and the primary characters are pretty choppy. I finished it only because it was a book club choice.

This book was not good at all! Can't believe all the hype it got, I only plowed through it to find out what happened. The story was told in a vague way, never really saying anything. Altogether too annoying and I really wish the store would refund for e books.

We sometimes use the expression "raised by wolves" to imply that a person is wild or doesn't have any social skills. It is not a compliment. Emily Fridlund may or may not have considered this when she chose the title for her novel, HISTORY OF WOLVES, but it certainly comes to mind when considering the main character and narrator, Linda, an eighth grader from northern Minnesota.

Linda lives in "The Walleye Capital of the World" with former hippie/commune-living parents who continued in cabins near the water long after the commune broke up. Linda's parents scratch out a living on the land and in the small town miles away. Linda scratches out a living in school where no one cares for her. She is, actually, a strange girl who keeps to herself and goes through life silently observing everything around her, both in nature and in the world. Linda walks a great distance to get to school in thrift shop clothes, never seeming to have enough warm clothing. She sleeps in a loft her father put above her parents' bed in the one room cabin that holds their lives together with thick quilts and left over stuff that is all they have. Linda knows her dogs well, seems to commune with them and tramps through the forest with them, her only companions.

Excitement enters Linda's life when she gets a new history teacher, Mr. Grierson, a tanned dude with an earring from California. He and a classmate, Lily, start to form the story that will take up the novel and create the secrets Linda holds inside for years to come. More outsiders, in the shape of a family, move into a new cabin across the lake from Linda's house and she becomes a babysitter for their four-year-old child, Paul. She gets along with Paul who doesn't like being told to do things by his mother. Linda shows him her world outside the cabin, and he thrills to the adventures they have all around the lake.

Much of this novel is about the separateness and individual lives, about children who are not taken care of by family or friends. I don't think that Linda's parents didn't love her, they were still living the commune mind set where familial bonds and connections were an anathema to their way of life. Linda's mother called her "the teenager" with more than a hint of sarcasm, but her father silently brought her close to him when they stood side by side cleaning the fish he caught in season. She created fantasies about Lily, trying to befriend her. She beamed when Mr. Grierson showed that he thought she was smart.

The events that move the plot of EF's novel are laid out in such a nuanced fashion that I had to keep reminding myself that serious things were going on. Seen through Linda's eyes, a ninth grader, could all this be happening? It takes distance and years before she can reconcile everything and decide what she wanted to have in her life that would give her peace and comfort. This novel is complex and rich in a coming-of-age narrative that breaks lots of rules. It isn't a fairy tale of American wealth and privilege, not even middle-class boredom. It is rich with hard scrabble experiences that most of us have never known and I felt enriched with EF's gift of the story.

"A good biologist should always start by asking, for instance, what are the conditions we assume are required for life? And why do we assume that and not something else?" (p. 127)

"Are you an animal or a human?"(p. 134)

Maybe there is a way to climb above everything, some special ladder or insight, some optical vantage point that allows a clear, unobstructed view of things. Maybe this way of seeing comes naturally to some people [ . . . ] Maybe if I 'd been someone else I'd see it differently. But isn't that the crux of the problem? Wouldn't we all act differently if we were someone else? (p. 150)

Madeline Furston, (also known as "Linda" or "Freak" or "Commie") the teenaged protagonist of Fridlund's debut novel, may lack the fur her name suggests, but she's just a few steps from feral. She quite literally lives "off the beaten path" near a lake in the Minnesota woods. Her parents are the last remnants of a hippie commune that failed some years back. To be clear, Madeline isn't even certain they are her parents and observes that they're actually more like stepsiblings. The three live off the grid in a rough cabin, occasionally using a generator to provide power. It is unclear if the house is even equipped with plumbing: Madeline mentions an "outhouse" and a well pump. The author provides few details about the daily life of this "family"--really just enough to suggest a rather squalid existence. The Furstons have several dogs--why, exactly, is never made clear. Madeline does attend school (in the small town of Loose River, a few miles away) where she is ostracized and friendless; her out-of-school hours are spent mostly in the woods: gutting fish, canoeing, tending to the dogs, or walking trails in their company.

The novel opens when Madeline is about fourteen. She and her classmates have recently witnessed the death of their eighth-grade history teacher, Mr. Adler. One day during forth period he simply fell to the floor, gasping and blue-lipped, apparently seized by a heart attack. Mr. Adler is replaced by Mr. Grierson, a nervous copper-toned transplant from California, with--it turns out-- a rather sinister pedophilic past at a private girls' school. Madeline sniffs out his desperate need to be liked, notices his fear of the popular catty cheerleader girls, and observes his mothlike attraction to the beautiful Lily Holburn, a dyslexic girl who lives with her alcoholic father in a trailer on the edge of an Indian reservation. At the beginning, Lily may not be quite as far out on the fringes as Madeline, but that changes after Mr. Grierson is dismissed by local school authorities and rumours begin to circulate about an inappropriate relationship between him and Lily. Madeline is strangely, even pruriently, fascinated with these people (and will continue to be long after they disappear from her life.)

Madeline's interactions with Mr Grierson begin when she rescues him in class by answering a question when no one else will. At Grierson's request, she participates in "History Odyssey", a public speaking competition in which contestants are expected to deliver brief speeches on historical events. Madeline bewilders the judges with a presentation on the history of wolves, which nevertheless earns her an award for originality.

However, all of this is really "background" to (or maybe context for?) the main story, which concerns Madeline's involvement with a strange couple, the Gardners, and their sickly, four-year-old child, Paul. On one of her walks, Madeline meets twenty-six-year old Patra (short for Cleopatra) and her son, who have moved into a lake house built the previous summer. Madeline is soon engaged as a babysitter for Paul. She takes him outdoors to teach him the ways of the woods while Patra works indoors at revising and editing her husband's manuscript. It is immediately clear to Madeline that Patra is here because she is hiding out from someone or something while her professor/astronomer husband, Leo, studies protogalaxies in Hawaii. However, Leo's work as a space scientist has far less bearing on the narrative than his immersion in another kind of "science". The gaunt, graying academic is a third-generation Christian Scientist--lost, as the reader soon discovers, in an entirely different space.

By the time Leo arrives at the lake on the Memorial Day week-end, Madeline has spent many hours with Paul and Patra, falling a little in love with (or perhaps, more precisely, finding herself sexually attracted to) the latter. Perhaps out of a desire to be a member of someone's "pack" she has inserted herself into a family that is possibly more bizarre than her own. However, having been raised (by wolves--idiomatically speaking) on the periphery of society, she does not recognize the strangeness or danger in the way the Gardner family thinks and lives. "It was hard to explain," she later reflects, "how ingrained a habit it was to pretend I understood what was happening in other people's lives before explanations were offered. How I took in information differently . . . " (p. 118) This "different way of taking in information" apparently means she was ill-equipped to prevent a tragedy, about which she will later be asked to provide testimony in court. The trial reveals that the Gardners' perceptions, as much as Madeline's, are almost entirely informed--and circumscribed--by their belief system. For the couple, Christian Science is not the cause of the family tragedy so much as a way of explaining why the tragedy occurred . . . maybe it wasn't a tragedy at all; maybe everything is actually fine. (There are later indications in the book that Madeline did recognize an opportunity to do something and is not entirely blameless.)

Fridlund's novel, rather like Madeline's speech on the history of wolves, is certainly original, but as I finished it I wondered: so, what's the point? Is the book an exploration of conflicting belief systems? A rumination on whether thought or action is more central to how humans live? An opportunity for the reader to think about what it means to live in the world with a set of principles that differs markedly from the mainstream. A study of adolescent sexuality? Who knows? For me, the book just didn't work. Its three parts--Madeline in the time before the Gardners, Madeline with the Gardners, and Madeline after the Gardners--did not come together in a unified way. Sometimes a title gives clues to a work's overall meaning; sometimes the transformation of the protagonist can be a revelation. In this case, neither title nor transformation was particularly useful in unlocking meaning.

For the most part, I was unimpressed by Fridlund's writing. The stuff of which it's made is poorly organized: time can randomly flip forward and back twenty or more years from one paragraph to the next; the sentences sometimes read as though they're slightly askew--their syntax is weird, and word choice can be odd or strangely archaic. (For example, "save" is used instead of the more common "except"). Because I too often found myself trying to guess what the author was trying to get at, reading this book brought me little pleasure. It all felt quite forced and ostentatiously literary; the characters and their stories were not well served. The author did not give me a route into the minds of these puzzling and largely unsympathetic characters with their dark urges. I am surprised by the positive reviews this book has received and will likely steer clear of any future work by Fridlund.

One final note: this is NOT a young adult novel!

Confusing narrative and no discernible character arc Make for a flaccid and dull read. I have no idea what the point of this book is and i actually finished it. What's the opposite of a page-turner? This.

I read History of Wolves immediately after reading Emma Cline’s The Girls (2016), and in some ways it’s a weirdly apt follow-up. Both are first novels by prodigiously talented young women writers.

Both are first person narratives told by damaged adult women recalling their young teen selves. In both cases the young teen selves are friendless and neglected, in Cline’s case living with material privilege, in Fridlund’s with privation. Both girls are desperate to be seen and to belong, and both form crushes on young women. Both stories centre on cults, and the consequences of cult beliefs, especially as promoted by male leader figures. Both discuss grooming and sexual exploitation (Fridlund in unpredictable ways). Both novels culminate in the death of innocents.

The strapline for History of Wolves is ‘How far would you go to belong?’, which could equally market The Girls.

But where The Girls is based on a notorious real-life crime (the Tate murders by Charles Manson’s followers), Fridlund’s novel is less sensational, much more subtle.

Emma Cline has said her central interest in writing The Girls was to explore the dynamics of relationships between adolescent girls; mapping that onto the lurid background of cults and massacre was a writing challenge she set herself.

Fridlund sets her story in a more mundane environment, where boredom and loneliness are the bogeymen her central character most fears.
Madeline – known as Linda, called ‘Freak’ or ‘Commie’ by her school peers, sometimes called Mattie, or Jane, or Janet – lives on a lake in frozen northern Minnesota, on a rural lot of woodland that formerly housed a commune. The commune disintegrated when she was about 7, leaving just her and her parents, who she speculates might not even be her actual parents, given children in the commune were raised in common.

Linda doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know who named her or why. She does not feel wanted or valued. She does not feel nurtured by her critical mother or her mostly silent father. She is underfed and overladen with survival tasks.
Linda is a wolf, without a pack.

Linda so desperately wants to be seen and wanted that she tries to seduce a pedophile – and fails. Instead, the pedophile fixates on beautiful Lily, who makes “people feel encouraged, blessed”. Linda makes people feel judged.

On the back of this rejection, Linda targets a young mother who, with her infant son and husband, has recently moved into a house across a narrow neck of lake. She has more success here: Patra (also known as Cleo or Patty, Patty Pea or Patty Cakes) is also lonely, with her scientist husband Leo frequently away, and Patra wants help with her four year old, Paul.

More pertinently, as the astute Linda observes, “Didn’t she always need someone to watch her and approve? And wasn’t I better at that than anyone?”

Linda is a watcher. She’s a stalker. She watches the pedophile and Lily. She stalks them. She watches Patra and her family across the lake through their house’s large windows. At various points she spies on Patra and Leo having oral sex, she slips into their darkened house when she thinks they’re out, she cyberstalks Patra, the pedophile and Lily in later life. She sends letters about intimate matters that should not be her concern and leaves anonymous gifts. She appropriates belongings. Her boundaries are porous.

Arguably Linda is a kind of ghost, a silent sinister being without substance. Fridlund references gothic horror: Jane Eyre, “the governess”, and that other governess, in Henry James’ classic horror story, The Turn of The Screw. In The Turn of The Screw, the governess, who might be sane but might be psychologically unhinged, believes her child charges are at risk from a pair of malevolent ghosts.

Or is it Leo and Patra who are types of ‘ghost’? It emerges their religious beliefs preclude matter, insist there is only spirit. Are they a couple who present a risk to the child in Linda’s care?

Linda watches.

Linda is so focused on watching Patra, so obsessive seeking to secure Patra’s attentions, that she fails in her role as babysitter, or “governess”, to Paul. The fact is, Paul is sick. Linda knew that on some level from the outset. But she fails to comprehend why Paul’s parents, who dote on him, don’t recognise Paul is ill and do not seek medical care.

Linda’s parents neglect her materially and emotionally. Paul’s parents see their son as a pure expression of God, as perfect, but their religious beliefs preclude any acknowledgement that his physical being might suffer.

Leo and Patra are adherents of Christian Science, and follow the tenets of its founder, Mary Baker Eddy:

“Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, – neither in nor of matter, – and the body will then utter no complaints.”

Leo and Patra believe that mind determines all. If we think we are well, we will be well. If we think we are happy, we are happy. The only vulnerability is a negative mindset.

The key questions for Linda are

“What’s the difference between what you want to believe and what you do? That’s the question I should have asked Patra”
and
“And what’s the difference between what you think and what you end up doing? That’s the question I should have asked [the pedophile]”.

Linda wrestles with whether there’s a distinction between thought and act. If we think something, is that thought ‘real’, even if we do not enact it? Is it our truth? The pedophile ultimately thinks so: he accepts he is guilty, if not of the act, then of the thought.

So if Linda had the thought that without Leo and Paul, Patra would be hers, is she guilty, should Patra lose Paul and Leo? Is the illness of a child in this narrative in fact a McGuffin, a massive red herring? Is adult Linda sad, empty and angry not because she feels culpable about Paul but because she lost Patra?

It’s easy, and obvious, to read History of Wolves as a moral fable about child neglect. But I think it might be more complex. Emily Fridlund doesn’t conclude her tale after the court case. Instead, she concludes with a sexually charged sequence where Linda, a girl who (observed by a child) looks like a boy, imagines herself sexually assaulting Lily, almost as if she inhabits the psyche of the pedophile; and in imagining herself as the agent, imagines herself as the subject:

'The violence in me is almost overwhelming. “That’s what you wanted, right? Just a kiss.”
And then there’s this. Even now, when those words move through my mind, like a curse or a wish, I become Lily […] I find I’m the one stranded in the boat, I’m the one shivering with cold, I feel everything and I’m the one wanted more than anything else.”'

Underfed Lily is hungry, hungry like the wolf. Hungry like a pedophile driven by compulsion. Hungry to be “the one wanted more than anything else”.

This is not a tragedy about a young boy who dies. This is a horror story of a young girl werewolf who, in her desire to be “wanted more than anything else”, appropriates the objects of her desire and allows a young boy to die.

Not sure why the world needed another book about a dysfunctional loser with no redeeming values or future. There wasn't a single positive character in the book. And the perils of Christian Scientists not getting healthcare is well known. I bought it because I've spent much time in northern Minnesota but this was a waste of five hours.

"You have to ask yourself, from the beginning, what do you think you know?"

Wow. I'm in awe of this book. It's ceaselessly enthralling from the opening sentence, like a puzzle that demands to be solved despite your knowing, deep down, that it's not going to be pretty. There's a relentless sense of foreboding throughout the entire thing. Something is wrong—but what? Who is predator, and who is prey?

Linda, our unreliable narrator, is a strange, isolated high school student living in rural Minnesota. There are lots of heavy things happening around her, like, for example, her history teacher getting arrested for child pornography. When a mysterious couple with a young boy moves into the cabin across the lake, Linda becomes the boy's designated babysitter, spending every afternoon with him and developing a sense of kinship and belonging with his young mother.

We get the sense early on that something bad is going to happen, but we don't know what. Fridlund takes her time with the reveal(s), but the pacing is never frustrating.

The narration jumps around in time without warning, and the effect is deliberately disorienting. It makes sense for a story as obscure and peculiar as this one though. There are breaches between action and thought, guilt and innocence, trust and doubt, predator and prey—and what dwells in those gray areas isn't always clear, even upon years of reflection.

At one point, as an adult, Linda wonders, "What's the difference between what you want to believe and what you do? ... And what's the difference between what you think and what you end up doing?"

These questions lie at the heart of this exquisite novel, and there are no easy answers.

This is such a brilliant, thought-provoking, uncomfortable, deeply layered book. Fridlund writes with precision and purpose, delivering a dark, gorgeous, beguiling debut. I'll be recommending this one to everyone.

Just another mixed up teenaged girl book set northern Minnesota. I would recommend this book to be used for starting a fire if you're stuck in the woods as that would probably provide more enjoyment than reading it.

I hated it, kept thinking it would get better. It only got worse. I thought something redemptive would surely appear. It did not. It is hopeless, cold, not only in where it took place but in it's very soul. I would recommend it to no one.

I'm not a fan of books where the total tone is dark and depressed. The main character is unlikable. Her parents are pathetic, but you can't figure out why she doesn't like them. The neighbors she clings onto are almost developed as characters, but not enough. Too much energy was spent on the unlikeableness of Mattie.
If the neighbors had been developed more, and made more sympathetic, perhaps I'd have given it 2 stars.
Wish I would've stopped reading it.
This was recommended to me, and I'm going to verbally bitch slap the person.

3.5 rounded up.

This is a haunting story of a young woman recalling events and circumstances in her life when she was 14. Madeline/Maddie/Linda is raised in a commune and living in the deserted remains of it in a cabin in northern Minnesota . She lives with her parents (and she's not even sure they are her parents), but what is clear is that Linda is an outsider. She's called freak at school and doesn't seem to connect with anyone or anything except the nature around her and much later we learn the only real human connection she had was with a little girl who was in the commune when she was much younger. So it is not a surprise that she jumps at the chance to be part of something that seems normal at first, a family who moves in across the lake . Telling us her story as an adult, the narrative moved around in time, but mostly it's about what happens when she's 14 . There was a sadness about her from the beginning and she seems aware even as a teenager of how the circumstances of her life have shaped her, but it wasn't until towards the end that I realized that even as an adult, what happened in the past will always impact who she is .

There are several threads and I had trouble trying to understand how they were related but in the end the connection of these threads - the teacher and Lily , the family whose religious views bring devastating consequences for their little boy, and Linda's upbringing all reflect what I saw as central to the novel - Linda's loneliness and her desire to have some normalcy in her life, to be cared about, to be recognized for herself. But throughout she remains on the sidelines observing , wanting to be included, wanting to be loved . I'm not sure if I had to explain the ending that I could do that . But what I am sure of is that this is a well written, thought provoking story and I will watch for other books by this debut author.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Grove Atlantic through NetGalley.

Well, I'm kind-of at a loss about this book. I liked it ok in the beginning, then I liked it more in the middle, then I liked it less at the end.

Linda is a ninth grader living with her parents in the woods of Minnesota. Former commune members, Linda and her family keep themselves isolated from society, and, although Linda does attend school in town, she is an outcast. Then the Gardner family moves into the house across the lake from Linda's family's home. Linda becomes the babysitter for the young family's four-year-old son Paul, and the Gardners become a second family to her, although there is always an odd sense of discomfort.

Throughout the first half of the book, there is a palpable sense of dread, an ominous feeling that something bad is eventually going to happen. This feeling of dread is what kept me reading the book, as I was interested in finding out what was going to happen. Linda is the book's narrator, but the narration cuts back and forth between Linda the teenager and Linda the current middle-aged woman, and it includes some chapters narrated by Linda the young adult. The back-and-forth jumps in time got a little confusing because it wasn't always clear what time frame was being represented, until I read a little bit into the chapter.

There is also a separate plot line (set during Linda's high school days) about a classmate named Lily and the school's new history teacher Mr. Grierson. I just didn't get how this plot line fit in. Linda's obsession with Lily is bizarre; not only did I not understand it, I didn't like it.

The book was, on the whole, well written. Some parts did drag, and I would skim those slower parts to get to more of the plot. I just found the book very strange. It didn't sit well with me. The ending completely confused me. I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea.

4★ - overall
5★ for the writing and the main story.
An intense debut from a talented writer. Madeline, who prefers ‘Linda’, is telling her story as an adult, with episodes from her childhood, her school years, her early adulthood and now. But it’s what happened to her at 15 that changes her life which is the excellent heart of the book. Her later years – with a boyfriend or tracking a classmate and former teacher – didn’t interest me. The teen Linda did.

Linda’s called ‘Freak’ at school. Her parents are all that’s left of a lakeside hippy commune in northern Minnesota; she wears “clothes made from other people’s clothes”; they are isolated, have no car and use an outhouse that is either freezing or full of flies.

Dad fishes and her mother looks busy by strewing projects around the cabin, sewing quilts, making jam to sell. Mother is disappointed with her student daughter who doesn’t rebel against school as she did. (Of course, if Linda actually did want to rebel, what better way?)

A problem with hippies, back in the day, was it was all do your own thing . . . as long as your 'thing' was cool. No bankers or stockbrokers need apply, thanks. No evening gowns and dinner suits acceptable. But I digress.

Linda knows and loves the woods and the lake, the wildlife, the canoe, better than her parents. But she hankers for what she reads about in the gossip magazines she’s scrounged from school. She works at the diner and meets the tourists. She knows there's life 'out there'. Anyone who’s ever worked in a seasonal tourist place will recognise the following.

“The out-of-towners had a thing about calling everybody by name, preserving some ritualized belief in small-town hospitality. They called Mr. Korhonen, the Finnish grocer who wore a crisp white shirt every day of his life, Ed. they called Santa Anna [an older waitress] at the diner, Annie, Anne. Sweetheart.

‘If it isn’t Jim’s girl,’ they said to me, ‘all grown up’. . . complete strangers said this to me, people I’d met maybe twice or three times – years ago, when I was a little kid – back when my dad picked up summer work as a guide. As if they weren’t interchangeable to me, like geese, like birds with their reliably duplicate markings. I marvelled that I could seem so particular and durable to them. So distinct.”

She wants to leave. The countless teens I’ve met mostly say there’s nothing to do 'here' (wherever 'here' is) and wish they were somewhere else where SOMETHING is HAPPENING. I figure teens arguing with parents and being discontent at home is nature’s way of getting them ready to move out and move on. Just a personal pet theory, and it may not be useful these days, since they can't afford to leave. But I digress again. :)

Linda knows most kids don’t have to walk for miles through the snow in the dark to get home if they miss the school bus. If you’ve read or seen Fargo, you will be familiar with the weather. One day, the kids were let out of school early, due to the wind chill factor.

“I made my way home from the bus stop at a rigid trot. I crunched along the snowpacked trail, felt the wind come off the lake in blasts, heard the pines groan and creak overhead. Halfway up the hill, my lungs started to feel raggedy. My face changed into something other than face, got rubbed out. When I finally got to the top of the hill, when I slowed down to brush the ice from my nose, I saw a puff of exhaust across our lake. I had to squint against all that white to make it out.”

It turns out to be the car of a summer family, back for a winter stay. Parents with a little boy. Linda begins watching them with binoculars from the roof of her dad’s shed. Thus begins the main story.

She makes friends and soon becomes little Paul’s babysitter. She’s intrigued by the fact that they are all 11 years apart in age: Paul is 4, she is 15, Patra is 26, Leo the dad is 37. And I noticed that she says she is writing this at 37, whether or not that has any significance. But she does like to connect the dots, literally and figuratively.

She plays with and entertains Paul for hours, getting to know Patra, and eventually Leo. They are a most peculiar pair of people, and their behaviour is strained and tense around her, with overtones or undertones of hysteria. She loves Paul and Patra, but is wary of Leo, an obsessive fellow who is a mild-mannered bully. And she enjoys earning money. Patra welcomes Linda whole-heartedly – after all, there’s only 11 years between them – but Leo is a particularly weird duck. You’ll see.

The book picks up more in the second half as we get an inkling of what’s going on with this family. And that’s interesting.

But I didn’t care for the stories about classmate Lily and Mr Grierson, a teacher for whom she did a History of Wolves presentation, winning a prize for Originality. And I had no interest at all in her older life with the mechanic.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may have changed.

Linda, the narrator and central figure of Emily Fridlund’s haunting debut novel, is one of the loneliest literary characters in recent memory. As a socially and physically isolated young teenager, she is an observer, at times a voyeur, who craves attention and connection, though she fears it as well. She is a ghost-like presence in HISTORY OF WOLVES, stalking the woods and lakeshore of her small Minnesota town, quietly walking the halls of her high school, unsure of her own origins and feelings. Even her name is ephemeral and slippery: She is Madeline but called Mattie by some and Linda by others. At the beginning of the story, she is interested in the relationship between a strange and lovely girl named Lily and a new teacher, Mr. Grierson. But soon she is caught up in another dangerous circumstance when a family with a small son moves in across the lake from her own home.

While the rumors about Lily and Mr. Grierson begin to swirl, he asks Linda to be the school representative in History Odyssey. Instead of selecting a traditional history project, Linda chooses to research the history of wolves. This decision is typical of Linda: off-kilter, misjudged and confounding, coming from a place of both innocence and dissent. Her interest in Lily remains strong in the background of the novel, even as the adult Linda navigates work, relationships, memory and her complicated feelings for her parents.

However, with the arrival of the Gardner family --- husband Leo, wife Patra and four-year-old son Paul --- the novel and Linda’s perspective shift and tilt in new directions. With Leo away for work, Patra and Paul are lonely and unprepared for the long rural Minnesota winter. Linda starts work babysitting Paul, guiding him through the snowy and muddy woods. Her knowledge of the birds, animals and trees in the area is rich, created by her own family’s secluded backwoods lifestyle. Fridlund’s treatment of Linda’s connection to nature gives HISTORY OF WOLVES a fairytale-like tone --- lyrical and menacing at the same time. Linda proves to be a strong and at times imaginative caregiver for Paul, and perhaps the only companion Patra can count on. But Linda’s emotional longing and intellectual unsophistication mean that she ignores her instincts about the Gardners and thus is witness, and some say complicit, to a terrible and preventable tragedy.

HISTORY OF WOLVES, though short, tackles several potent themes --- from the constitution of family to the potential harm of religion, from the importance of being seen to the dangers of blind belief and dogmatism, and from sexual awakening to the meaning of home. Fridlund’s writing is fluid and at times arresting as she challenges the naive Linda to deal with situations bigger and more complex than any 14-year-old should face. Fridlund also does a good job creating an adult Linda who seems to grow realistically from the teenage one. Linda perhaps wants to embody the fierce aspects of the wolf, but in the end takes on their shadowy and even timid nature.

This is a smart, tense and very sad novel, lovely to read but also heart-wrenching.

Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (1st novel)
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Release Date: January 3, 2017
Length: 288 pages
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Single Sentence Summary: Fourteen-year-old Linda lives a lonely existence at home and at school, so when a young family moves in nearby and welcomes her into their home Linda is ready to hold their secrets.

Primary Characters: Linda – (actually Madeline, “but at school called Linda or Commie or Freak.”) Linda is 14/15 and leads a solitary life with her fading hippie parents at an abandoned commune in the woods of Northern Minnesota. The Gardners – a family of three, mother, father and 4-year old son, who move in across the lake from Linda.

Synopsis: Linda was born on a commune in Northern Minnesota. The commune disintegrated when she was young, leaving only Linda and her parents living among the ramshackle cabins. Their home, miles from town, isolates Linda in many way both physical and emotional. Her parents leave Linda largely to herself. She is a girl ripe for any sort of attention or friendship. Early in the story Linda makes a connection with her history teacher only to lose it to another student, Lily. When the teacher is later accused of possessing child pornography, Linda is deeply affected. She becomes obsessed with Lily.

Relief comes in the form of a young family moving in just across the lake from Linda. The Gardners look to be the ideal family: loving, laughing, slathering attention on their son. With the dad away for work, Linda becomes a sort of friend to his wife, Patra, and babysitter to his son, Paul. Over the spring, Linda spends a lot of time with the Gardners. The family, and Patra in particular, both fascinate and worry her. She wants to be a part of what they are while sensing that something is not quite right. The choices everyone makes over that short time period haunt Linda and leave her trying to make sense of her world and theirs.

Review: History of Wolves is a coming-of-age story that has much going for it, starting with Emily Fridlund’s powerful and often beautiful writing.

“Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed.”

Her descriptions of both settings and characters are exquisite.

“Without saying a word, Lily could make people feel encouraged, blessed. She had dimples on her cheeks, nipples that flashed like signs from God through her sweater. I was flat-chested, plain as a banister. I made people feel judged.”

The author tells the story of Linda’s youth, from the distance and insight of the character’s 37-year-old self. The distance gives perspective on the events of the spring with the Gardners as well as the year leading up to it. Linda, as an adult, tries to make sense of the choices she made as a teen. Yet even as an adult, her choices are still driven by the girl she was at 15. I found myself aching for the teenage Linda, but much less sympathetic to the adult. I wanted the adult Linda to better understand the child, and the adult to be allowed to move past that spring.

For me, the real flaw in History of Wolves was that it meandered. There were too many odd pieces that weren’t clearly tied together and the story bounced around those pieces almost indiscriminately. In the midst of the Gardner story, it would move to Linda as an adult, to her fascination with Lily, or to her near obsession with her high school history teacher. The connection between all these parts was not clear. If the narrator had been 14-year-old Linda, that would have played out better, made more sense, but I found it frustrating in a 37-year-old narrator. Grade: C+

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

What are we without a moral compass? How does a person whose compass is bent or broken through no fault of their own, decide right from wrong? Linda is such a person. Raised poorly for the first five years in a commune, she was more a random kid than someone's child. When the group fell apart, leaving her parents as the remaining inhabitants, Mom went religion crazy while Dad stayed aloof from the world, while teaching his daughter survival skills.
When a new family moves into a recently constructed home across the lake, Linda is soon pulled into their world. Told in back and forth fashion from her late 30s and her growing up from the time the commune dissolved through her teen years, this is an extremely interesting story of how a person can and does look at events in very different ways as they mature and are influenced by other peoples' experiences. Dark, sad, insightful and a really good read.

Got through six chapters and had to put it down as it never captured my interest. I tried to like it given its excellent reviews (e.g., publisher's weekly, etc.), but it didn't happen for me. I think my dislike is fostered by the writing being a bit yoo antiseptic, or perhaps, clinical--I am never able to identify with any of the characters, much less Linda, the main character. It reads not as a narrative, but more like: this happened, and then this, and then this... The pleasure I find in reading is getting into the mind of the characters and analyzing their thoughts and actions; I could not do this with "Wolves" as I found it too one-dimensional. I do not recommend this book.

Without meaning to do so, three novels I read in a row all had in common a theme of chosen families and the ways in which we connect and discover and disappoint ourselves, and are discovered by and disappointed in others.

History of Wolves is one of those very buzzy, New York Times-Editors’ Choiced, Indie Next-picked, NPR, People and O magazine-loved, literary fiction reviewers’ darling of a book. Past experience, sorry to say, leaves me suspicious of so much praise and adulation because all too often inescapable buzz has more to do with insider connections and a fantastic publicist.

But I am glad to tell you this novel was deserving of much of its praise.

Linda, the teenage narrator, lives with her parents — maybe — in what remains of the commune in which she spent her early childhood. At the house across the lake arrive a mother and child, and soon Linda is companion and watcher for both, gently easing herself into this new family she falls in love with. Eventually the husband/father arrives and they are revealed as far more complicated and far less ideal than they at first seemed, and as self-deluded and guilty of loving in ways that confuse, confound, and cause pain as are Linda’s own family.

The story is especially disturbing, relentless in its small and large agonies, but Emily Fridlund writes with such grace and command of language and metaphor that the beauty of the well-crafted prose makes bearable the heartbreak of which it sings.

It's been years since I've felt so satisfied, mesmerized, sideswiped by a book. At first, the story seems to meander, seems random, somehow deliciously unplanned, and then just as deliciously, Fridlund folds everything in—with so little fanfare, so few devices, so natural and quiet and strange and honest a stroke of the pen. Some readers might miss it if they aren't paying enough attention, aren't drinking things in. Read this slowly. There's beauty in its darkness and light touch, a truly human frailty revealed, with all its awful and unspoken complications. I'm astonished that this novel taking place in the backwoods of Minnesota, in a rural Midwest that is so often relegated to "regional fiction," can be taking over the imaginations of so many and so widely. It's well deserved. Bravo Emily Fridlund.

Whilst I do agree that History of Wolves deserves a place on the bookshelf of literary fiction you should take a look at, and indeed it is quite a remarkable read. However I did feel as if it lacked a certain purpose, moral of the story and perhaps even direction.
What I mean by that is the many unanswered questions the reader still has about Madeleine, also known as Linda and/or Maddie throughout the book. By the way, the fact her name isn’t a constant factor is indicative of her lack of identity. Is the reader supposed to ponder her guilt or lack of it? Or is it about the neglect she suffers or the loneliness she experiences?
Then there is the whole situation with Lily, and perhaps to a certain degree also with Patra. The flutterings of curiosity and sexuality combined with the colourful imagination of Linda. Is the pity and concern she feels for Lily also in part jealousy and a need to be something less than invisible to her peers and the people around her.
The relationship between her and Paul is sometimes sibling-like and then at other times Linda becomes the pseudo parent. Although the reader gets the impression that her parents are never really bothered where she is and what she is doing, she passes on the things she has learnt from her father to the child in her charge.
Fridlund circles around the topic of paedophilia in an interesting way. You get the vulnerable victim, the predator and the possible scenario, and yet the author also levels out the blame by introducing the awakening sexuality of the possible victims and the positions they want to escape from. So, despite the fact the ‘alleged’ predator is actually one who is thinking of it and tempted, Fridlund makes him the victim at the same time. Of course, this is a double edged sword and leads us into the murky waters of victim-blaming.
I think some of the most interesting passages are the events on the day of the traumatic event. As a reader I began to question what her intentions were and whether her decisions could all be excused by innocence, inexperience and age. In fact, and that is my only problem with the book, I wondered what exactly the author was trying to say. What exactly does she want to leave the reader with? There are so many paths and moral questions, that Linda often seems to slip into the cracks in between all of them. I guess that is the biggest statement of all, how disposable, forgettable and unimportant Madeleine-Linda is and most importantly feels in the grand scheme of things.
As I said, it is definitely worth the read. The more a book gets me waffling and thinking, the more I think the author has done their job.
*I received an ARC/free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, via NetGalley.*

Fourteen-year-old Linda and her parents are the only remaining vestiges of a hippie commune in an isolated area of backwoods Minnesota. Her world changes when she meets Patra Gardner, young mother of four-year-old Paul, whose death the author mentions early in the book. Not until we meet Patra’s astronomer husband Leo do we discover that the couple are Christian Scientists. Linda is their frequent babysitter, and it’s obvious that Patra desperately seeks the approval of her husband, perhaps at the expense of her son’s well-being. This is an eerie, haunting book, not just because we know Paul is going to die and we want to know how, but also because the landscape is so cold, natural, and uninhabited. Linda is an expert at splitting wood and skinning fish, and she’s good with Paul, but she’s not socially mature, although she does attend school and develops a particular rapport with a history teacher who may be a pedophile. She’s also not convinced that her parents are really her parents, and I shared her skepticism when her tardiness in returning home from the Gardners’ seems to warrant no concerned reaction whatsoever. In some ways the Gardners are more like family than her own parents, as she becomes more and more of a fixture in their lives. Linda’s story is poignant, and that’s the same adjective she uses to describe an article about Princess Diana in a purloined People magazine. She definitely seems drawn to sad people, including a girl from school who lies about contact with the suspicious history teacher. This is a book that can even make a game of Candyland heartbreaking.

“Winter collapsed on us that year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed. In the middle of December so much snow fell that the gym roof buckled, and school was cancelled for a week.”

Emily Fridlund’s debut novel is a moving story of a young girl who lives on the land of a former commune-type community. Her parents are relics from years gone by, late to the hippie party. Living off the land, they live in a shack, really. She’s young, a teenager, her given name is Madeline, but she goes by Linda.

No one’s lived across the lake from where Madeline lives with her parents, until her second year in High School, when Patra and Paul Gardner start appearing after a house is built. Husband / father Leo is busy with work elsewhere, but in the meantime his wife, Patra (short for Cleopatra) and four-year-old son Paul move into the house across the lake. It isn’t long before Linda is spending time taking care of young Paul. A bond grows, Paul trusts her, and she “gets” Paul.

At school, there’s the new History teacher, Mr. Grierson, and another student, Lily, who take center stage. Mr. Grierson tries to revise the focus from what the former History teacher, Mr. Adler, whose focus was on Russian Tsars. Mr. Grierson would prefer something a little more “local” and “recent.” With this in mind, Grierson sets up a “History Odyssey” tournament of sorts, with judges and prizes. Mattie, as Grierson calls her, decides to do her speech on the History of Wolves.

There’s a peculiarity to this novel that avoids classification with words. Partly in the setting, partly in the atmosphere of the home(s), but it’s also in the people. The people involved all seem to be slightly detached from their present, but it goes further than being attributed to their geographically remote lives. On some levels, they seem ordinary, although they’re not particularly likeable, but they’re interesting in their weirdness and their detachment.

This is a book you can’t become complacent about while reading. It doesn’t happen often, but there are moments when suddenly you find yourself in another time and place, and Madeline / Linda / Mattie is taking you to another point in her life, allowing the story to build slowly, adding other elements into the equation, another perspective on how she got to be a girl so far from home, from herself.

The writing is lovely, the story disturbing, strange and a bit haunting. At some point you’ll think that you know what is going to happen, but most of where it goes you will see unfolding as the end comes racing up. The unraveling of the “mystery” is only one part of this book, and as it unravels you begin to see how the lies will tell ourselves and others may come back to haunt us.

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic

Read "History of Wolves" for the first chapter. Or, make it as far as you can. Or, put your expectations on hold, perhaps, and just go with the flow of this novel, which prefers taking on issues from oblique angles.  At first, for the first few chapters in fact, I thought I was immersed in one of my favorite books of the year. "History of Wolves" was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2017 and Emily Fridlund pulls you in with her dazzling images and seductive rhythms.

The opening:

“It’s not that I never think about Paul. He comes to me occasionally before I’m fully aware, though I almost never remember what he said, or what I did or didn’t do to him.  In my mind, the kid just plops down into my lap. Boom. That’s how I know it’s him: there’s no interest in me, no hesitation. We’re sitting in the Nature Center on a late afternoon like any other, and his body moves automatically toward mine—not out of love or respect, but simply because he hasn’t yet learned the etiquette of minding where his body stops and another begins. He’s four; he’s got an owl puzzle to do, don’t talk to him. I don’t.”

We know on page two that Paul dies. “Before Paul, I’d known just one person who’d gone from living to dead.”  But then Paul comes fully alive for the a major chunk of the novel and we have long since forgotten this reference, though there are vague mentions of a trial now and then, a bit of a tease about the fact that there will be a wrong that society needs to right. Well, maybe.

There are two main storylines, although the one with four-year-old Paul dominates.  Paul and his mother Patra live across the lake, in an area of Minnesota known as “The Walleye Capital of the World.” Our narrator is quirky Linda. She is full of opinions. She sees big-picture stuff. “Winter collapsed on us this year. It knelt down, exhausted, and stayed.” And sees and hears details, too. “He bent down to brush stray needles from his slacks, and on impulse I thrust out a hand and brushed as well—swish, swish—against his thigh.”

Both stories involve Linda’a culpability and/or involvement. Could she have done more to save Paul? Should she have been more aware of Paul’s situation? The environment he was growing up in?

The first part of History of Wolves is called “Science” and the second is called “Health.” Anyone who grew up in Christian Science, as I did, will recognize the importance of those two words. One of the epigraphs is from Mary Baker Eddy and there are a few quotes a references to “C.S.” within the story, but the issue of healing through faith is not tackled head on. Well, it's not tackled as directly as I might have preferred. Or was hoping. (Fridlund's acknowledgements reference Barry Lopez, Sigurd Olson, Helen Hoover and "Caroline Fraser's excellent and harrowing book God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, as well as two other titles that are clearly critical of the Fridlund notes that Paul's case is a "fictionalized composite" of many cases of children who were given no choice in whether they received medical care or not.) 

So Linda could have, perhaps, done more or taken a savvier, more analytical approach to Paul’s home environment across the lake. But, what? It’s hard to believe any 14-year-old (even with the keen insights of Linda, who is really 15 by the time she’s considered Paul’s “governess”) would have done more to sound an alarm. Maybe? Maybe. Again, this issue is diffused and hard to grasp. Linda is also from an odd family that lives in the remnants of a former commune; was that a factor in how Linda views the world?

The other issue deals with Linda’s involvement with a history teacher who is being hounded by rumors and who is ultimately accused of pedophilia. Linda has encounters and a brief, PG-rated encounter with Mr. Grierson that she initiates. We keep wondering what has happened to Linda’s beautiful classmate Lily.

On the plus side, you have to hand it to Emily Fridlund for avoiding, at every turn, the obvious tropes. The references to a “trial” make you think "History of Wolves" will turn into something written by Scott Turow and the teases about the storyline with Mr. Grierson suggest the start of something tawdry or salacious or—but no. And that’s fine. I loved the structure in the sense that some of the useful backstory of Linda’s upbringing is dropped deep into the second half, giving readers a chance to piece the puzzle together in a non-linear fashion. History of Wolves skips back and forth in time with ease, all powered by Fridlund’s effortless style.

"History of Wolves" is worth reading. The awards suggest I’m in the minority, but I was expecting more a punch to go with all that gorgeous prose.

The teenage years are difficult no matter what your background, but Linda/Mattie has grown up in a commune in the woods of northern Minnesota making her an automatic outsider to the 'mean girls' at her school. Her parents aren't at all nurturing though I get the sense that her father wishes he could be but just doesn't know how. The mother seems to be self-indulgent and bitter that their great commune experiment failed.

Linda attaches herself to a young mother and child who are staying in the area. It's obvious she looks to Patra as a role model of sorts and their relationship is disrupted by the arrival of Patra's husband. It was interesting to see the close relationship between Linda and the child Paul since Linda hadn't really had any experience with children before being the youngest in the commune.

The book is very well written and though it jumps back and forth in years of Linda's life, it's easy to follow. I was surprised Linda didn't seem more upset by the incident with Paul (no spoilers) though it was a pivotal point in her life.

I have mixed feelings as to whether I really liked the book, but I found it intriguing and interesting.

This beautiful and heartbreaking novel richly deserves the praise it has received. Fridlund has created a wonderful character in Maddie/Linda; her confusion, pain, and regret radiates throughout the book in a way one seldom sees. The plot unfolds slowly, with bits and pieces of the tragedy peeking through. The setting is perfectly rendered- you will be able to see, smell, and feel the woods, the lake, the people. I'm very grateful to Grove Atlantic for the ARC because this is one that will stick with me. It's so thoughtful and generous, even to the individuals who might otherwise have been made out as villains - recognizing that people are all conflicted. I'm really looking forward to whatever Fridlund writes next. This might be termed a literary novel by some but it deserves wide distribution. Please try it.

Reading History of Wolves is like taking a walk through a cemetery, a meandering stroll through something quiet and haunting. You'll read this book and feel the weight of silence on your shoulders, the weight of loneliness. Everything will seem inevitable, the changing of the seasons, the movements of animals, the beginning and ending of life. Fridlund teases these feelings out of you with her careful prose. The protagonist Linda's scattered-yet-connected accounts of her life are simultaneously detached and sad. Let me be clear, this is not a happy story. This is a story of growing up wanting things and not getting them, of seeking things and not finding them, and of learning some of the lesser known harsh truths of human existence. You shouldn't read this if you don't enjoy sadness in literature. If that is your cup of tea, however, then you will be pleased with Fridlund's artistry and deep, visceral imagery, as well as her take-no-prisoners honesty when it comes to portraying characters and their flaws. This book plays out like a Greek tragedy, and Linda is a one-woman chorus. 4/5 stars from me, mainly because I can't in good conscience recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

3.5 stars
If you were to tell me that you got lost in this novel, I would have to agree with you. If you were to tell me that, there were many good stories in this novel, I would agree with you. If you were to tell me that, you didn’t find this novel a bit strange or unusual, I would have to question you about this.

I think that this is one of those novels that what I acquire out of it, could be different than another individual reading it. It would all depend on the individual who read it. My premise of this whole novel, why I read so many interesting stories, each story cutting across each other, their beginnings coming and going without any notice, was that Linda was trying to fit into each one of them, somewhere. Throughout each story, the time period not a concern, she was trying to put herself in the picture. I found myself frustrated many times as I read. Deeply involved in the storyline, it suddenly would change and I would find myself adjusting to a new situation as Linda carried on in another time period in her life. I also was confused as I didn’t understand why the author chose to elaborate more on some stories and others I thought needed more attention. I felt cheated, I wanted more information and details on the stories which the author cut short. There were always talk about a trial scattered about in the novel and I wondered what happened that made her go to court and what was her position in the courtroom? Her life was far from boring and I think that was because she was adventurous, she was a seeker, always wanting to see what was outside her door.

This book was nothing like I expected or wanted it to be. I did enjoy the author’s stories and her writing definitely captivated me. It was an interesting and challenging read for me. I would like to read more by this author.

Possibly the most beautifully written book since "All the Light we Cannot See." A haunting, lyrical, disturbing novel that explores several themes, some of which only become apparent toward the end. It is a coming of age story in which the setting is the dominant feature. Hauntingly depicted, the loneliness and loveliness of the Minnesota Northwoods stars in this story. Only complaint is the last paragraph, which leaves more questions than it answers...which is probably the author's intent. Those who hated this book have missed a beautifully told story that will leave you thinking about it long after you finish. "Wolves" is a gem.

Many of us in middle or later life reflect on formative events of our youth. Sometimes we recall and confirm how what we did was the right thing; other times we have regrets and wonder if we might have done something different. The protagonist of Emily Fridlund’s novel titled, History of Wolves, recalls at age 37 a summer when she was fourteen. At that time she was living with her parents on the site of a former commune in the woods of Northern Minnesota. When a family moves into a house across the lake, she becomes a part-time babysitter to a four-year-old boy. What she fails to observe at that time leads her to reflect on being a guilty bystander to tragedy that might have been averted had she intervened. Fridlund reflects on love in this novel and what we choose to do or not do to those we love to belong to something larger than ourselves or to become accepted by others.

I've just finished this book and I'm going back over the story in my mind, trying to fully savor it. There are so many profound ideas here. I'm looking forward to having some time later to reread parts and think more about it.
This would be a perfect book for a book club. There are certainly a lot of things to discuss. A key question concerns the relationship between belief and action. Are we accountable for what we do, in spite of what we imagine or believe? Is belief enough? Can belief alone change outcomes? Are consequences acceptable if done with pure motives? Can we, or should we, be held responsible for something merely fantasized about but not acted on?
The story is set in a small town in Minnesota. The protagonist is a teenage girl who has grown up on acres of forested wilderness amid the many lakes surrounding her parents rustic two-room cabin. Her character is so well-developed and complex, I feel that I know her, and empathize with her reactions to the tragic events that occur. It's heartbreaking to watch her teenage mind try to make sense of something that is nearly impossible for most adults to comprehend. Although she is strong in many ways, she is also needy, and suffers from guilt and self doubt when this terrible event occurs.
I won't give too much more information about this since I don't want to spoil it for you. It's a real page-turner, but one with substance. There is plenty to think about. You can't go wrong reading this. It will be a book you will remember for a long time, and possibly reread.
Note: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

By the time I got around to cracking open History of Wolves, I'd forgotten the plot entirely and just let the narrator take me where she would. I suggest you read it that way too, because the dread builds slowly and steadily such that I practically read each chapter peeking out from my fingers, wondering if this is when the terrible thing finally happens but realizing instead I'd just read another chapter about the outdoors (Fridlund is one of the few authors who has tricked me into reading long passages about nature without skimming or complaining.) It's not really a traditional "thriller," but I found it very thrilling and unsettling this way.

Really I think anything I say further about the book will be a spoiler in some way, so give it a read!

Of the two children --the narrator Madison herself and the younger neighbor boy Paul --, one has been raised by a mother who doesn't believe in God and who is not a hands-on parent. The other just the opposite. One child dies but the other almost envies them anyway. Thoughts vs action comes into play many times throughout, and you may flip flop each time as to which is more damaging and which is preferable, especially as the narrator herself has such a major creep factor yet never acts on much of anything ever.

There is also that uncomfortable feeling when you realize Madison/Mattie/Linda has gotten you to stick up for the predators (the wolves) of the world instead of their prey. Your heart will break for her when she considers the neighbor family her own, when she wants to be noticed so much she'll risk being alone with a probable sex offender, or when her mother openly wishes she were normal yet doesn't recognize she's never given Madison any of the tools it would have taken to get there.

Just as Madison finds with her school project on wolf research, there are no true alpha's in the world, just those who switch from alpha to beta, from thought to action, from hero to villain, from family to hired help, from one form of matter to another, depending on the weather or the situation.

This is a very good book I will mull over in my head for a long time.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher. They did not ask for a review but they're getting one anyway.

The story is about Linda - the protagonist, the only child ( or is she?) of two former hippies . Linda's parents were members of a commune that had since dissolved and they find themselves living in
the rundown house that once housed the commune residents. Life in the backwoods of Minnesota is anything but luxurious for Linda and her family and Linda learned to exist. Her parents were aloof or mentally not available, I'm not sure quite which. It's as though they expected her to raise herself which she pretty much did. And not without mistakes. This is a coming of age story of a young girl seeking trust in her judgement and connection with others.

I really enjoyed the concept of this story because it's plausible. I also liked that there are multiple layers to the story because it gives depth. Here's where I say "but." But sometimes you can add one layer too many and not give enough detail to each one which I felt was the case here i.e.: I wanted more story line about Linda and Mr. Grierson. The story also jumped around randomly which is an idiosyncrasy with me.

All in all I liked the book and the characters though I did want to jump into the book and whack Linda's parents on the head with a bat for their lackadaisical approach to parenting.

This is another time when I’m thankful to my book club for forcing me to read a book that I otherwise most likely would not have read. There’s much to admire about this first novel and, though I debate with myself over how much I actually like it, I find it to be very well done.

I find myself a bit stymied in terms of what I really want to say about this book. I was surprised at the ultimate direction this novel took though, as I thought about it, I was surprised at how long it took me to figure it out as the clues are all there from the very beginning right down to the quotes before the story begins. That I take to be high praise because I rarely find myself misled. At first, this appeared to be about growing up in rural Minnesota with improper relationships being the focus—a student is seduced by a teacher (is she?) who is found with child pornography and sent to jail. But this is more of an early red herring. What we truly have here is a story of families and how parents make wrong choices for what they feel are the right reasons. It becomes a very powerful tale.

There was one thing missing for me, however, and that was emotion. I felt that I should have felt more about these characters as we came to the end and everything was out in the open. Part of it was because Linda, our narrator, comes across as so detached from everything that has happened. Her detachment is meant to be part of her character but, since we are seeing things through her eyes, her detachment becomes our own. Also, the laying out of the plot is beautifully intricate—I loved her wonderful use of foreshadowing—but the weaving around in time made it difficult to build to an emotional release.

Still, this is a book well worth reading. The story is interesting and the characters are wonderfully drawn, not just Linda but her parents and the Gardner family across the lake. It is also a book that brings out some tricky themes about parenthood and religion that are well worth thinking about. I am interested to see where Ms. Fridlund goes from here.

For the reader who is drawn to fiction in which the natural environment is a character, this book is a must-read. For the reader who is drawn to the freshness of debut fiction, this book can easily go to the top of the list. But, if the reader prefers happy stories, this book would not be a fit. A depressed outsider teenager, who is much like a wolf herself, leads us into her world. A world that is unrelentingly bleak.

The writing is artfully accomplished. The plot twists and turns, twisting and turning the characters.

Set in a remote town in Minnesota, History of Wolves initially paints a picture of loner Linda developing a crush on her male teacher, leading the reader to leap to some ready assumptions about where this book is headed. However, the story soon diverges when the Gardiner family mores into a nearby home. Leo, Patra and son Paul all seem a little strange, and Linda gravitates towards them, eventually getting work as Paul's baby-sitter.

Linda makes Patra into an object of affection and is very uncomfortable when her academic husband Leo shows up. Caring for Paul is something of a challenge for her; he is both backward and infuriating at times, but Linda manages to get him interested in games mimicking her woodcraft skills.

Eventually this scenario goes sour, as Leo starts to assert his authority and tries to get rid of Linda. She resists, but it does not end well.

I mostly enjoyed this book and would probably rate it more highly except that I found the ending very dissatisfying, and Fridlund's attempt to reconcile the Gardiner and teacher threads of her story felt very unconvincing to me.

There is a story here, I missed it. It seems to be mostly a rambling assortment of memories and since I could associate with many of them it held my interest. Maybe it is because of my age, but I recall keeping a bucket of water on the wood stove so we could thaw out the pump to pull more water from the well, pumping the handle to retrieve that precious resource. No indoor plumbing meant trips to the outhouse in below freezing windy weather. At least we had electricity. There is also a lesson on some type of religion. Since I do not have much I do not criticize any, but over the years stories of children who suffered and even died because of parental beliefs has filled me with anger. I can say the entire book seemed more likely to interest some who lived in the far northern wilderness of Unite States, where lakes are abundant, summers are short and life is arranged around the weather. To some folks this is a delight, I am just not one of those folks.

We learn in the first few pages that 4-year-old Paul won’t survive, but it’s not clear why or how he will die. The story is told by Paul’s babysitter, Linda. During the time she was babysitting Paul, Linda was 14, but she’s currently in her 30s (I think) and narrating a story that took place in the past. This somewhat convoluted perspective gives us an adult’s view of a teenager’s experience. As readers, we watch the story unfold slowly and with an increasing sense of dread. 14-year-old Linda is just as clueless as we are, but the older, more mature narrator drops hints from time to time that increase the tension. For me, this novel was affecting and interesting, but something about it seems incomplete. Linda’s character was passive to the point of unbelievability at times. Also, the secondary plotline involving Linda’s history teacher didn’t fit into the novel well, in my opinion. Flawed but compelling.

This book is strange, disturbing, and skillfully pervaded with intense loneliness and pain. It is a coming of age story of a teenage girl interlaced with the juxtaposition of good and evil. Amongst detailed descriptions of the woods and lakes in rural Minnesota, the author portrays Linda’s apartness from her former hippie commune parents and her small approaches to intimacy with others. Somewhat magical and dreamlike at times, the story grips the reader.

My only criticism to the excellent writing is that, towards the last part of the novel, there is too much detail about Linda’s past life and that of her mother. This could have been more appropriately revealed earlier in the story and would have clarified some of the other events.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

This was a difficult book to rate. I have very mixed feelings about it. There are parts of it that I really loved and other parts I disliked and did not care for. First thing I have to say the writing as a debut novel is good. I love how the author described the sets here be it snow covered woods and all the details she gave about the cabins etc. What I did not enjoy about the writing was the jump to different time frames or the sudden change in subject. Sometimes I feel some subjects had no build at all to them while others the build-up just went on and on endlessly.

The whole story is told from the perspective of the protagonist Madeline when she was 14 years old. Her relationship with her neighbors Patra and her son Paul, her relationship with her school professor Mr. Grierson who was arrested because of having an inappropriate relationship with a student and about Madeline and her obsession with Lilly (The girl who accused the professor).

The story was awkward. I love that it is a literary and appreciate its value but I could not digest that the book ended without any strong impact on any of those connections that Madeline had with the different people. For me to enjoy a book or even a story there have to be some redeeming values to it, some sort of goals. What was Madeline trying to achieve that is still a puzzle to me. I feel the book has the potential but the execution is not proper. The ideas the author is trying to say are still vague, at least to me.

I would go with a 3.5 out of 5.0 rating which is still positive.

What a stunning debut novel, riddled with highly visceral and evocative prose! History of Wolves is immensely tense and uncomfortable from beginning to end, which was an unwitting motivator to read it through in just a day and a half. The nonlinear narrative and the sense of separation from the narrator herself made for a voyeuristic sense of curiosity throughout. Though I felt a disconnect from the protagonist, the character herself was very well developed. Her desires, motivations, and innermost thoughts seemed very much the product of her unconventional, lonely childhood.

I won't go into great detail into plot points I appreciated or disliked so as to not spoil it for anyone. That said: I wish there would have been more resolution regarding the relationship of mother and daughter.

I would recommend this title if you enjoy psychological plots and unreliable narration.

3.5 stars.

Even as Emily Fridlund's debut novel is narrated in retrospect by 14-year-old Linda during the time she roamed the lakes and woods near her home in Northern Minnesota, the novel's strength is clearly found in its sense of setting, its detailed descriptions, its beautiful prose, and its slow escalation of foreboding in an otherwise idyllic backdrop. Fourteen-year-old Linda narrates this coming-of-age story, complete with silences, mood swings, uncertainties, and gaps of information. The story centers around her attempt to make sense of three things: a teacher, Mr. Grierson, being charged with sexual misconduct; the behavior of pretty classmate, Lily; the dynamics at work in the Gardner Family, for whom she becomes a babysitter or governess to four-year-old, Paul. Critics have noted disappointment in Fridlund's decisive lack of prodding deeply into Linda's takeaway after events that summer take a dark turn, but I would argue that her very lack in doing so is the author's nod of authenticity to Linda's helter-skelter upbringing and to her adolescent process of the adult behavior around her. I would also suggest that the gaps that Fridlund leaves is a testimony to allowing the reader to fill them in with their own knowledge and life experiences. As in life, not everything in Linda's narrative is neat and tidy; to the contrary, as in life, parts of it are messy, open-ended, and unclear.

We hear the phrase "perception is e everything" as a mantra for uncertain times. In this novel, we are given Madelaine's point of view as a fifteen year-old who is isolated from world experience by her parents, ex-hippies and commune survivors, and their rustic life in the Minnesota woods. Much more attuned to nature than people, she struggles to define her experiences. We also have her reflections some fifteen years later on the events and people crucial to who she has become.

The development of who we are and what we do as a consequence of perception is the powerful focus here.

Fridlund’s debut novel concerns a lonely girl in the woods of northern Minnesota (Linda) who gets involved first with a history teacher and the student he is accused of molesting and later with a Christian Science family, the Gardners. The novel suffers from a slow, plodding start and a confusing, odd ending, but the middle part, after the Gardner family visits Duluth, is compelling. Fridlund writes well, jumping around in time, using veiled references to what’s happening without actually saying what’s happening, presaging events that will eventually be explained (“the trial”), making past references to a commune on which Linda lived, slowly revealing the details of the story, and generally providing a mysterious, foreboding atmosphere.

The author relies on few metaphors and similes, using instead interesting verb choices. “The wet grass was tentacled with shadows …” “I looked up and saw dozens of white sails, all gorged with wind.” Music "bloomed steadily into the room." “… I watched [the lake] net the first few bits of new sun.” “Her fetid breath and her hand on my arm made something squirrel through my gut.” "... shadows and sun curtained the black road in front of us ..."

Unfortunately, most of the characters are unlikeable, particularly the petulant main character, Linda. Fridlund tries to do a bit too much, offering three or four stories: the history teacher accused of molesting the student; the Gardner family; Linda’s life after the trial; and to some extend, her life at the commune.

I couldn’t put this book down, read it in two days. Just picked it up at a bookstore, because I liked the title and it was Mann Booker finalist. It had me after a few pages. I didn’t know exactly what I was reading. It felt like a murder mystery, where the only thing you know for about the first hundred pages is that something terrible happened, but you don’t know what. It was that and the story of the Linda, the young girl going up in some marginal post-hippy family in the Minnesota woods. Has elements of what might be pedophilia or sexual abuse, or is it? The author definitely weaves a spell and keeps you in suspense whatever it is.

Do not waste your beautiful life on this. Every hour you spend reading this is lost time in your life. I wish I had read a review that warned me of this trash. Read something beautiful, useful, something lovely, intelligent, interesting. I felt like I flushed the hours of my life that I spent reading this book down the toilet. It was really that bad. Normally, I would not want to criticize a writer harshly. There is nothing to it. I'm surprised it's been published at all. Typically I try to only write reviews for books I like, but it is important to let you know that this is a BAD book. Just Don't.

14-year-old Madeline lives in the woods of northern Minnesota with her parents. They're nearly all alone there until a young family moves in, and Linda is roped in as a babysitter for 4-year-old Paul. She watches him nearly every day while the father is out of town and the decade plus younger wife edits his non-fiction book. She doesn't fit in with the family, much like how she doesn't fit in at school, or with her family.

At school, she's fascinated with a classmate, Lily. There are rumors across the school that Mr. Grierson, the new history teacher, is a child pedophile, that Lily claims he kissed her. There are mentions of a trial in the book, but I wasn't certain if it was to his trial, to Paul, etc. I was a little over a hundred pages in and had to shelve the book. While very well-written, it moved too slowly. It didn't feel like anything was happening for me, so I couldn't continue. Linda was a boring character, as was the family to me. I gave it three stars, even though the book wasn't for me, I could understand why some appreciated it.

A woman recounts several formative experiences of her past, with a particular focus on her experiences with a neighboring family when she was a young teenager. The novel reads kind of like Gilead, capturing the spirit and mood of a place in time. It is not as philosophical as Gilead; it is more personal, subtle, psychological, and troubling. It explores whether thoughts and intent matter more than actions, guilt, how traumatic experiences create ripples throughout one’s life. It is a terrific book, but the nuanced characterizations and relatively mellow actions may make it a slow read for some.

Thinking of the opening blurb (see above) by Aimee Bende. She writes: "one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book."

Not sure what Bende is accustomed to, but that sledgehammer will beat the minimally attentive reader over the head from page one. If the world can be divided into those who see the world as a cup half full or half empty, the teen-aged narrator sees the world as a cup half empty; but not just half empty---a half empty cup of rotting milk squirming with fetid curdles on a table of filth and maggots under the searing heat of a summer's day. (The searing heat and humidity of the summer is a recurring theme.)

And she's bored.

And she's miserable. She's tells us she's miserable and bored repeatedly. By the middle of the book, and in the space of four or five pages, she tells us she's miserable three times, once while she's masturbating. There's nothing beautiful in the landscape of this book that isn't also seething with rot and decay.

And there's not a shred, not a atom's worth of humor. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch. She can bring her mother to her tear-stained hands and knees begging for the faintest, merest flicker of happiness. The reader might be tempted to join the narrator's mother.

And its not enough for the narrator to be miserable. She enjoys and curates the misery of others with the idle and disdainful curiosity of a quasi-sociopath; then, when death results, is concerned only insomuch as it disrupts her self-absorption. And what about all those other characters? It's never clear what motivates them. They're like greasy hot dogs revolving in the oven of the character's own apathy and misery. The book ends with a brief and awkward summation of the novel's underlying themes. The very fact that the author/narrator feels compelled to reprise/spell out the underlying themes, however, speaks to a certain failure in the story's telling.

Beautifully written, by the way, but god what a bleak existence...

History of Wolves was one of those novels that I would scramble for any chance I got.

I took my time enjoying Emily Fridlund's writing--which was truly beautiful, there's no denying that--but there was plenty that I struggled with; the relationship between Lily and Mr. Grierson, for example. In the end, I feel like I had more question than answers.

But the writing was exquisite and the characters well-formed. All in all, I really enjoyed it and look forward to seeing what comes next from Fridlund.

This is a novel about growing up unsafe. Some of us do. Having been raised in Christian Science, this book was therapeutic for me. Instead of commenting on the experience of growing up unsafe or critiquing a fringe religion, Fridlund miraculously puts the reader inside that very confusing and frightening experience and thereby more profoundly comments upon it. This book allowed me to mourn for my younger self.

I had high hopes for this book! Started out mildly intriguing, then ran out of steam fast and just went on and on without much happening. I stayed up until 2am on a night when I had a job interview the next day to blaze through the last hundred or so pages in anticipation of the much-hyped surprise ending, but instead it plodded to its conclusion in a manner just as tedious and interminable as the rest of it. Maybe it was because I was raised Canadian, but I am just so over the whole plaintive-teenage-girl-being-raised-somewhere-that-kind-of-sucks genre, talking about the woods a lot, observing the migration habits of geese - all this is one of the most well-worn conceits of Can-Con and it's not a way for an emerging American writer to distinguish herself. The characters were not compelling enough for you to care about them much, and the kid was annoying, and the relationships were disconnected, and it all just made this relatively short novel feel like a marathon. Just my 2c: this particular book isn't worth the time commitment, but I'm adding a star for some decent writing. Maybe novel #2 will be worth a look.

This book tells the story of a young woman and her interactions with her parents, people who had been part of a communal attempt that fell apart, and some neighbors and their son. There is some drama here, and the voice seems authentic. However, the parents of the child, who are Christian Scientists, never explain their prospective on what's happening beyond a few trite phrases and I would have enjoyed more back and forth on these issues between them. It is not boring and having spent some time in this geographical area helps.

I was given a free copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful language. A story that includes a weird family situation, a loner girl in the rural north and her involvement with an emotionally disturbed family. Great, mysterious plot with wonderful pacing. Addresses the rights of parents in not using standard medical care because of religious choices and the devastating consequences. This was a very disturbing book. Highly recommended.

This is a wonderful book and should be read by anyone who wants to become a writer. The rest of us should read it for the joy of experiencing really good writing. I look forward to the author's next book.

This is very, very good writing and a very quietly compelling read. I held back from a 5 rating based mostly on the subplot of the mechanic romance, I felt that was the only weak point in this amazing book. I found it very hard to put down & the characters stayed with me for days after I finished. I can't say enough & should probably have rated his a 5!

Madeline Furston lives in a woodsy Minnesota lake town with her parents (the last remaining members of a commune that's gone kaput). Some of her malaise is of the ordinary 14 year old girl variety: she feel invisible to peers, misunderstood by her parents, and lonely--but when she gets entangled with a new family that moves in across the lake, she's finds herself in the middle of a dynamic more complex and dangerous than anything she's equipped to understand, and the fallout from her time with them will haunt her well into adulthood. This is a distressing but beautiful read. The writing is fierce and gritty and the setting and characters are wrought in such perfect detail that you'll swear they're just at the end of some deep woods dirt road. If this new release is a harbinger of books to come in 2017, I'm stoked.

Emily Fridlund first novel opens with a tightly wrought, intensely written first chapter, and goes downhill thereafter. It’s well known that she produced that chapter as a short story for a writing class at USC and later expanded it into the novel we see today. The rest of the novel is not up to the standard of the original material.

While Fridlund writes well, there were two things that detracted from my pleasure in reading this work. She tries to cram too many different story strands into the one work, without doing sufficient justice to many of them to justify their being present. The stories of Mr. Grierson, the pedophile and sexually assaulting teacher; of Lily, the victim teen for whom Madeleine/Linda has an attraction; of the failed commune; of Linda’s growth into adulthood, with a number of off putting sexual hangups; of the oh so trendy bullying at the local school; and finally of Linda’s relationship with Patra, Leo and Paul: too much of too many good things, with insufficient space and attention given to most of them.

Worst of all, while I am hardly the reader craving a happy ending or the depiction of a fetching and admirable central figure, for me Linda is a very disagreeable and unpleasant central character, as perhaps best seen in the work’s denouement [no spoiler here]. Linda’s sexual hangups lurk like an unpleasant animal just below the surface of most of the novel.

I was drawn to finish the novel quickly—two days perhaps—but disturbed every step of the way. The vision of the book is unrelentingly dark. I can read just about anything, but I am sorry to have finished this, as “well written” in conventional terms as it is.

The title intrigued. The turn of phrase ranged often from good to amazing. But the story just didn't go anywhere. In all the book disappointed greatly. I kept wading through the skip-around narrative expecting light. But there was none. I am an avid reader. Love a good book. But this one did not deliver that sense of grace and enlightenment that a good read offers.

You know immediately what is going to happen to Paul. It is a touching story in parts and also confusing. Especially the way Linda’s life keeps flipping back and forth. I wanted to finish it. To know where it was going, but I didn’t feel that she deserved an unhappy life in the end.
Hat happened was never her fault

This debut like many feels very autobiographical. Emily Fridlund shares with her creation Linda an upbringing in Minnesota, and probably in the kind of tourist-town turned isolated winter village off-season. She captures well the feel of the winter, the expanse of its lakes, and the silence of the woods.

There, Linda meets, across one lake, a family which brings her on to look after their son. The oddity of the trio increases and builds to a well-written scene about pancakes for a late-night breakfast. The juxtaposition of simple routines with underlying menace Fridlund pulls off successfully. The novel also explores the inner unease misfit Linda feels in her home, and her relative estrangement from her parents, who are under-emphasized for much of the narrative so as to heighten Linda's other "family."

Religious contexts emerge in allusions which accumulate but remain scattered. I did not, therefore, catch on to the mindset of the weird trio, which may mirror Linda's own perceptions. One challenge is that with her point-of-view limiting much of our knowledge, this context persists in shady style.

Speaking of style: "Then my father slung the mattress over his shoulder like the body of a disheveled fat person he loved and wished to save." Her boyfriend puts on a white t-shirt and for a moment, his face turns into a mask beneath it. These metaphors are rare, but they feel realistic as their sparsity fits with the recollections of a matter-of-fact teller of this tale, twenty-two years after the main event. That central plot interested me less than the author must have wanted; the opening chapter (which on its own won awards as a short story and as a novel shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize) caught my attention much more and remains an underlying theme. The character Linda tries to bond with left me annoyed. She must have shared my reaction, but I reckon Fridlund wanted us to be fascinated instead.

Similarly, the aftermath which Linda records and intersperses into a chronology which breaks up and makes the timeline fragmented as if occurring to her all much later, became more vivid and despite its ordinariness, more real than the main event. This I am sure is all intentional, but be forewarned that this novel requires attention to follow. It's promising, with a convincing narrative voice and setting.

This book is incredible. Dark and insightful, vivid and emotional resonant. You need to trust the writer as you move through this book, believing that you will understand more and more as you go. And you truly do. Fridlund has an uncanny understanding of being young and isolated, and the lengths we go to come of age without true guidance.

History of Wolves - this book is a subtle and captivating story of growing up, belonging and consequence. The language, setting and narrative voice, for me, were perfection. I look forward to reading more of fridlund’s work

Mixed emotions on this book. The writing is superb and in the first seven or eight chapters the pace is good and keeps you interested but after that, things go a little awry. There’s a certain subject in the book (which I won’t reveal here) that keeps getting visited and I don’t understand why and after all that and the way the ending just veered off into really nothing, was kind of a letdown but I would still recommend it. Ms. Fridlund is an extraordinarily talented writer and with hope, her next book effort nails it.

I don't even know, man. For some reason it spoke to my soul--I'll definitely have some food for thought the next few days.
The language was beautiful, the main character "Linda" as she gets called is both utterly mysterious and somehow still incredibly understandable, the storyline kept me hungry throughout my intake. I couldn't put it down.
So happy I picked this up for my weekend in.

This story was satisfying on many levels. The location was stark and real. The main character had an introspective quality. The story had enough ambiguity to keep me reading steadily. And the cover of the book is gorgeous.

I'm not sure everyone will feel as strongly as I do about this book. It didn't have a twist that blew me away, but the writing. Oh the writing. And the loneliness. The wanting to belong. That desperation. I definitely recommend this one.

Read it in one sitting, so gripping a story and such poetry of references and images. Somewhat painful to read but such honesty psychologically. With the flipping around over 3 times periods of Linda's life, I didn't feel a teeth-grinding craving for a perfect ending.

A strong first half that creates unease and tension but falls apart in the second half as storytelling devices take the priority over the story. Multiple timelines that serve no use and an ending that feels like the author just stopped writing one day.

From the reviews and the pre-pub talk about this book I was expecting much more. On a paragraph by paragraph basis, the writing is good. As a novel with a story line and plot, it stinks. In terms of characterization it never hangs together. I like the lonely, mixed up teenager trying to make sense of the world type story, although it's an old one. And I love the slow revealing of character type story, But this book has nothing to recommend it in my opinion. It's long, meandering and ends up as nothing but a page by page exercise if writing prose.

I started this books with great expectations. And truly the first few chapters, despite being a little schizophrenic, did not disappoint. They set up a story where you feel as if there are a million things wrong (although you cannot quite pinpoint what it is that's wrong), and I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen. Sadly, I waited until the end of the book to find out that really nothing was ever wrong, and indeed nothing ever happened. The main character came off totally unlikable and the dialogue was absolutely terrible, oftentimes making no sense at all. It was pages and pages of tedious reading that constantly skipped around in time and there as never a payoff. If you buy this book, you're really just purchasing overpriced toilet paper. You'll get about 275 wipes out of the book.

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Linda lives in the deep north woods of rural Minnesota with her hippie parents who may not be her parents. She goes to school and has a teacher who may be a pedophile but gives her high marks on a report about wolves. She babysits a 4 yrs old whose parents may have let him die because their religious beliefs don't allow doctoring. Everyone is hiding their deep, dark, damaging secrets.

This was kind of a weird flowing book, the story would swell and move ... then deflate and drag. I nearly gave up on it a couple times.

Agree with all the other one-star reviews. I thought it was going to be about Christian Science and the ethical dilemmas involved in letting a child die because of one's religious beliefs, rather than search for medical help. It wasn't. It jumped all over the place, had lots of miscellaneous extraneous characters and subplots and descriptions, left a lot of issues unresolved at the end. Waste of time. I don't understand why it has garnered so much critical praise. The sex scenes were gratuitous and silly. The dogs played no purpose in the story. Altogether a very strange book.

Unpopular opinion: I didn't like this book. The writing is ..fine. The plot is mostly non-existent. The stream of consciousness style doesn't bother me, but other than the bits that are clearly foreshadowing, it doesn't seem to be meandering its way to anywhere. The opening chapter, which won an award on its own, is much more compelling than the rest of the book but also entirely unrelated to 90% of the rest of the book. This was definitely a 2.5 star read for me.

As others have mentioned in their reviews, the only reason I kept reading was because it did receive 4 & 5 stars from others so I was hoping it would get better...sadly, it did not. I had to email an English teacher friend, who I'm assuming is more open minded about literature than myself, and ask her what the hell I had just read. I am very familiar with the "northwoods" and do agree that her descriptions of the woods and nature were beautiful, so I'll go with that as my "nice thing to say".

I gave it two stars because I wanted to keep reading...why, I’m not sure. The author’s style was confusing and nonsensical. I found myself re-reading paragraphs several times trying to make sense of what she was trying to say. In the end, I was frustrated and depressed...not the way I want to feel after spending hours reading a book.

I listened to this book and was bored from disc one right to the end. Why did I listen so Long? Because the reviews said it was “awesome” and I was waiting for Awesome to happen.

I have NO IDEA what was going on in this long overblown narrative. I would love to know the editor who sat and read this and then gave the author a deal, because have I got some authors for her/him/them.

I do not like giving negative reviews, but I did not get this novel at all.

SPOILERS: I was anticipating reading this book before the sale date. I read the description in a booklist magazine and it sounded like the type of story I would enjoy. Being a fan of Stephen King and other horror writers, I was expecting something much different from a book that was described as "shocking" and "disturbing." Instead I was given a bland and disappointing ending. I excepted the father, Leo, to be a murderer or someone with a dark secret. The writing builds up to that, because his wife is obviously intimidated by him. I thought Leo's character would symbolize a wolf and his wife and son as sheep, but the book has little to do with wolves other than the main character, Linda, is obsessed with them for reason. It's never explained why.
So besides the main antagonist being a disappointment, Linda was also an unlikeable character. It frustrated me her lack of sympathy and emotion over the boy's death. This story had the potential, but the author went about it all wrong I feel. Maybe it would have been a better book if the shocking climax (barely a climax at all) was something more than religious belief causing the death of a young boy.

As an avid reader, I have relatively high expectations of the books I choose to read. Clearly, Ms. Fridlund is skilled with diction and painting an graphic image with her words. However, the story itself ends up lying flat as a pancake. At best, it is meandering, but it is often disjointed and nonsensical - which to me exposes the arrogance of an author who is so convinced of the luster of her prose that she expects her readers to overlook the lack of any admirable characters or cohesive plot to the story. While obviously striving to reveal some deeper meaning to life, the story ends up annoying more than evoking any meaningful thought. The main character lacks almost any redeeming or likable quality, and we are forced to live inside the mind of a strange and sociopathic girl who never manages to gain our admiration or sympathy. The other players are also pathetic and boring. The result is vastly unsatisfying. I only stuck with it to learn what not to do in my own writing.... I'm frankly surprised this got published.

I really wanted to like this book but I felt myself becoming bored with it. The story is interesting but the author could have done a much better job telling it. One great thing about this novel is that the characters are very full and developed. Though the parents of Paul do something that most people would find despicable, I found myself sympathizing with them and believing that their intentions were good. I have to say, though, that I disagree with the reviews that say that this book was "haunting". The stories in it were haunting but instead of coming off as haunting, they just came off as king of sad.

The roundabout story-telling style and the loose ends did not make this book enjoyable for me. I kept waiting for it to get somewhere and it never really does. A neglected girl, rambling about past/present interchangeably and never reaching a climax.

This book keeps getting nominated and even short listed for prestigious literary prizes by juries whose judges are writers who share the same agent, NIcole Aragi, as the author of this horrible book. It's very suspicious given all the negative reviews on the store, goodreads and other places. It's not being nominated on merit, but rather by biased, planted judges. There are certainly more worthy books published that deserve the recognition.

Never could get the rhythym of this book..dull narrative and the characters never developed well enough for me to take an interest..Put it down in the middle and never picked back up...not a good sign...sigh..

I enjoyed skating along with this creative writing graduate's elongated essay of a female adolescent's voyage through her turbulent teens. The non-plot was occasionally spiced with a glimpse into her young adult years complete with occasional sexual episodes and visions of her eighth grade history teacher and hippie parents. So how does this fairly interesting no plot novel end? Absolutely awful.

This book will not download even though it was purchased from the store. Only sample appears no matter how many times I try. the store paid receipts keep popping telling me book is downloaded but after many attempts it always stops after sample

What is with this trend of books with completely emotionless narrators/main characters? I've read a whole bunch of books this year that have gotten rave reviews and yet are BORING and lifeless because the main character is apparently a robot with zero emotional components. This is another one. It does not make for interesting reading.

This is an exercise in literary virtue. Carefully crafted, expertly elaborated, refined in its minimal details. Feels flat as a board. No empathy, no life in it. Just an author showing off how good she wants to be at writing. A waste of my time; it didn't have the flow of life and the shared tangible emotion of anything worth reading.

The most boring book I have had the displeasure to read in a very long time. I find it hard to believe that this book received such glowing reviews in several trusted places. Pointless drivel. Torture to finish but hoping something satisfying would occur but no such luck.

Whoever recommends this book is OUT OF THEIR MIND.It's boring, grim, filled with ENDLESS details about the backward, backwoods of Minnesota.The characters are weird and the story pointless.By the end of the book you feel like you wasted time and money.Read this review and save yourself!