Wolf Hollow

This review is by Jennifer Donnelly and appeared in the New York Times Book Review on May 8, 2016. I cannot improve on this review so I am submitting it here in full. Hard truths abound in “Wolf Hollow,” Lauren Wolk’s haunting coming-of-age novel, her first book for young readers. The hardest of all is this: Doing right can go very wrong. “The year I turned 12, I learned how to lie,” Annabelle, the main character, tells us as the story opens. That year is 1943. World War II is raging, and families in ­Annabelle’s rural Pennsylvania community have lost sons, but the conflict is a distant one. Annabelle’s life, bounded by her family’s farm and a one-room ­schoolhouse, is sheltered and safe. Her biggest worries are her annoying little brothers and the unruly older boys at school. She’s never had cause to lie. Until the day Betty Glengarry arrives. A city girl, Betty has been sent to live with her grandparents because she’s incorrigible. Her mother can’t handle her; her father’s gone. Betty’s a bully — and much worse, it turns out, than ­incorrigible. “I didn’t know a word that described Betty properly,” Annabelle says, “or what to call the thing that set her apart from the other children in that school.” Betty is a “dark-hearted girl,” one without morals or remorse, who beats Annabelle with a stick and breaks a bird’s neck. Annabelle is afraid of her, but she’s also at an age where children are ­eager to prove their mettle, and decides to handle the threat herself. “Betty was mine to fear, and I decided that she was mine to disarm. If I could. On my own.” She can’t, though, and when Betty’s cruelty escalates — with devastating consequences — Annabelle confides in her parents. When they confront Betty and her grandparents, the wily girl lies her way out of trouble and directs suspicion toward Toby — a reclusive, shellshocked veteran. Betty’s determination to frame an innocent thrusts Annabelle into a predicament far more difficult than deciding whether or not to tattle on a bully. With a child’s single-mindedness, she decides that the right thing to do is to protect Toby — even if pulling that off requires a few wrongs. That lies sometimes succeed while truth fails is only one of the tough complexities Annabelle must face. Early in the book, she recalls asking her grandfather how Wolf Hollow got its name. Long ago, he explains, the people who lived here dug pits to trap wolves. They shot the wolves that were getting “too brave and too many,” and turned their ears in for a bounty. Thinking of the wolves in the pits saddens Annabelle, but her grandfather, “a serious man who always told me the truth, which I didn’t always want,” points out that she didn’t mourn the snake he killed last spring. She replies that copperheads are poisonous, and “that’s different.” “Not to the snake, it isn’t,” her grandfather says. “Or to the God who made it.” This god — the god of wolves, snakes and Betty Glengarry — is an ancient, ­feral deity, one unconcerned with human constructs of right and wrong, and Annabelle soon realizes that pitfalls dark and deep lie hidden on the path to adulthood, some of them large enough to swallow us whole. “Wolf Hollow” is beautifully written, with spare, simple language perfectly suited to its subject and setting. Annabelle narrates in the past tense, and Wolk uses this device to great effect, masterfully balancing a mood of aching regret with an electric sense of ominousness. Painting rural life with an even hand, she shows its beauty and its hardship, the strong ties that bind people who live in the country and the intolerance that sometimes finds root there. The book’s narrative builds suspensefully toward an ending that’s wrenching and true, and in its final pages, Annabelle learns to abide by life’s complexities. She thinks of Wolf Hollow as “a dark place, no matter how bright its canopy, no matter how pretty the flowers that grew in its capricious light,” but also the place “where I learned to tell the truth in that year before I turned 12: about things from which refuge was impossible. Wrong, even. No matter how tempting.” With a precociously perceptive girl as a main character; a damaged, misunderstood recluse; and themes of prejudice and bigotry, comparisons to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” will abound. But Wolk gives us her own story — one full of grace and stark, ­brutal beauty. To read the review at the NYTimes: [...]

This was a really good book. I read it as my daughter will be reading it for homeschool. Never read it before. It’s perfect. It talks about bullies, the outcomes from lies, knowing someone before judging them, following instincts. Soo good. I was teary towards the end too. The version I have has questions for discussion to which makes my job easier to teach my daughter!

The characters in this novel are real & authentic. Love, love, love the character development. Annabelle's voice is strong & her kind and curious nature leads you into the heart of the story. I found the beginning of the book enthralling and I was unable to put the book down. However, as the story began to shift and move toward resolution I felt like the target audience was being missed. I am not sure middle grade readers will stick out the change of pace & tone.

Stories like Wolf Hollow are so fantastic because the remind us that while we hold to nostalgia that other times were "simpler," times, life is never simple, and the truth, when held back can sometimes be more complicated than anything you could imagine. Comparisons have already been made to Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird, and rightfully so. This novel has a similar feeling in its beautiful, and easy prose and in, Annabelle, and it's earnest and charming narrator. What's so wonderful about Wolf Hollow, and is another echo back to Lee's incredible work, is, you can feel that it is timeless. Yes, it is set in 1943, but the experiences, the life lessons, and the heart are true in any era. Annabelle's clear-eyed naivety, but overall desire for good are tempered by her independence, and wilful insistence to seek the truth at any cost. This is a novel I can see easily becoming a new classic, studied and loved in classrooms around the country. Lauren Wolk does such a fantastic job showing you Wolf Hollow through the eyes of Annabelle it's not difficult to see the ridge where Betty, the local bully, waits to torment her classmates. Nor is it difficult to imagine a sociopathic little girl desperate for power and control in her life spinning her web of lies to cover her own misdeeds. Meanwhile, the classic lesson of not judging a person based on his appearance makes the rounds with Toby, the town hermit, who is, of course, far more than meets the eye. I will admit Betty's conniving and hurtful behavior somewhat frightened me at times, but Wolk does a great job at balancing Annabelle's rightful indignation at Betty's foul behavior, with her limited understanding that Betty is another child who has been irrecoverably damaged. Her relationship with Toby is sweet, and gentle, and so good hearted that your heart will break along with Annabelle to learn that the truth isn't always enough to truly set you free in the eyes of your peers, and that life is hardly fair. Annabelle has a strong family unit that sees her though this growth between the year she is eleven and the year she turned twelve, and each character has his and her own role, that is fully realized, and not simply glossed over. From her strong-willed and kind hearted mother and father, to her wily younger brothers, to her bitter, cold-hearted aunt. The writing in Wolf Hollow has such a clear voice that I found this novel easy to read, and its rhythm a steady drumbeat throughout the story. Nothing felt overly hurried, and nothing felt too drawn out - you could feel the pace of life in Wolf Hollow, as sure as you could see Annabelle and her classmates playing in the school-yard, or running down the path to Cob Hollow. It is rare these days that a single line of prose catches me, but with Wolf Hollow, one passage did just that. I'd like to leave you with this in the hopes it will inspire you to pick up the book and enjoy your journey. "If my life was to be just a single note in an endless symphony, how could I not sound it out for as long and loudly as I could?" - Wolf Hollow (p.226 Kindle edition)

My son heard about this book and ask me to get it for him.....and now he's hooked lol great book for teens

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I loved this book. The plot- the plot is gripping and enticing, where Betty, an unknown bully comes to live near Wolf Hollow near Annabel. There is a man, Toby, who is mysterious. Betty makes herself seem innocent for extremely bad things, we know that it isnt Toby who did it, we know it is betty, but the characters do not and thta what makes this book so great. You want to read on because you want the characters ro find out thta it is Betty not Toby!! Characters- Annabel, the main character, very likeable, curious and brave. Toby- Mysterious, and used for blame Betty- Horrible bully, blackmaler, dangerous really. Aunt Lily,- Annabels aunt, who thinks it is Toby, a real obstacle character. All the other characters are really good, but these are the characters who root the book. Style of writing- Lauren Wolk writes in a style that is the same as how you think, so it is enticing and believable. the language is amazing!! Age- I would recommend this for extremely good 10 year old readers+, a book for everybody, from ten to extremely old. I am an advanced 10 year old reader and this book was amazing!!

very nice book got it at very nice condition

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