The Readers #3 The Wolf Road

Book number 3 since I joined The Readers Bookclub was The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis. Chosen by Nikki it seemed like a book I wouldn’t normally pick up but isn’t that the joy of a bookclub? 

Since the Damn Stupid turned the clock back on civilization by centuries, the world has been a harsher place. But Elka has learned everything she needs to survive from the man she calls Trapper, the solitary hunter who took her in when she was just seven years old.

So when Elka sees the Wanted poster in town, her simple existence is shattered. Her Trapper – Kreagar Hallet – is wanted for murder. Even worse, Magistrate Lyon is hot on his trail, and she wants to talk to Elka.

Elka flees into the vast wilderness, determined to find her true parents. But Lyon is never far behind – and she’s not the only one following Elka’s every move. There will be a reckoning, one that will push friendships to the limit and force Elka to confront the dark memories of her past.

Picture a world with the feel of the Wild West, ad mist the Gold Rush, with limited access to modern luxuries such as electricity and antibiotics, small towns built on mud among forests and outcrops formed from falling bombs. Confusing right? Beth Lewis has managed to capture the raw nature of survival. Elka, a young girl, plucked from home from apocalyptic weather, reared by the man who found her, a man later revealed to be a mass murderer. She has no option but to make the journey north in the hopes of finding her parents. A journey full of the unknown and self-discovery can never be easy and it most certainly isn’t for poor Elka.

Where and when the book is set isn’t entirely known. There are mentions of an event called ‘the Damn Stupid’ which some of us at book club assumed this was an allusion to the Cold War. Did combat actually happen with Russia? We do know that the area where the book is set “BeeCee” (possibly British Columbia) should not have been effected and the actual Damn Stupid was bombs falling where they shouldn’t. Whatever did happen, the bombs left a devastating effect on the land and civilisation never progressed in the way it should. As a reader having no definite setting annoyed me but after thinking it over I feel it was important for us to not know and to be slightly confused by the situation. After all if we-the Readers- are confused just imagine how the characters in the book must have felt.

The ending of the book caused a divide among our group as to its effectiveness. The story begins at the end leaving the majority of the book to lead the reader through the life of Elka. To some the ending left much to be desired and was seen as a bit of a let-down after all Elka had been though and what she had come to discover about her life. To others and myself though it ended the only way it could but not to lead into a sequel as Lesley had suggested- without giving too much away.

I did really like this book but it honestly was not my favourite of the three I have read for bookclub but I urge you to give it a read! Our next book was chosen by us all collectively and features a very special dinosaur. That’s right our next book is The Christmasauraus by Tom Fletcher. I can’t wait!

If you lived in a post-apocalyptic world what one luxury could you not live without?

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