Post-apocalyptic, dark dark dark, survival vs. humanity, great ballsy yet complex female lead.

Generally, stories set in a post apocalyptic world are not for me, but this was a definite exception.

This is the story of Elka, left in the care of her Nana at a young age while her parents seek their fortune as miners in the North. Elka is orphaned at age 7, and taken in by a man she knows as "Trapper".

Elka and Trapper live a solitary life in the harsh wilderness. This is a hard life of hunting and surviving that Elka understands and appreciates. When she learns that Trapper is wanted for several murders, she sets out on her own to find her parents.

Elka is comfortable and confident in the wilderness but struggles with understanding whom to trust when encountering other people. Meanwhile she is being tracked by Trapper, and the law, making this an excellently crafted cat-and-mouse thriller.

Excellent read

I really enjoyed this one. I found Elka, the main character, to be very well-written. The book is told entirely from her perspective in dialect but it was a smooth reading experience. The twists added so much depth and quite a bit of heartbreak, but didn't often feel overly dramatic or too out of left field. The pacing was consistent throughout and didn't drag on like so many others that start with a scene from the end at the beginning and work our way back to it.

I would liken this to [b:My Absolute Darling|33572350|My Absolute Darling|Gabriel Tallent|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498911183l/33572350._SY75_.jpg|54375969], which I also enjoyed. Similar troubled father/daughter dynamics (without the sexual abuse) and girl from the wild themes. However The Wolf Road was set in a dystopian world whereas Darling was not.

3 1/2 stars really. It took me a while to get into but then it flew by. I loved the interaction between Penelope and Elka and liked how it ended.

Really liked this debut novel, and it's in my Top 5 for the year. Sort of a "True Grit" meets "The Road" kind of story, if that makes sense. Not for everyone (it's gritty), but I really liked it. Any book with a likeable female protagonist who is trying to survive in the wilderness gets my vote!

Note to self: DNF at 144

The book has several promising moments, but at the end, "The Wolf Road" is too grisly and despairing for this novel to succeed. Elka is a feral girl-woman raised for most of her life by a man she calls Trapper. They live in the cold reaches of what must be Canada a few years after some global war. A chance encounter with the law sets Elka free of Trapper driving her into the wilderness where she encounters other humans and human relationships for the first time in her life. She desperately flees the gruesome past life she and Trapper had and hopes for redemption for past acts. This book has lots of excitement, blood, and thrilling moments, and because of those, I found the book held my interest. But the novel, which could have succeeded without resorting to its ghastly outcome, left me wanting a less distasteful resolution. While I grew accustomed to it, I tired of Elka's method of speech, a silly patois I can only suppose the author used to emphasize her feral nature. I also tired of Elka's repetitious "philosophizing" about the moral rectitude of the wild. Finally, what is tantamount to the final outcome is given right at the very start of the book; the reader knows what happens throughout the entire novel greatly diminishing the excitement of the ending. This book will likely hold your attention should you read it. I just cannot recommend it.

This was horrible. I maybe made it 30 pages.