ARC Review: Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent

“I enjoyed the book a lot, but it took some time for the story to pick up.”
~ Under the Covers

As I started reading the first few pages I knew I was going to like this retelling of the little red riding hood. A village with an eerie dark forest with monsters and where you hear the voices of those that died asking you to join them? Say no more, I AM HOOKED!

Some of our main characters are what we would expect: there’s the grandma, there’s the wolf, there’s the girl and there is, in fact, a red cape. But this retelling I would say has little relationship with the original story and it deviates in the most interesting ways bringing in a darker, violent side to the story.

I enjoyed the book a lot, but it took some time for the story to pick up. The plot revolves around a small town in the middle of a dark and dangerous forest, and all events happen in this place. After the first thirty percent of the book, things started happening and the stress and underlying danger kept me hooked until the end.

Personally, I found our main character extremely entertaining and compelling. Adele is our narrator who had her whole world thrown upside down as well and the heavy weight of responsibility thrown at her. It really made me enjoy her mental musings concerning her doubts, issues and guilt. She felt extremely human to me. There is also an underlying issue of how far you would go to protect the good of the people. Adele had to make hard choices and live with the consequences. Moreover, the townspeople and secondary characters were incredible portrayed, and I found that they added a lot to the high stakes situation in the story, and the difficulty in some of Adele’s choices.

This is strictly a YA Retelling, with romance as a side section of the story, which adds an interesting flavor but is not central to the story. I really liked how this was handled, because the world itself was very interesting and I did not want too much time spent on romance when she is only 16 years old.

However, the ending was quite abrupt and left me with a few questions unanswered, which begs the question of whether or not the author will pick up this world again. You know that moment when you are reading and suddenly you just reach the end and be “What? It ended? Just like that? Yeah, so that was my lasting impression, and it left me extremely interested to read another book!

But apart from that ending, I enjoyed the book. It would have been a 4 star read for me if the ending had been managed a bit differently, but apart from that, it was great read! It’s a dark, harsh, violent world in this little village surrounded by the dark forest and the choices people make will leave you haunted long after you finish. It’s a quick retelling with huge deviations from the original story that just leave you clueless of how the story will be developed!