The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson – a Review

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / BAM / Book Depository

Description:
A captivating tale of humanity pushed beyond its breaking point, of family and bonds of love forged when everything is lost, and of a heroic young woman who crosses a frozen landscape to find her destiny. This debut novel is written in a post-apocalyptic tradition that spans The Hunger Games and Station Eleven but blazes its own distinctive path.

Forget the old days. Forget summer. Forget warmth. Forget anything that doesn’t help you survive in the endless white wilderness beyond the edges of a fallen world.

Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As the memories of her old life continue to haunt, she’s forced to forge ahead in the snow-drifted Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap and slaughter.

Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who brings with him dark secrets of the past and sets in motion a chain of events that will call Lynn to a role she never imagined.

Simultaneously a heartbreakingly sympathetic portrait of a young woman searching for the answer to who she is meant to be and a frightening vision of a merciless new world in which desperation rules, The Wolves of Winter is enveloping, propulsive, and poignant.

Review:

The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson is his debut novel.   I did not know what to expect when I started The Wolves of Winter, but by the time I finished the book, I really enjoyed this post-apocalyptic story, and very impressed with the writing of Tyrell Johnson.

In The Wolves of Winter, we meet the McBride family living in the cold snowy Canadian Yukon, surviving within their igloo and hunting.  Lynn McBride is our young heroine, and through her we learn how they ended up there; the world was decimated by a nuclear war and disease.

Lynn is a tough, smart, vulnerable and very likeable heroine.   She helps her mother, brother, uncle and cousin as they survive in this bitter wilderness.   But then Jax, a loner with a wolf, passes by and the family gives him food.  Jax warns them that there is danger from something called ‘Immunity’, and they learn fast when they are attacked.  Jax, who is very strong and powerful, manages with Lynn, Jeryl (uncle) and brother to kill the attackers.  After giving him food and shelter they find out that Jax is a hunted man. He is being hunted by Immunity, which is something more than scientists that want to cure the disease.

What follows is an interesting, and exciting adventure where Lynn will learn that her beloved deceased father was a scientist that helped start the disease, and when he realized Immunity was using it for a different purpose, he took his family and escaped to Canada.  Lynn will also follow Jax and Jeryl as they try to find the attacker who got away, only to find herself in danger.  This was an intense part, where Lynn will discover everything about the Immunity.  Will she survive?   Why is Immunity interested in Lynn and Jax?

The last ¼ of the book kept me glued to my seat anxious to see what happens.  There is a slight start to a romance between Jax and Lynn, but that will probably be explored in future books.  The Wolves of Winter was a gripping, exciting, tense and intriguing story line that leaves us wanting more.  There is nothing about this being a series, but it leaves a lot open to be continued.  I hope Johnson will continue this series. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher