The plot of Wolf by Wolf really intrigued me, but it didn't stop there. Throughout reading this novel, I was interested and wanting to know the outcome of the story. It was such a clever plot and it really made me think.
Wolf by Wolf was a book based on a change in history, it is set ten years after the second world war, but with a different outcome, the germans won it. A jewish girl named Yale was in the concentration camps when the war was going on, and she was used to practice experiments on. In fact, the experiments tested on her went wrong so she turned in to a 'shape shifter.' This meant if she imagined someones face, she could look like them. She used this to escape the death camp and live in hiding.
Since the Germans winning the war, every year to mark the occasion there is a huge motorcycle race, that would last days, and sometimes losing meant dying. The winner of the race the previous year, was a girl named Adele Wolf, and in her winning, she danced with the man himself, Adolph Hitler at the victors ball.
She was taken care of by people she liked to call her family, but they wanted her to complete a mission, to kill Hitler. In order to do this she would have to go in to the skin of Adele, the previous winner of the annual motorcycle race, and race in her shoes. She would have to win the race and go to the ball to dance with Hitler, and kill him in the process.
The book takes you through the motorcycle race, where winning means everything to Yale. She wants to change the world and the only way she can do that is Kill Hitler and make sure everybody see's. The gripping read races you through the horrors of the terrifying race and the characters who wish her dead, and as the reader, you have to work out their character, and wonder whether to trust them, with Yale.
You also learn that Yale has five wolves on her arm, to cover up the number she was registered as in the camp. Some chapters tell you the story behind each wolf, therefore takes you back to life when Yale was young, in the camps. Some of this was hard to read but it was also incredibly important and it made the book so much more real, and it made me think how a different outcome could of occurred so easily. The book is a clever way to step in to the world of a different ending, and live in it for a while.
The book itself was written incredibly well, and it was written in 3rd person, which I thought was a good affect, as you felt like you were being told story, but also you sometimes learnt things that Yale did not yet know, which made it even more nail biting and gripping.
The fact that the author created an idea that yale was a 'shape shifter' gave a very clever message to the book. It taught you what really makes someone, is it their personality or their look. You learn how unimportant look is and it makes the story telling of the real history of the death camps during the second world war more terrible, but it also makes the book so much more powerful and it gave me such an important message which I will keep with me.
When looking at the cover of the book, i wasn't sure if I would enjoy it as it had a lot about motorcycles, which i'm not interested in at all. However, I encourage everyone to read it as it really did not matter and the race made it more intense and gripping. It also outlined the fact that gender did not matter for both the characters and readers sake. It was a read for all ages and genders, whatever your interests happen to be.
I thought the character development of Yale was excellent. As although she changed what she looked like, you learned how she was trying to act like the body she was inside, and how she would deal with situations. You also saw when the real Yale came out, and when she failed to do things Adele would of done, which makes you understand her character more.
The book had many characters in, both from her past and her present. All of these characters came from different backgrounds, and it was clever how you were learning about many different stories while the book was based about one main character and her mission. The stories made me understand the real history of the war, and developed the book and it gave it more depth.
I really enjoyed the ending of the book too as it wasn't predictable, like I expected it to be. The ending was something I was both shocked by, then saddened by, then pleased by. Like the whole book, it trigured all my emotions and it made the book even more interesting and intense.
Overall, it was a gripping read with one of the most clever plots I have ever read in a book. It made you understand the history more, but also made you think about what life would be like if the conclusion to the war had turned out differently. It is a young adult book, but I think adults would enjoy it too, I would recommend it to ages 13+
Buy it:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/wolf-by-wolf/ryan-graudin/9781780622033
or
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolf-Book-1-Ryan-Graudin/dp/1780622031/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501361573&sr=8-2&keywords=wolf+by+wolf