Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Physical injury, animal death, bullying, war themes, PTSD, loss of an eye, blood depiction, infection, death of a child, grief and loss depiction, death of a soldier, scars, hospitalisation
Score: Six points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

6.5/10, I have been wanting to read this for quite a while and I finally did and although I found this to be quite well written but it was one of the most brutal books I have ever read, everything here is just too bleak and depressing and there's probably not a single hint of any positive emotions, where do I begin. It's not even a young adult book either, I am just so confused. It starts with the main character Annabelle living in a place called Wolf Hollow, hence the title and everything appears normal until the main antagonist who is a city girl called Betty decides to show up and wow is she an antagonist, just look at all of her despicable actions. Anyways Betty first decides to screw up Annabelle's life by bullying her physically and verbally if she doesn't do her whims and then she ruthlessly crushes a bird with her bare hands. Wow, and if you think this is already depressing it gets much worse. After a while, Betty disappears for whatever reason and that sets the scene for Annabelle to meet this new character called Toby who seemingly is a WWI veteran with PTSD, I don't really know but other characters describe him as odd, so there's that. Toby starts being accused for something and I don't know what that thing exactly is but I found out towards the end which was quite a disheartening experience by the way. It turns out that Betty after being missing for so long was found in a well stuck there and another character pulled her out and it looked like she would be saved despite the fact that she did not come out unscathed, she was later hospitalised in the last few pages. Toward the end of the book Annabelle focuses on Toby and something devastating happened when Betty died of her infection, then the police shot Toby, funerals were held for them and that just ends it on a really low note. ( )

Read this for Battle of the Books. It was fine, but predictable. It is a children's book though, and maybe for a child, it wouldn't be so obvious how it would end. ( )

This book reminds me of Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell because the authors are not afraid to tell a story with a sad life lesson. I think it is important for children to read books that don't have a happy ending. For children who are living a life with no happy endings it lets them know they are not alone. For children that are living a life with minimal problems it opens up their minds to the possibilities that life doesn't always go the way we want it to.

I felt horrible for Toby, everyone saw him as this weird loner and couldn't possibly bring themselves to believe that a soldier with PTSD just wants to be left alone and that soldiers with PTSD don't always snap and kill people.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read. ( )

2.5 Stars ( )

This was an intense read, and a really compelling one, notable both in setting and in moral complexity. What I mean by moral complexity is that the very well written main character is capable of relating what happens to her and simultaneously sharing a level of compassion that works almost like a web, connecting the reader intimately on many levels with the other characters. This is not a black and white book. It is an intensely moving, emotionally complex, simply told story, with an inevitability that tears at the heart. I'm absolutely delighted to read something WWII that's set in America, and confronts the damaged soldiers who linger after World War I as well. And yet in the end it's a pretty straightforward story of a bully, and the impact of cruelty on community.

I feel like I'm writing around the plot, but it's an unusual read, and a great one.

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Edelweiss ( )