Nicole Field's Reviews > The Wolf and the Woodsman

Okay so this book was just gorgeously lyrical and kept me engaged despite some of the slow parts. I loved the gradual forming relationship between woodsman and wolf girl who are set up right from the start to hate one another.

But then, Évike isn't exactly set up as a normal wolf girl, is she? She's the kind of girl who doesn't fit in her rustic village and the reason given for this is that she doesn't possess magic. She's basically used as a human punching bag in the village because of this, even before she's offered up as a sacrifice.

When she starts travelling with Gáspár the prince of the nearby kingdom, it turns out that Évike's magic is just different to what she grew up with.

This book has a lot of politics behind it and things really start to speed up when they finally get to the kingdom and Évike meets her father. I immediately got that this debut leaned on Jewish mythology, similar to how it feels in Cassandra Clare's Sword Catcher. I missed the Hungarian mythology but then again I'm not as familiar with it.

Either way, we get a glimpse of Gáspár's brother around this point and that glimpse isn't pretty.

I enjoyed the writing despite some of the pacing and will certainly be interested in looking into more of this author's work!