Deep in the forest, foxes live in an underground city built by the wolves they enslaved. Using the power of speech, they keep the wolves under their harsh rule. Wolves Isengrim, Hersent and their pups use secret passages to move between the animal and human worlds. When Isengrim is injured, a young boy named Silas comes to his aid. Silas finds speech difficult, but as his friendship with the wolves grows, he must fight to protect his new friends, and find his own voice.
Inspired by the author’s own son’s difficulty with speech and his love of wolves, Wolfstongue is a beautifully written, thoughtful fantasy adventure that has the feel of a future classic in making.
This feels more like Narnia than anything apart from actual Narnia. There's a part set in attics, and the idea of the forest feels very Narnian.
I was very impressed to learn, as I researched for this review, that many of the characters are from medieval literature! I was also very pleased to note that this book doesn't use all the characters from the medieval stories, which gives me hope for sequels. I'd absolutely love to read more of these. Sam is fantastic.
It's such a clever idea, too, controlling someone through words. I was thinking about it yesterday, and about Terry Pratchett's writing, and it occurred to me that the difference between 'old woman' and 'witch' is often only in the words someone uses about them. I adored it. And the sequence where one character is about to attack another, who defeats him simply by telling him how silly and weak and useless he is...it's amazing.
My proof copy has what are described as 'rough' illustrations and all I can say is, if these are the rough ones, I can't wait for the finished product. It's going to be AMAZING.
I completely adored this read, it's one I'll come back to again and again, and I really hope there's more coming at some point. Just wonderful.
Wolfstongue publishes on the 7th of May, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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