The Wolf Wants In by Laura McHughThank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Random House Reader’s Circle for the review copy of The Wolf Wants In by Laura McHugh.
Times are not good in Blackwater, KS. Sadie is mourning her older brother Shane's death when she learns that an old friend’s daughter has been confirmed dead. The town is suffering from the opioid epidemic. The only professions available seem to be farming or working for the Sullivans, the family that basically owns Blackwater. It’s not a pretty situation.
Henley Pettit has two strikes against her: first, she’s a Pettit, which, in Blackwater, translates as “no good;” and second her mother is an addict who is in and out of Henley’s life. When she begins to develop a relationship with the Sullivan son, she imagines what it might be like if her life were different.
For Sadie, she wants to find out how her brother died, and she suspects that his widow had something to do with it. For Henley, she wants out of Blackwater and into the larger world. It seems that everything in Blackwater is conspiring against the two women getting what they want.
The Wolf Wants In is told in alternating narratives between Sadie’s first person point of view and Henley’s third person point of view. Both stories unfold in the same town and involve overlapping characters.
The Wolf Wants In is, at its core, a mystery. Sadie investigates Shane’s death in the ways that she knows how, mostly by interviewing people close to him. She quickly discovers that there was a lot that she did not know about her brother and the life he lived, and feels guilty for how she had not supported him. For much of the book, the story feels more like it belongs to Sadie than to Henley.
Would I teach this book? There are many things that The Wolf Wants In does well. It is suspenseful while still having a gentle pace. It discusses the opioid epidemic without being too heavy-handed. Pieces of both women arise to have hope and determination. It also has some literary touches, such as motifs that tie both stories together.
As an example of a mystery that steps away from being subscriptive of the genre and an example of how to discuss social problems in literature, it would be helpful to teach. The plot has some decent twists and isn’t entirely predictable. Certain characters who should have been more round remain unerringly flat, such as the dead brother’s widow, who shows no positive characteristics. The woman is so unlikable we have no understanding why Shane was interested in her in the first place. While not perfect, the book is enjoyable to read if you are in the mood for a small-town mystery, and may have possibilities for being taught in a genre writing class, or in a class on contemporary novels.
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