This novel was addictive and really seemed to freshen up the genre of post-apocalypse worlds. It did not read like a debut, but was rather brilliantly put together and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lynn was a great main character and her voice added so much to a great plot.

One of the many things I liked was the slow addition of details to build up to a complete picture. This is very true about the setting and the context of how the world fell apart. Lynn’s tale is freshly post-apocalyptic, so she often reminisces about her old life and how her life changed. It was really refreshing to read a post-apocalyptic novel that wasn’t set generations later, so the main character still remembered the old world and thought about the things that she missed about it. This book honestly felt so relevant to the state of our world currently in terms of how things went badly and escalated so much that everything collapsed, which made the thrilling aspects even more riveting.

I’m from Canada, so as soon as I saw that this was set in the Yukon, that made me want to read this even more. The setting did not disappoint – cold, empty, and heartless. But also beautiful and relatively safe in this post-apocalyptic world… It was really easy to picture what Lynn was seeing, and I felt like I was there trudging through the snow alongside her.

Lynn was an amazing main character and narrator. She had such a developed personality and it was easy to instantly connect with her and root for her. Her character flaws are some of the things I liked most about her. She’s tough, brave, and cheeky. She misses chocolate – relatable! Her thoughts had me laughing out loud more than once.

Lynn’s family – Mary, Jeryl, Ken, and Ramsey – are all good supporting characters. They all have some development and defining traits, but they don’t take over Lynn’s spotlight, thus leaving the story to be focused on her. They added great dialogue to the mix and made for some neat dynamics as they all interacted with each other and the other characters that showed up throughout the novel.

Jax is the mystery man of the book. His backstory is murky and he doesn't reveal much. I kept thinking, “Please don't turn out to be bad!” and I can say that I really liked the direction that his character took. Anybody who takes care of a stray dog has to be okay, right? Side note: I instantly fell in love with Wolf. (Who wouldn't??)

All the other characters appeared as the plot needed to move forward and they too were well written. Conrad fulfilled his purpose, meaning he was a great character to strongly dislike. Super gross guy… None of these characters ever felt forced or unreal, so that was a real bonus.

Right from the beginning, there was backstory and context woven in with the present, while also providing further details about the present. This was all really well done – I was able to ease into the story while getting to know Lynn without having to process too much information or keep up with an insanely paced plot. There were multiple times where my heart was really pumping from all the action and excitement.

The writing style was very griping and kept me racing through the chapters, which flowed seamlessly. I am a sucker for cliffhangers at the ends of chapters, so I had some late nights while reading this because I just couldn't stop. A lot of the book, especially the first bit, is written in short bursts. The time often alters between past and present, providing lovely glimpses into Lynn’s life while she grew up in Alaska, as well as showing how the world fell apart. The writing is quite varied – there is a wonderful amount of profanity (truly loved it!), some sections of Lynn’s inner thoughts, times without dialogue to just absorb everything that was happening around Lynn, and many passages that were absolutely beautiful.

Quotes I loved:
“Snow is a fickle bastard.”
“Snow is beautiful, snow is calming, snow is a cold bitch.”
(The fact that it is the beginning of winter here in Canada right now made me laugh at these lines even more – the cold that comes with snow is rough. But it’s also so pretty!)
“No fucking way.” (I shared these exact same thoughts with Lynn at the end, and I may have laughed and clapped at the event that comes with this line. It made me so happy!)

I look forward to reading more by Tyrell Johnson in the future!

Goodreads Synopsis:
A captivating tale of humanity pushed beyond its breaking point, of family and bonds of love forged when everything is lost, and of a heroic young woman who crosses a frozen landscape to find her destiny. This debut novel is written in a post-apocalyptic tradition that spans The Hunger Games and Station Eleven but blazes its own distinctive path.

Forget the old days. Forget summer. Forget warmth. Forget anything that doesn’t help you survive in the endless white wilderness beyond the edges of a fallen world.

Lynn McBride has learned much since society collapsed in the face of nuclear war and the relentless spread of disease. As the memories of her old life continue to haunt, she’s forced to forge ahead in the snow-drifted Canadian Yukon, learning how to hunt and trap and slaughter.

Shadows of the world before have found her tiny community—most prominently in the enigmatic figure of Jax, who brings with him dark secrets of the past and sets in motion a chain of events that will call Lynn to a role she never imagined.

Simultaneously a heartbreakingly sympathetic portrait of a young woman searching for the answer to who she is meant to be and a frightening vision of a merciless new world in which desperation rules, The Wolves of Winter is enveloping, propulsive, and poignant.

My Review:
I received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story begins with the main character, twenty three year old Gwendolynn (Lynn) first having her food stolen out of her trap by her closest neighbour, Conrad, and when she tries to get it back from him, they punch each other in the face and then he pins her down and molests her. If that doesn't set the tone for the rest of the book, I don't know what does. What a way to begin.

The world has gone quiet, or so it seems from their secluded three house village, after quite a lot of things happened. A war started, the bombs hit, and the tv went out. The planes stopped flying, the fires started. A flu took out most of what was left of the human population after that. That was eleven years ago. Lynn and her family first moved to Alaska, and then to the Yukon to stay alive. They haven't seen much life lately, and Lynn often wonders if the people she has immediately around her are the only ones left. This book is really interesting and easy to read right from the start. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down.

I don't know what it is about books like this but when the characters are just well adjusted and casually living in an apocalypse, it's just so relaxing to read about. The world they live in is just so easy to imagine and it's really enjoyable to read. A stranger wanders in one day, and the camp is on edge. Slowly they start seeing more and more people. They start to think, maybe more people survived than they thought. But what some people intentions are for them are worse than anyone could have expected, except for maybe Jax, the newcomer. What could possibly go wrong when everything has already gone so wrong?

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book It was casual and yet still really exciting at times. I'm glad I read it. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

Here's a link to the book on amazon, and another to the authors twitter.

https://www.amazon.ca/Wolves-Winter-Tyrell-Johnson-ebook/dp/B01M4QEH2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511119699&sr=8-1&keywords=the+wolves+of+winter

https://twitter.com/tjohnso14

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

I'm sorry I can not read and review a book that I did not request or want

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley of The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson in exchange for an honest review. Let me start by saying that post-apocalyptic fiction has never been one of my favorite genres. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It is well-written in such a way that one can almost feel the cold. This is the story of a world that has all but been annihilated by wars and disease. The few remaining people have migrated to the Yukon and must use survival skills and endurance to stay alive in this rugged environment. Lynn McBride finds herself in the North with her mother and brother and a few other men. Days are spent hunting, gathering wood and water and just trying to keep fed and warm and out of sight till the next day and so on. They are managing to eke out an existence until the day that they are approached by a group of strangers on horseback who want to interfere with their meager way of life. Lynn and her companions find themselves in a fight for their lives and their way of life. The pace of the book effectively creates tension and suspense and keeps the reader totally committed. This is a first novel for Tyrell Johnson and hopefully there will be many more to come. Highly recommended.

A vivid depiction of a Post-apocalyptic world. Engaging, believable and thrilling.... strong ending. Could have done without so much profanity.

Not sure if this is YA or not but whatever genre you place it in, The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson is just a rip-roaring fun yarn.

I absolutely loved the setup and backstory for this one. A flu pandemic that swept the globe amidst war and brought about a snowy apocalypse seems almost like it could be ripped from the headlines these days. The author did a fantastic job establishing an oppressive theme throughout and painted frigid pictures with words. Fantastic!

The characters were also well drawn and realistic. As a heroine, Lynn is every bit as intriguing as Katniss Everdeen. I was kept on the edge of my seat turning the pages as her story came to fruition. The hint of romance at the end of the world between her and Jax was also done in understated way so as not to interfere with the plot.

The only potential drawback is the foray into “superhuman” territory that may throw some readers out of their comfort zone. As a comic junkie though, it was right up my alley!

5 stars.

Most of Earth's population is wiped out. Only a few survive in the North.

I really liked this book and hardly could put it down. It was an exciting and suspenseful read.
Most of all, I enjoyed the language, which is really Prose Poetry, powerful and to the point, and lyrical. I could see the river and the snow, almost feel the cold.
The plot is logical. The possibility of a biological war and it's outcome is absolutely believable.

The main character (who is also the first-person narrator), Lynn, is a strong and resiliant young woman whom I liked very much.

The author has drawn a bleak glimpse into an post-apocalyptic world. But there is hope in the end.

Wolves of Winter Review

I did not want to like this book. I think I was attracted by the title and assumed it would be about wolves. It isn't. It is a scifi dystopia survivalist fantasy. A world where a combination of nuclear war and disease has wiped out most of humanity, and the few left make for the far north, with plenty of guns and ammo and live on hunting, fishing and scavenging. The heroine is a young woman who is, of course, a dead shot with a compound bow, knows how to handle a hunting knife and is rarely without either.

The people in the action are all ready to kill as a first response. The world is so hostile, in the absence of all we know and fulminate about, that a wild west mentality is the only course for survival. There is one remnant of a government agency left which somehow manages to continue to operate as a sort of combination of scientific research and security outfit. Unsurprisingly it is mostly about bad guys grimly hanging on to power by use of force. Which is why everyone needs guns and a willingness to use them. I had the distinct impression that the author believes not only that such a world is inevitable, but that it will be better that way. Especially since the people who can survive in such circumstances are superior to the rest of humanity. That somehow, even if the vast majority of people are wiped out the few who are left will be superhuman. This is, in fact, the old Nazi fantasy and the very one that makes the one surviving government agency so appalling.

Even though the outcome is inevitable and all the bits of suppressed back story easy to guess, the strength of the storytelling was such that I needed to stick with the book to the end, even though I was filled with distaste. There's quite a bit of practical advice, like how to build an igloo and start a fire. Also some very graphic killing and butchery.

My true rating is 3.75. Where to start?
The first part, because the author is explaining the premise without giving too much away, is a bit slow and in a few places repetitive.
The action begins in the second part, and the narrative doesn't slow much from that point.
The storyline is exciting, some parts are surprising, and in places the author offers exquisite insight, eg. Lynn's thoughts on time.
However, in general I thought the language and writing style were uninspiring.
Perhaps tighter editing was needed.
My last complaint is: another girl whose father died, but not before teaching her to be a crack shot with a bow and arrow, Really?
This is not a huge mistake, but I really feel this author has real and better stories in him.
I await his next book.

When I read the description I was expecting the usual trope-riddled YA dystopia that we've become used to with the likes of The Hunger Games, Divergent and their ilk. This is not that. And I couldn't be more pleased by that. I enjoy those YA series (well I have issues with the endings of both of the aforementioned series but that's another matter entirely), but I really like that Wolves of Winter was different. I've never read another dystopian novel quite like this one, and I have read my fair share of dystopian novels. In my experience, it's rare to find a non-romantic, female protagonist in the 18-35 age range, and Lynn, at 24 falls squarely in that range. As a 31-year-old, I find that really relatable and pleasing. Sure there was a small bit of romance but it was incidental to the point of being inconsequential, which is another refreshing change from the usual love triangle. This is set right after the collapse of civilization - and it's such a realistic and plausible collapse that you can totally see something like Johnson's scenario actually happening - which makes it somewhat terrifying in my opinion. I also really love that it's set in Canada, but you know, personal bias there.

So if you're looking for dystopian fiction without some of the usual tropes (don't get me wrong, it still has LOTS of the tropes), or you're interested in a new adult character instead of a young adult, or even if you just want to read more Canadian genre fiction (the author lives in BC) then I would say you should consider checking this book out. It was a really fun read and I can't wait to get a physical copy when it comes out.

I'm undecided on whether or not I hope it becomes a series. It ended openly enough to have at least one sequel, and it definitely has series potential. But I also think it just ended really nicely to act as a stand-alone leaving the reader hopeful that everything will work out for Lynn, Jax and the rest of the world.

This is a wonderful read that has the best of a lot of genres. A Science Fiction story set in the not too distant future where nuclear war and a pandemic have changed our world the story include wilderness adventure, a thriller and a touch of romance. I loved the characters and enjoyed that the basic premise was not beyond the realm of possibility. It is a perfect example of great storytelling. I will be recommending this book to my customers.

I found this book to be quite enjoyable. I don't read YA fiction as much anymore, but Lynn was an enjoyable character to read about. The story was small and contained, but there were hints at a larger world that will come into play during the later books. I do think that the comparisons to books like the Hunger Games is a tiny bit over the top, but I still found the book to be easy to read. I'm rating three stars not because it was bad, but simply because I feel like there was a little bit of extra action missing in the book. I do think it makes for a fine read, though.

I quite enjoyed this book...I would rate it a solid 4 stars. The characters were believable in their struggle to survive against such odds – to their suspicion of strangers, who might bring the deadly Asian Flu into their camp ...to dealing with the Immunity, a society who has proven not to be trusted and has their own agenda! I liked the back story about Lynn and her family, and through that, it made you aware how the war got started in the first place ... how the world reacted to such threats and retaliated to the point of extinction. How could you not look at today’s political climate and not make comparisons! It was a bit chilling! But through out all that, there was hope, strength and determination to survive at all odds! Although this is a stand alone book, I do hope the author considers continuing the story of Lynn and Jax.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair review

There is a lot to like in the debut novel “The Wolves of Winter” by Tyrell Johnson. The main character Lynn McBride was the perfect person to narrate this story. Readers may think that this character has been done before – a girl, providing for her family, good with a bow and a dead father – but that is far from the case. She has her own distinct voice and she is a believable 23 year old who is trying to accept her life isolated in the wilderness of the Yukon while not really understanding any of the reasons that brought her family to live there in the first place. The story definitely benefits from this strong and realistic character.

Johnson set this story in a post-apocalyptic world that’s a little different than what we’ve seen lately in this genre. There is no clear dictatorship or strong central government in North America calling all the shots, and the cause of the world’s downfall was a mixture of all-out war between superpowers and a flu that killed much of the population. Lynn and her family are living in a remote valley in the Yukon, surviving by hunting game and eating potatoes and carrots. Readers slowly learn more about what brought the family to the Yukon and why they are living in such isolation, and that slow revelation keeps you engaged trying to put all of the pieces of their story together.

This book is well paced and there is a great mix of action scenes and quiet moments with our main character. It did take me a few chapters to really get into this book and I think that is mostly because Johnson has a direct way of writing and it took a little while for me to fall into his rhythm. But once I spent some time with Lynn McBride, I knew I needed to keep reading to find out where this story would take her.

I’m not sure if there is a sequel planned, and the story doesn’t necessarily need one. Overall ”The Wolves of Winter” comes to a relatively satisfying conclusion, but there are a few questions that I would like to see answered so if Johnson decides to continue this story I will definitely be picking up that book.

Posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2158634882?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I was beyond excited to receive an ARC of this book. I was held captive by this post-apocalyptic story about the last remaining people who are living off the land after the world collapses under war and disease. There are no news updates, no communication and no one has any idea about how many have survived. Reading this in today felt almost too real, relevant and believable. This novel has been compared to Hunger Games & Station Eleven but I also thought of Joe Hill’s The Fireman while I was reading – as humanity is struggling to adapt to survive they also face conflict & brutality.

The novel focuses on a strong female lead – Lynn. As she tries to find her place in this crazy, devastated world. What I really enjoyed was the story takes place many years after the devastation. Lynn has grown into an adult in this post-apocalyptic world. I enjoyed the characters – especially Lynn and Wolf. The Wolves of Winter is a quick, enjoyable read.

In the end, I was left with this beautiful reminder:
“It’s funny how little we need to get by. Snow, moose, potatoes, carrots and the company of a few good people. It’s amazing how little we need to survive. And not just survive, but live.”

THANK YOU to Simon & Schuster Canada, NetGalley & Tyrell Johnson for an electronic ARC of this novel.

Amazing novel I could not put it down THE WOLVES OF WINTER has everything. Family dynamics, secrets kept, suspense and even a little romance.

I loved the book The Wolfe’s Of Winter .It is a book about a family living in the Yukon after major wars and the flu wipe out much of the world as we know it .If you are a fan of the series The Hunger Games or Station Eleven this book is for you . You have society as we know it wiped out and only for those living in higher elevations live .Hunting is a skill that is must to survive in this cold new reality .I hope that there will be more from this author asI am hoping there will be another book in the series

The blurb compared this to Station Eleven, but it's more genre-like than that. There is a bit of a literary feel to it, but it is more of a post-apocalyptic adventure (with flashbacks). I enjoyed it, it mentions Vancouver and is set in the Yukon but doesn't have a real feeling of place about it to me -- just a winter wilderness.