Lauren Wolk, Wolf Hollow, Corgi/Random House Australia, 15 August 2016, 294pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780552574297
When Betty Glengarry arrives at a small school in rural Pennsylvania in 1943, she already has a reputation as a troubled girl. She soon aligns herself with school bully, Andy Woodberry, and starts a campaign of intimidation against 12 year old Annabelle McBride, the narrator of the story. Annabelle, however, has an ally in Toby, a physically and emotionally damaged World War One veteran who lives alone in the woods and who warns Betty to stop harassing Annabelle. Betty’s antics only escalate and, when one of her victims is seriously injured, she blames Toby. When Betty later disappears Toby becomes the subject of a manhunt, leading Annabelle to try to protect him and leading to a tragic ending.
Told as a first person retrospective, the reader is irresistibly drawn into the maelstrom of deceit and brutality which overwhelms Annabelle’s innocent life and her quiet community. In this coming-of-age tale she learns to lie to protect Toby, but the reader is aware of the compassion behind Annabelle’s deceit and the sadistic manipulation and twisted cruelty of Betty’s destructive lies. We are not told why Betty has such a vicious nature, but her traumatic time trapped down a well mirrors the fate of wolves that used to be caught in pits in the area and, like these untameable beasts, Betty seems to be incapable of changing her fierce, malevolent nature. In contrast, Annabelle shows great personal courage and integrity in the face of the harsh brutalities of a world quick to judge others and seek vengeance.
Wolf Hollow is Wolk’s first novel. Her skilfull writing and the novel’s reflective tone give it an elegance and stark beauty. Given the harshness of some of the material, the story is told with great tenderness and empathy while the characters unfold with a realism and understated intensity that makes them immediately appealing. Wolf Hollow has been compared with To Kill a Mockingbird. Similar themes of prejudice, the persecution of outsiders and the dreadful consequences of not telling the truth permeate this novel and, for study purposes, it would make a good companion piece to Harper Lee’s book.
Wolf Hollow is highly recommended for lower secondary school aged readers and seems destined to become a classic.
Reviewed by John Nolan
