Stuff for the Teen Age

"Raised by Wolves": A Review

When Brynn was four years old, her life changed forever when a rogue werewolf killed her parents. Rescued by the Stone River Pack and Marked by the pack’s alpha, Callum, Brynn’s safety is a matter of pack law.

The only problem is Brynn is human. Even as a member of the pack, living with a bunch of werewolves is dangerous. Weres can smell fear. They are faster. They are stronger. Most of them are older and more experienced. One lapse in control could leave a human very dead.

Even if that human is a 15-year-old girl named Brynn who knows almost everything worth knowing about dealing with (and defending herself against) Weres. Even with the danger, Brynn feels more at home in this world — a world dictated by dominance struggles, territorial rights, and pack justice — than the human world she left behind.

When a newly-turned Were appears in Callum’s territory, Brynn’s insular life within the pack is thrown into chaos. Brynn is inexplicably drawn to the new Were. Even though she has never seen Chase before, she recognizes something in him, she knows him.

In Raised by Wolves (2010) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Brynn and Chase are drawn to each other, and Brynn realizes everything she thought she knew about the pack, about Callum, her past, and her life in the pack might be wrong .

Raised by Wolves is a completely original take on werewolf lore. Barnes has created a well-realized back story for Brynn and the North American packs. All of the Weres and their wolf behaviors are fully realized and add a clever, primal spin to werewolves with a strong focus on life within the pack and the animal nature of the Weres.

Brynn is a heroine that readers will want to root for and is an excellent guide through the dangerous but tantalizing world of Weres. Although Chase is not as fully realized compared to Brynn, he is a good addition to the story, especially combined with the other characters (minor and not) who are quirky, funny, and extremely well-developed.

Barnes expertly navigates the murky waters of pack life for Brynn and the grey areas of working toward a greater good in this story. She also packs in enough action, excitement, and humor to make Raised By Wolves an edge-of-your-seat adventure that will leave readers guessing until the last page.

Possible pairings: White Cat by Holly Black; I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally CarterCity of Bones by Cassandra ClareClarity by Kim HarringtonHex Hall by Rachel HawkinsThe Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees BrennanDivergent by Veronica Roth; and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.