(Image from Barnes & Noble)

With the world in shambles after a crippling apocalypse, Lynn McBride and her family have found safety in the wilds of the Yukon Territory.  It's not an easy life they live, nor a simple one.  Every day, they must battle the harsh weather, find enough food to sustain them, and deal with the loneliness and boredom that come from seeing the same four faces day in and day out, year after year after year.  Although Lynn is grateful for her safety, she longs for something more.

"More" comes in the form of Jackson Day, a 27-year-old stranger she finds wandering the barren landscape with his dog.  Jax is the first new person Lynn has seen in seven years; bringing him home seems like a natural, normal gesture.  Not everyone in Lynn's family is glad to see him, though, especially when he triggers a chain of events that will have deadly consequences for the McBrides.  Before long, Lynn will find herself traversing a frigid, hostile world toward an unknown future in a ruined world.  It's up to her to save the world.  Can she do it?

I had very high hopes for The Wolves of Winter, a debut novel by Tyrell Johnson that has been described as "written in a post-apocalyptic tradition that spans The Hunger Games and Station Eleven but blazes its own distinctive path."  With that kind of acclamation, I expected to be knocked off my feet by excessive wow.  Did that happen?  Not exactly.  While The Wolves of Winter offers an absorbing survival tale set against an intriguing, atmospheric backdrop, the story adds little originality to the genre.  The plot remains very basic, nothing you won't find in dozens of other post-apocalyptic stories.  While this is a comparatively quiet tale with lyrical prose reminiscent of Station Eleven, it's nowhere near as unique or compelling as The Hunger Games and there's little about it that's truly distinct.  That being said, I enjoyed the novel overall.  I didn't love it, but I liked it enough to be interested in reading more from its author, a talented newcomer.

(Readalikes:  similar in tone to Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel; story reminds me of the Partials trilogy [Partials; Fragments; and Ruins] by Dan Wells) 

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language and violence

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

I'm a day late with my favorite weekly meme, but that's because I forgot yesterday was Tuesday.  This Christmas-on-a-Monday thing has been throwing me off for weeks! I honestly didn't realize yesterday was Tuesday until about 5:15 p.m. when my phone reminded me of my daughter's gymnastics class, which takes place every week on—you guessed it—Tuesday.  I'm back on track now, but I didn't want to miss Top Ten Tuesday altogether, so I'm doing it anyway, even if it is a Wednesday.  It is Wednesday, right??

In case you don't know, Top Ten Tuesday is brought to us by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.  After January 16, the meme will be coming at us from That Artsy Reader Girl instead.  In the meantime, you can participate by clicking over to The Broke and the Bookish, reading a few TTT rules, making your own list, and hopping around to other blogs to check out theirs.  It's a great way to find new blogs, new books, and new friends.

Predictably, this week's prompt is:  Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2018.  Here we go:

1.  The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson—Available January 2.  Jamie from The Perpetual Page Turner just published a fabulous list of 2018 adult fiction titles she's looking forward to reading.  This dystopian novel was among them and I agree, it sounds compelling.  Billed as The Hunger Games meets Station Eleven, it's sure to be a book I'll love.

2.  The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton—Available (in the U.S.) October 18.  I enjoy Sharon Bolton's crime novels, so I'm excited for her newest.  It's about a woman whose career is made when she apprehends a coffin-maker accused of burying people alive.  After the man's death, much to her horror, events of the past start repeating themselves.  Did she convict the wrong killer?

3.  The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton—Available February 20.  I've been looking forward to this one ever since I first heard about it.  It takes place in an alternate (futuristic?) New Orleans where everyone is born grey and needs the help of a Belle to be made beautiful.  Camellia wants to be the queen's favorite Belle, but fulfilling her dream will not come without a price ...

4.  Heart Spring Mountain by Robin MacArthur—Available January 8.  This novel concerns a woman whose estranged mother goes missing after a tropical storm wreaks havoc in Vermont.  It's about her search for her mother and is supposed to be an atmospheric story about coming home.  I'm in!

5.  The Job of the Wasp by Colin Winnette—Available January 9.  I love me a good Gothic ghost story, so this one sounds right up my alley.  It's about a child who arrives at an isolated school for orphaned boys only to find that there's something very strange about his new home ...  

6.  The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn—Available January 2.  This Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who thinks she's witnessed a murder sounds very intriguing.

7.  Force of Nature by Jane Harper—Available February 6.  I enjoyed reading The Dry, an Australian murder mystery, earlier this year.  This is the next book in the series, which I'm definitely looking forward to reading.

8.  Dread Nation by Justina Ireland—Available April 3.  I'm not huge into zombie novels, but I don't mind them if they're done well.  This one, about a zombie invasion that derails the Civil War and changes American history forever, sounds interesting.

9.  The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu—Available February 13.  This novel revolves around a group of women who come together again years after suffering through a traumatic event while at summer camp together.  Sounds good!

10.  Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates—Available January 9.  Similarly, this novel is about three people whose lives are forever changed by a violent BB attack during childhood who come together as adults because the past, of course, can never stay in the past. 

So, what do you think?  Do we have any books in common this week?  What are you looking forward to reading in 2018?  I'd truly like to know.  If you leave a comment on this post, I'll gladly return the favor.

Happy TTT!