BOOK REVIEW: The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney ★★★☆☆
WARNING. SPOILERS. SORRY.
Anna Francis lives in a tall old house with her father and her doll Penelope. She is a refugee, a piece of flotsam washed up in England by the tides of the Great War and the chaos that trailed in its wake. Once upon a time, she had a mother and a brother, and they all lived together in the most beautiful city in the world, by the shores of Homer's wine-dark sea.
But that is all gone now, and only to her doll does she ever speak of it, because her father cannot bear to hear. She sits in the shadows of the tall house and watches the rain on the windows, creating worlds for herself to fill out the loneliness. The house becomes her own little kingdom, an island full of dreams and half-forgotten memories. And then one winter day, she finds an interloper in the topmost, dustiest attic of the house. A boy named Luca with yellow eyes, who is as alone in the world as she is.
That day, she'll lose everything in her life, and find the only real friend she may ever know.
There are some books that stick with you and The Wolf in the Attic was not one of them. I probably should have read something else by Kearney. Despite the beautiful cover and inviting blurb, it was an alright read. I can’t decide if the book was bad, or just not my kind of thing. Kearney has many beautiful turns of phrase and creates original imagery. But it’s unnecessarily wordy, from rich landscapes to character’s pondering over their situation in as much detail. Words could have been cut and the story would have been an enjoyable read. It was all over the place with hints of subtle racism and an author who’s failed to write about the menstrual cycle.
I wasn’t expecting much from this book, but I was trying to figure out what was going on most of the time. The concept of the book was interesting, but I felt as though Kearney poorly slammed two different genres together; realism and mythology fantasy.
The first half of the novel is mostly set-up and backstory. You get the realistic side of refugees who have left their homes in war-torn countries to survive in Britain’s hostile land, which resonates with today’s refugees’ crises, told from the first person of a lonely eleven-year-old Anna Francis and her father, both Greek refugees, living in Oxford. They were forced out of Smyrna by the Turks and rescued by a British ship.
The story begins with a sad and depressing note. Anna has to deal with the loss of her mother (taken by the Turks) and her older brother Nikos, a soldier (considered dead). She has to deal snotty school children who bully her at the local school because of her for her olive skin and dark features (hence she’s homeschooled). She has to deal with loneliness as her father is distracted by organising a Greek refugee committee. She spends most of her time on her own exploring the attic of her house and roaming the streets and countryside as well as watching a boy murder a man, gets chased and let go by the murderer. She then has a chance encounter two legendary authors, the young C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien would be, I guess a mash-up of realism (real-life characters) and a wish of actually conversing with a celebrity. But honestly, they inexplicably appear in this book. I picked the book up because I thought the authors (meeting young Anna) may take inspiration from the titular story and weave it into their own great works. But it didn't. Instead, Kearney inserts the two into the book, as random encounters with no real effect on the story.
That's the first half of the book. It’s an average girl meets boy factor, despite the fact, the boy murders a man and she doesn’t seem to care at all, because he’s BOY – OMG! Like what? It’s no wonder it took me a while to get through it.
The second half was no easier. The fantasy side is of a boy Luca who lives in Anna’s attic and mythology concerning gipsies camping in the woods. Do you see what I mean about smashing two genres together? Instead of developing a rich world of a complex interaction between the fantastical elements, there was so much crammed into this book. Even when Anna’s father teaches her about the old Greek stories and she’s not into it, despite treating it like some deeply personal connection to her past.
Kearney has read and included a great deal of mythology in this book: Ancient Greek, Druidic religions, werewolves, and the lives of two famous writers. The rest of the mythology that’s been gathered from around the world was confusing and I think made up for this story. Here’s an example. Anna stumbles across two groups of people, the Romani, and the Roadmen, who both have strong, competing mythologies. The roadmen, like travellers, ‘were once warriors and priests back when the land was young’. The Romani's who are mistaken for travellers have links to the werewolf myth, via Ancient Egypt and "the East".
That’s it. It’s a wordy story with a highly-repetitive plot, the author is determined to show you how much mythology he knows. It sounded like a mash-up of whatever Kearney fancied putting in there to sound and make these people appear mysterious.
Which brings me to the next point. This book, in my opinion, had some underlying tones of racism. Kearney portrays the dark, foreign, Romani people as the bad guys and the good guys are the incredibly white and steadfast English folk. The use of the 'magic gipsy' trope, who work with the devil, steal children and shiny trinkets whenever they have the chance – what was that all about? Racist thoughts much? And to add to what was meant to be a happy ending turns out to be that the homesick little Greek girl, the victim of a genocide, sheds her dark roots to adopt the English way of life. Strangely racist vibes.
There’s a part in the book that was irritating. Attention to male writers – Please don't write about periods unless you have a clue about it or it's vitally important to the storyline. I hate it when male authors try to write about a young girl who has a first menstrual cycle. I get it, it’s meant to show a coming of age thing, but it can be left out. It peeved me how Luca gives her the ‘you’re a woman now’ speech and gives her a sock to ‘soak it up’, WTF? And Anna, who’s reaction should have been to freak out a little (as no one told her about periods) tucks the sock inside her knickers and whines about the cramps. I don't think there was a need for it to be included.
Summary
Aside from the racism and periods, I can at least say I didn't hate Anna. She’s sympathetic, smart and determined to fit in even as she's treated as an outcast by many. It’s not a bad book. But it’s not my cup of tea. If you like random cameos of famous people, elaborate words with vague world-building, the give The Wolf in the Attic a read, plus there is a sequel in motion. I’ll probably try something else.
Rating: 3/5
Publishers: Rebellion
Publication date: May 5th 2016
Genre: Historical/Fantasy/
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