Wolf By Wolf

2,5 stars

Okay, to be honest, I had a feeling this book wasn't going to be the love of my life from the beginning, but the cover looked kind of cool. I'm not a huge WW2 junkie. Also, not really into YA, especially not the kind with female protagonists. So yeah, while I wasn't so crazy about the premise, I decided to rol with it and do this.

Hitler took over the world, along with Emperor Hirohito (or Showa, if you prefer) and as everyone else, even the Nazis wanted to have some fun, so they decided to hold a motorbike race through the world from Berlin to Tokyo for the young guys. Last year a girl, Adele Wolfe pretending to be her own twin, Felix, won it and Hitler himself seemed to take a liking to her. This year... shit was going to be even wilder. Yael, a concentration camp escapee, who got shapeshifting abilities through Nazi experiments was going to pretend to be her, win again, kill Hitler and launch the rebellion of the resistance.
Sounds kinda cool, full of action, right?

Aaaand it was. I have to tell you, it was easy to just get into it and read like the wind. The topic, especially in the flashback scenes was pretty damn heavy, but the way it was written and the fact that it was based on some well known historical context made it fast to get into. I could appreciate it. A couple of times there were some weird figures of speech I found slightly awkward and artsy-fartsy, but the overall impression was good enough, with vivid pictures and real emotion, still not too superfluous to weaken the action. If not for some pretty tough training I went to, I could have read it in two nights.

There were some annoying issues, though. So... a little PSA for authors; if you write characters who speak a language other than the one you use, please, please do not just insert a word or two in the middle of sentences in theirs. PLEASE. Yeah, I know the people in the book mostly speak German, I don't need them to say Sheisse every chapter. It's okay, I'll still remember.
Another thing is, if you write a very competitive, cutthroat situation with a fight to death and there are multiple teen girls... don't just make them instant best friends, with love and respect, just because they're girls. I want to see some real, passionate fight between girls, like in real life when they are rivals. Thank you.

The protagonist was fine, I was okay with her, not totally enamoured, but I found her acceptable. The love interest, Luka Löve was... again, okay. Devilishly handsome, arrogant, the cool guy on the block. Yay. Adele's bother (this year also joining the Nazi Paris-Dakar Rally) was lovely, though. I am a sucker for sibling stories and this Felix kid is a good brother. Part of me wanted him to be the love interest, but of course Yael is wearing his sister's face, so that would be a whole different genre...

It ended on a note that was a bit of a twist and also the master plan reaching another chapter, so I will be reading the sequel, even though I'm not insanely invested. It was an adequate novel, a fine enough way of spending my time, I am just not convinced I was the target audience of it.

Scheisse and keep rolling.