So I found this book at a neighborhood Little Library. Thus, I had no idea what I was getting into, for there was no description to be found 🤔 However, the title seemed intriguing enough, and I wanted to see where things were headed! 😬
Another high school novel about an awkward teenage girl living near Yellowstone National Park, who simply doesn't know that she's beautiful! 🥺
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Sorry, now that's out of the way lol -- so a protagonist who doesn't recognize her worth, and of course a Cute New Guy™ suddenly starts going to her school. He has moved because his mother is researching the wolf community in the area, a species that the rest of the Yellowstone community seems to despise?
Which, as a Canadian, I don't understand?? 😅 It has been fairly well-established over the decades that wolves are necessary for an ecosystem to thrive, but the Yellowstone community is like, hellbent on eradicating the wolf population??
The novel completely demonized wolves. The author made it out as if wolves are constantly killing and mutilating one another -- even members of their own packs! From my years of understanding, this is simply untrue, and I truly wonder if the author did an ounce of research.
There were "alpha" females -- I don't know if author was simply referring to a female that the alpha male favored? because an alpha male is hardly a thing, let alone a FEMALE alpha (research from the 1940s - 1970s has largely been disproven, so they say...). Uhhhh, the females were killing pups in their pack, members refusing to submit despite already living in the pack?? Again, I'm no expert, and if you are one, feel free to chip in! 😀 But it seems to go against everything I have ever learned about wolves...
Anyway, as for the main storyline?? The protagonist unknowingly becomes involved in the "wolf debate" while working on her school's newspaper; she tries showing the "other side" of wolves, how they are misunderstood creatures, etc. This ends up creating a huge snowball effect.
Protagonist and Cute New Guy do their best to change the community's mind. They make a wolf sculpture for their town's Christmas parade; someone shoots it with a pellet gun. They try holding a town meeting about wolves; someone sets the protagonist's father's shop on fire. They try guarding a neighbor's ranch against wolves; wolves end up killing 3 of their cattle. Protagonist tries confronting the person responsible for all of the mayhem; they both almost drown in the lake.
You would think that with so much action packed into it, how could the novel fail?! 🤪 Yet, somehow, it did lol. By the end of it, the conclusion was that non-aggressive wolves would no longer be killed in order to maintain the population numbers/ecosystem? Some people changed their minds about wolves? Some enemies became friends? Protagonist and Cute New Guy kissed a few times before he moves back to Minnesota?? I dunno, nothing really happened lol.
