Book Chatter

Children of the Wolf
By Abby Gen
Ballantine, September 2026, 320pp.

The Short of It:

A demon filled story. Haunting and raw.

The Rest of It:

“As an adult, Liv leads a quiet life, tending to the beekeeping business that supports her and her brother. But when a dead body is discovered in her town, she is forced to grapple with a legacy of violence from when she was small.

As a child, she shared a home in rural Iowa with her brother Finn and their father Ulf. Swedish-born Ulf, a direct descendant of the infamous Erik the Red, raises his children as if they are Vikings. They are homeschooled, speak only Swedish, learn swordplay and archery, celebrate the Norse holidays, and worship the old gods with blood sacrifices.” ~ the publisher

Children of the Wolf takes time to fully invest the reader in its characters. Liv and Finn are shades away from feral. They live off the land, sharing a bond that is impossible to ignore, but they are very different. Liv is matter-of-fact, while Finn seems softer and more vulnerable.

After Finn suffers a brutal injury at the hands of his own father, he and Liv are separated from him when their father is taken to prison. Liv also begins to notice that men in the area have been disappearing. Could the two things be connected?

Twenty years later, Finn and Liv have started new lives in the US. The events of that fateful night are far behind them, but Liv cannot move past them. Should she share her suspicions with the authorities? Does she really want to relive everything in order to prevent the same violence they once fled?

Liv is an interesting character. She is observant, quiet, and definitely not meek. Her interactions with people seem innocent on the surface, but her feelings and intuitions run deep, making for complicated friendships and relationships.

Without giving too many details away, I can say that this story is dark, raw, and filled with emotion. There is a heaviness to it, but it feels right for the story.

This was my first time reading this author, and I would absolutely read her work again.

Recommend.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Good People
By Patmeena Sabit
Crown, February 2026, 400pp.

The Short of It:

Carefully constructed. Left me wanting more.

The Rest of It:

“The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Prosperous, rich, happy. They came to this country as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father’s eye.

Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong. Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family. What’s the truth? Depends on who you ask.” ~the publisher

The structure of this story was interesting. It’s told through alternating points of view, and some chapters are only one or two sentences long. I liked the buildup and the surprise of those short chapters, but the story became a bit too episodic for me, much like a series of eyewitness accounts.

Everyone gets a say in what happened: brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and frankly, the entire community. It reminded me of the game Operator, where one piece of information gets passed down the communication chain until, by the end, no one knows what to believe.

I didn’t mind the format, but I was never fully invested in any of the characters. This book has received a lot of praise, but overall, it was good, just not particularly memorable for me.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…