I finished it a few days ago and am finally ready to address my disappointment.

This book had all the right ingredients: eco fiction, wolves in the woods, an unreliable narrator with a troubled past, a little murder mystery, themes of trauma and abuse and sexism, small town vibes... and, to stretch my metaphor further: the ingredients were in the wrong proportions, undercooked, overcooked, and frustrating to eat.

I love ambitious books that try to be many things. It's a brave thing to do specifically because it's so difficult to do masterfully. This book was however trying to be the Light Pirate, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Sinner, and a cozy mystery (Broadchurch?) all at once. Sprinkle in a little Parable of the Sower (hyperempathy, of all things) on the top and serve hot. All brilliant stories, but with so little room to explore the themes separately, Once Their Were Wolves had to resort to tropes and convenient plot holes. Characters were unbelievable and oftentimes explicit mouthpieces for The Message, and the ending was predictable and frustrating.

In short: I wish the recipe had been simpler, or the book longer. I wish the portrayal of mental illness and domestic violence had been less tired 80s tropes and misconceptions. I wish we'd gotten more luscious descriptions of wolves and forests. I enjoyed the beginning and kept wishing this book would become what I wanted it to be. Butt, by the end, I felt I got a resolution as frustrating as the one offered in the Silent Patient.

Recommended only if you like the ingredients listed above and are also fine to not overthink things and suspend disbelief. I'll give this two stars because I'm not mad - just disappointed

More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N13GyePhEvk