Overall, I found this book to be super disappointing. It had such a good concept with a backbone of blended fairy tales. Unfortunately, the book mostly fell flat in my opinion...
A rich and complex history is hinted at - a sentient forest, monsters banished to a shadow land, the 5 kings who banished the monsters get banished to the shadow lands themselves… and yet the reader gets no actual history to latch on to to explain these events that lead up to the book’s present time. It left me with more questions than answers that made it a struggle to get through the book.
The lack of world-building might have been easier to slog through if the characters were dynamic enough, but nearly every character fell flat for me as well. Once again, complex relationships and backstories were hinted at but not fully developed. It took me over half of the book to feel even somewhat vested in Red’s story, and I never actually felt vested in Neve as a character. Side characters are present, but not memorable. And finally… the book is called “For the Wolf” and halfway through the book we find out that the only reason our MMC is called “the Wolf” is due to a mix-translation…? What even is the point of having that as a part of your plot, let alone making it a titular piece of your story?! Ugh! So frustrated by this story and its inability to live up to its potential!