History of Wolves (Fridlund) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Few images in contemporary fiction have struck me as forcefully as that of Patra bent over in the driveway in anguish.... Fridlund has a tendency to...use two adjectives where one would do. But she is masterly when she lets more scraped-down prose push a series of elemental questions to the fore: Do intentions matter? What price will you pay to feel wanted?... The result is a novel of ideas that reads like smart pulp, a page-turner of craft and calibration.
Megan Hustad - New York Times Book Review


(Starred review.) [A] stellar debut.... [Fridlund's] wordsmithing is fantastic, rife with vivid turns of phrase. Fridlund has elegantly crafted a striking protagonist whose dark leanings cap off the tragedy at the heart of this book, which is moving and disturbing, and which will stay with the reader.
Publishers Weekly


Fridlund is a fine writer who excels at getting inside the head of an unhappy youth and revealing how neglect and isolation scar a child for life. Yet this first novel, as cold and bleak as a Minnesota winter, may be too dark for some readers. —Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA
Library Journal


The writing is beautiful....a triumph of tone and attitude. Lovers of character-driven literary fiction will embrace this.
Booklist


(Starred review.) An atmospheric, near-gothic coming-of-age novel turns on the dance between predator and prey.... Fridlund is an assured writer.... The novel has a tinge of fairy tale, wavering on the blur between good and evil, thought and action. But the sharp consequences for its characters make it singe and sing—a literary tour de force.
Kirkus Reviews