Living in Colorado with the reintroduction of wolves happening this year, I was quite keen on reading this story.

While I was absolutely taken away by McConaghy's "Migrations", I did not have the same emotional response to her second novel. There is a lot going on in this book and, honestly, it was too much.

There were certain aspects that I completely enjoyed. The parts of the story that dealt with Inti's father were very insightful. You really got the sense of where she came from and where her love of the natural world came from. This story line would have been enough for me.

What I wasn't prepared for was the level of violence and trauma that Inti and her sister Aggie experience. The method that McConaghy uses to reveal the past, her way of teasing out the story, actually makes it much too predictable. I found myself periodically hoping she would just get on with it so we could get to the wolves. Unfortunately, the wolves play second or third fiddle to the messed up backstories of all of the characters. Basically, everyone has suffered some sort of abuse and experienced some level of violence from some other person.

This book wasn't what I was hoping for. It's not a bad story, but it's also not great. I think it would have worked better for me if there were fewer side stories.

I highly recommend reading "Migrations".