Charlotte McConaghy - Once There Were Wolves

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.
Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?
Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.

Comment: I've added this book to my TBR in 2021 after seeing it in some people's best of lists and the blurb sounded promising. I imagined an heroine trying to do something important, while falling in love and while trying to guess who might be trying to blame her wolves for murder. On paper, all the ingredients to make this a fascinating read...

In this book we meet Inti Flynn, she is part of a team of biologists trying to reintroduce wolves into the wild forests of the Highlands, but the locals aren't too keen on this experiment, even though it was authorized by the government. Inti is trying to do something right, something her father would be proud of and something that will also help her twin sister Aggie, who is still recovering from a terrible trauma. Police officer Duncan is trying to keep an eye on the biologists and an eye on the population who isn't happy about this decision, but something about Inti is compelling and he feels he can't stay away from her. However, when someone is killed who is more likely to have done it? How will everyone react and will the wolves be blamed?

The labels that caught my attention when I was trying to decide if I should add this book to my TBR or not were mainly the ones of "fiction", "mystery" and "thriller mystery". I really should have investigated further but I didn't want to go too far that I'd find something that could spoil the story for me. I've left it at that until I was finally able to get the book. Only now did I add it to my monthly reads but I feel a little disappointed because for me the best label for this is "literary fiction" after all, and it turned out I wasn't as happy reading the book.

I say this because the story is heavy, dark, more about the senses and specific scenes instead of a linear story line that is meant to be entertaining. The writing style is one I'd think of more as being literary than that of a mystery and I think that, to me, what this story is about was presented in a very unappealing manner and I was eager to finish. I now see that the author has a unique style, but I had not read anything by her before and I with this example I didn't end up a fan.

Inti is certainly a fascinating heroine and I was rooting for her and for the project, hoping the wolves would thrive and be accepted. Perhaps I was a little naive wishing that the story was more about this and how people would simply understand and accept them, but.... well, let's say I'm one of those people who doesn't like books/movies where animals don't happy happy endings.... that alone would have been disappointing, but along with the rest... ehh. She also has a condition which makes her feel what happens to others (mirror touch synesthesia) and this makes her kind of unique but also suscetible to pain and living with trauma.

Then Inti also has to worry about her sister, who seems to be a mix of dependent/catatonic and quiet person. When we learn why Aggie is this way and why Inti feels like protecting her, it makes sense but the more practical side of me, the one who sees the problems as something to deal with, feels the author wanted so much to create the right mood and atmosphere that the situation in which Aggie is in feels too... whimsical, unlikely. I can't understand why Inti or her mother didn't try to do something else, instead of Inti trying to emulate what went on with their father, who was a sort of survivalist and loved nature... I don't think this story had to go on towards a literary path, but it did and it kind of ruined what could have been a more approachable story.

I can understand what the author tried to do, between the mood and the somewhat unclear scenes and situations which, together with the crimes being committed, made for an intriguing story. But I feel this didn't get there for me, and everything felt more like a confusing situation than a necessary way of story telling. In the attempt to present things in a way that would makes us worry about Inti and her sister, about the wolves and the success of the project, the author created a very good story but I just could not appreciate the overall picture knowing these characters actually all seemed to need therapy. I think the author went over the top with the drama and the trauma and the negativity and everything that might go wrong, did. This made the story feel too depressing, to be honest.

There's a hint of romance but even this had its problems, mainly because Duncan didn't want Inti to be in trouble but had to do his job and I wonder why is there even a romance? It's not necessary, to be fair... then as things get close to the end, it seems as if all the big problems get mixed up and I could finally applaud the author's idea and why the story was meant to be the way it is. However, it was not fun nor was it touching for me to read it. I couldn't wait to finish so I didn't have to remain with these characters anymore and think about all the tragedies around their lives.

Grade: 4/10