Wild & Free by Willow Terez, Manuscript by Annaliese Hofner

My rating out of 5: 4

Introduction

Wild & Free, written by Annaliese Hofner takes place in Singanjora forest where our young protagonist, Willow Terez lives life with the Diamond Back wolf pack that adopted her. But when her wolf stepsister has a vision of the future, they prepare for the worst. The vision comes true, and the majority of the wolves are taken to a government facility, leaving Willow behind. 

Based off the acknowledgments, and some Facebook posts, Annaliese wrote the manuscript at a very young age, 10 or 12 years old. Then her father edited it with her. It was self-published when she was 12. Since this book was written by a young writer, for young readers, and since it reminds me so much of the things I wrote at that age, I will offer a review in that context. If this was written by an adult for other adults, it would be a 1-star review. But for her age, and the age range of her readers, this book is easily a 4-star, since I can imagine the author's free-flowing imagination being positively received by her target audience. 

At times this book feels dreamlike. Even the illustrations add to this effect. Her young age and free flowing childhood creativity really adds to the book's dreamlike atmosphere. I will explain this point more at the end of this review. 

An illustration of the main character.

An illustration of the mother wolf.

An illustration of the mother wolf fighting with the alfa of another pack.

Development

Considering this is a children's book, I do not expect long paragraphs of descriptions, since those easily bore young readers. With that in mind, this book, for me, offered a near perfect amount of development.  there wasn't so much that it would bore young readers, but there was enough there for me to visualize what was happening.

For character development, it was of course limited by the shortness of the book, and by the quick pace of the chapters. And honestly, I was okay with the lack of character development. I didn't need any deep understanding of the characters to enjoy this story. We are given some differences between characters, and they do maintain how they act throughout the book, so they are differentiable, but there's nothing deeper than that. 

There were a lot of plot holes, which in some way actually added to the dreamlike feel of the book and made it more enjoyable. I will cover some of these at the end of this review. 

Grammar and spelling

For spelling, I didn't notice any issues. 

As for grammar, there was one small issue that kept showing up. The single quotes in some places throughout the book were replaced with apostrophes. This is not a big deal, but these two markings are visibly different. 

Otherwise, this small book was well checked for typos.

Things I loved about this book

Okay, here's the end of the review, and I have a big point to make concerning the dreamlike feel of Wild & Free. 

Throughout the narrative we have potholes, such as her being raised by wolves from 2 years old till 12, yet she has normal clothes. Where did she get these? did she steal them? 

In chapter 2, the human parents acted unrealistically when they found a wolf by their infant. Instead of snatching the child away, they ran in fear, leaving the child. To clarify, later in the chapter it was explained that the parents didn't like their child. But in reality, neglectful parents wouldn't just run away screaming from a wolf that's approaching their child. As is true in many neglet/abuste cases the parents act responsible and loving except when alone with the victim. In a worst-case scenario, I'd expect the parents to sit and watch the wolf instead of running away. Maybe I got hung up on this point mostly because the two parents were together and had no reason to be afraid of a single wolf. 

Most words like "tent" are replaced with wolfish terms like "fabric cave". Yet "swords" is kept in the story even after being referred to as "hand claws". 

Finally, there was a scene where they come to a hunting camp and find the swords. I had an issue with this not feeling realistic, since why would hunters have swords in a story set in present day where one character has a cell phone? Also, how is our main character, who can only walk on all fours, dual wield two full sized swords at 12-years-old? Hunting knives would have made more sence to find in a campsite and would have been easier to handle. 

Now, why are all these plot issues in the section of things I loved about this book? It feels exactly like the young author's lack of experience is letting her creativity go wherever she wants it, unhindered by what is realistic. Giving it that dreamlike feel. additionally, it's exactly what my early writing was like when I was her age. And these issues which would usually sink any other book, makes this one float. 

Add to the free-flowing creativity the illustrations, which at some times are obviously drawn by a child, add to this feeling. 

To close, I love this book because it reminds me of my childhood, the games I used to play as a kid, and how anything could happen no matter how unrealistic. It feels like a dream. Young readers may find it fun and enjoyable, while older readers, including myself, may find it nostalgic. 

Links

If you want to check out Annaliese Hofner on Amazon, check the links below.

Amazon