Opinions of a Wolf

Summary:
Jon Evans has spent the last two years living in an enclave as a slip — someone who received a VIP pass to get into an enclave that was originally intended for someone else.  His stepmother and half brother live there as well, while his mother and older sister, Miranda, and her husband, Alex, live just outside of the enclave, working and serving it while living in filth.  Jon isn’t like the rest of them.  He can barely remember a time before the apocalypse of the moon being hit out of orbit.  The enclave and its ways seem increasingly normal, even if he is haunted by the memories of what happened in the years between the apocalypse and the arrival at the enclave.

Review:
I was a bit startled to see that this book featured yet another new perspective, particularly after the return to Miranda’s diary in the third book.  I was expecting a turn back to Alex, but instead we get Miranda’s little brother Jon’s perspective.  I can understand the reasoning for this shift.  Jon is the only young person from the original group living in the enclave.  He is a bit of an antihero throughout most of the book, providing a unique look at the privileged elite in this post-apocalyptic society but one that could be alienating to some readers.

Whereas the first two books focused on the actual apocalypse and the third on the immediate aftermath, this book looks at the new society emerging from that wasteland, and it’s not good.  It’s quite dystopian.  Not everyone who enjoys apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic worlds also enjoy dystopian ones, so this is a bit of a risky move for a series, although it makes logical sense for the plot to progress this way.  The dystopia that Pfeffer imagines is interesting.  The elite have built up enclaves and use those who are not elite to work supporting them, basically killing themselves slowly mining coal and growing food while the elite stay safe and educated in the enclaves.  It allows for a look at social class taken to the extreme while still seeming realistic within the world Pfeffer has created.

Jon also is a realistic character.  He’s a bit spoiled rotten, after all, his brother, sister, and mother all routinely gave him extra food while they starved when the apocalypse first occurred.  He’s the result of all the coddling they gave the youngest in an effort to keep him alive and healthiest.  That said, some readers will be turned off by Jon.  He’s unequivocally a jerk throughout at least half of the book before he eventually snaps out of it.  While I personally enjoy a good antihero every now and then, not all readers will like visiting one, particularly after the more heroic presence of Miranda and Alex in the first two books.

There is one aspect of Jon’s character that really bothers me, and it has nothing to do with his snobbishness and antihero nature early on in the book.

*spoilers* 
He lets on early on in the book that something bad happened to Alex’s sister Julie.  He at one point misleads a female character to believe that he raped Julie to drive her away from him.  This is done to protect her, and the reader is led to believe through this scene that Jon obviously didn’t rape Julie.  Yet when we find out what actually happened, it’s not quite so crystal clear.  Jon basically was making out with Julie and not stopping when she asked him to the first time.  She then runs out into the storm and is killed in the tornado.  Jon states that of course he would have stopped, he was just slow about it and reluctant because he didn’t think Julie’s protests were real.  He thought she wanted him but wasn’t letting herself want him because of her religion.  This is clearly many levels of fucked up. The reader is supposed to just believe Jon that he would have stopped because he says so?  The reader is supposed to believe that Julie 100% over-reacted because Jon claims she did?  It’s a squicky scene to read about, partially because it comes across as that the reader is supposed to absolve Jon from any guilt since he clearly didn’t rape Julie.  He’s also upsetting because no one in the book treats this like the serious issue it is.  Everyone just kind of shrugs and goes oh Julie over-reacted and goes on their merry way.  Even if Jon really was about to stop when Julie ran out, he clearly needs to be spoken to about listening to your partner immediately, about seeking out enthusiastic consent, and about not victim blaming.  Particularly given that this is a YA book and what an important issue this is, the way it’s glossed over left a really sour taste in my mouth.
*end spoilers*

I’m not against the presence of an antihero, including in a YA book, but I do think that Jon’s worse qualities could have been handled with a bit more deftness.  His presence instead dances around the edges of certain issues, rather than drawing them out for examination within the context of a fun dystopia.

The plot gets a bit nuts, and one character in particularly has an ending that is rather anticlimactic.  However, the plot does eventually move everyone into a new area of the dystopia that is quite fascinating and sets the series up well for another book that will hopefully be free of Jon’s perspective, if Pfeffer does decide to write one.

Overall, readers of the beginning of the series will enjoy seeing what ultimately happens to Miranda and Alex, although they may be frustrated to have to do it through Jon’s eyes.  Jon is an antihero who may irritate some readers, and his presence brings up some issues that are then glossed over, rather than dealt with.  Recommended to readers who really want to see more of Miranda and Alex who don’t mind spending some time with an antihero.

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2 out of 5 stars

Length: 304 pages – average but on the longer side

Source: Library

Buy It (Amazon or Bookshop.org)

Previous Books in Series:
Life As We Knew It, review
The Dead and The Gone, review
This World We Live In, review