The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis : ARC Book Review

Title: The Wolf Road
Author: Beth Lewis
Publisher:  Crown
Published Date: July 5th, 2016
Genre: Adult, Thriller, Mystery
Page Count:352
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 

True Grit meets The Road in this postapocalyptic psychological thriller--narrated by a young girl who has just learned that her adopted father may be a serial killer, and that she may be his next victim.

In the remote wilds of a ravaged land, Elka has been raised by a man who isn't her father. Since finding her wandering in the woods when she was seven, he has taught her how to hunt, shoot, set snares and start fires--everything she needs to survive. All she knows of the world outside is gleaned from whispers of a cataclysmic event that turned the clock back on civilization by a hundred and fifty years and reduced governments and technology to shambles, leaving men at the mercy of the elements--and each other.

Everything changes when Elka learns that the man she has been calling father is harboring a terrible secret. Armed with nothing but her knife and her wiles, she decides to escape his clutches and sets out on a long journey to the frozen north in the hope of finding her long-lost parents.

But as the trail of blood and bodies grows in her path, Elka realizes that daddy won't be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she's going to survive, she'll have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about what he's turned her into.
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 My Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and Crown publishing for originally giving me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review. I ended up getting it from my library in physical form.

"Trapper was my family even though I didn't know a sure thing about him.... Trapper was the kind a'family you choose for yourself, the kind that gets closer'n blood. He was what I chose and I chose wrong."

 This was a book that surprised me, because of how it was a post-apocalyptic western. I wasn't expecting the post-apocalyptic part and that threw me for awhile because I was trying to figure out what exactly happened.
Elka is a young woman who was left with her grandma when her parents went to pan gold, but a 'thunderhead' ended up taking her far far away. This is when she meets 'trapper' who ends up becoming  a father figure to her.
Some bad things end up happening, forcing Elka to have to leave, but trapper isn't far behind her and it's almost like he's taunting her.

Elka will now have to survive on her own in the wild with next to no supplies and her mind all confused about what her life has been like for the past few years.

Overall I really struggled to read this book because of how slow paced it was. I just kept wanting to start getting answers or for things to at least make sense for a change. Having said that though, by the last quarter of the book I did start enjoying it. When Pen got involved I ended up like Elka a little bit more as well, she just brought out the best in her. Truthfully I'm still not sure what my exact feelings for this book are. On one hand, I did enjoy it, but on the other, I'm still disgusted about the things that trapper had her doing. Just no. not okay....
I can see the comparison of it to true grit as Elka is a bit like the character from that book, but honestly true grit (John Wayne movie) is so much better in my opinion.