Stef Rozitis's Reviews > The Pact of the Wolves

In some ways this was just your average school with creepier than average bullies book. Some of the twists were predictable...but only to a degree. Everyone who was a good person of course ended up with a love interest of the opposite sex (yawn) although the romances were not allowed to hijack the plot which I appreciated.

Tropes about gender were broken or not used so one of the love interests is a short, weedy boy; the female protagonist is a genius at maths and science but can't relate her way out of a paper bag, she comes across as "arrogant" as a result. I have too seldom seen this in a female character. Her romantic connection, both romantic connections are based on something other than physical attraction (I don't really know what Blanca looks like from the story, nor do I care). Another virtue is that the book is only 211 pages of writing that is mostly to the point.

To look at the cover (a scantily clad woman without a head...yawn) you would expect just the opposite, but this is a book that takes women seriously as characters and as people of substance. The "bad guys" are also fairly evenly split between men and women and take roles based on ability not gender. There is some horrible neoliberal ideology about education at some parts of the book, but considering how that turned out for everyone I am going to assume this was a semi-deliberate critique or use of irony. The view of "charity" portrayed here is certainly quite cynical, it is a dark book, but whatever goes well for Blanka only starts to go well once she decides to connect with people and begin to trust some of them. There is also a theme throughout the book of yearning for family and friendship and some interesting questions about personhood, agency and compassion.

I think I will keep an eye out for anything else written by Nina Blazon...