Published: 2022
Series: N/A
Author: Meg Long
Illustrator: N/A
Genres: Friendship, Family, Adventure, Fantasy, Survival, Myth, Legend, Women’s Issues
Audience (Grade Levels): YA (9-10, 11-12)
Number of Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads Link: Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves
Triggers: Violence, death of parents (mothers), survival peril, fighting animals, gang elements
Review By: Lisa McPherson
Publisher’s Summary:
“A lone girl determined to survive. The feral wolf she must learn to trust. Only one chance to escape their icy planet: a race across the deadly tundra.
Seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen hates the sled race, especially after it claimed both her mothers’ lives five years ago. Alone on her frozen planet, she makes money any other way she can–until she double-crosses a local gangster.
Desperate to escape, Sena flees with his prized fighting wolf, Iska, and takes an offer from a team of scientists. They’ll pay her way off-world, on one condition–that she uses the survival skills her mothers taught her to get them to the end of the race. But the tundra is a treacherous place. When the race threatens their lives at every turn, Sena must discover whether her abilities are enough to help them survive the wild, and whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.
As the girl and the wolf forge a tenuous bond and fight to escape ice goblins, giant bears, and the ruthless gang leader intent on trapping them both, one question drives them relentlessly forward: Where do you turn when there is nowhere to hide?
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a captivating, breathless debut about survival and found family that delivers a fresh twist on classic survival stories.” (Amazon)
Review:
Since my last review I have picked up two other books and put them aside. Finally, a book that kept my interest and made me want to read! The book’s main character is a young girl that many teens today can relate to. She feels alone, abandoned, and disliked. Her pride won’t let her ask for help and her stubbornness continues to get her into trouble. She is saved by the love of a wolf. I would compare this to Hunger Games or The Call of the Wild . If either of these were favorites, then this book is for you. It is a modernized and feminized version of those beloved stories. The relationships between Sena and the wolf and other characters truly made the book. The world the author creates is both treacherous and beautiful. I could not put it down. A lone girl determined to survive. The feral wolf she must learn to trust. Only one chance to escape their icy planet: a race across the deadly tundra.
Seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen hates the sled race, especially after it claimed both her mothers’ lives five years ago. Alone on her frozen planet, she makes money any other way she can—until she double-crosses a local gangster.
Desperate to escape, Sena flees with his prized fighting wolf, Iska, and takes an offer from a team of scientists. They’ll pay her way off-world, on one condition–that she uses the survival skills her mothers taught her to get them to the end of the race. But the tundra is a treacherous place. When the race threatens their lives at every turn, Sena must discover whether her abilities are enough to help them survive the wild, and whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.
As the girl and the wolf forge a tenuous bond and fight to escape ice goblins, giant bears, and the ruthless gang leader intent on trapping them both, one question drives them relentlessly forward: Where do you turn when there is nowhere to hide?
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a captivating, breathless debut about survival and found family that delivers a fresh twist on classic survival stories.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- English Language Arts: Perfect for high school ELA classes analyzing classic survival tropes. The text offers an exceptional modern, feminist companion piece to traditional survival novels like Jack London’s The Call of the Wild or contemporary dystopian survival like The Hunger Games.
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Provides a deep exploration of vulnerability, coping with grief, overcoming stubborn pride, and learning to trust others (and animals) after enduring significant trauma and isolation.
- Extension Activity / Library Application:
- High School Book Club / Literature Circles: Pair this book with an independent reading program focusing on high-stakes adventure, dystopia, or animal fiction.
- Creative Writing Extension: Have students analyze the “found family” trope and write a companion scene or survival log from the perspective of another character on the scientist team or from an expanded lore perspective of the icy planet.
- Diversity & Representation: The novel inherently normalizes and highlights diverse family structures and inclusive identities, featuring a main protagonist raised by two mothers, alongside strong, central themes surrounding women’s independence, agency, and complex emotional resilience in harsh landscapes.
Readalikes:
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
