ALA Booklist

In the primitive fishing town of Bouge-by-the-Sea, 12-year-old orphan Gauge is apprenticed to his grandpápá, the Carpenter, who hides the boy from those who would execute him for his secret: he is a Voyant, one who can see the Wolf, the mystical d misunderstood ing who's tasked with carrying souls from the world of the living to the afterlife. When the Carpenter dies, leaving Gauge unprotected, he is forced to go on the run and undertake a desperate mission to clear his name and discover the true nature of the Wolf and the town's superstitions surrounding death. Vitalis' striking debut is alluringly told through the first-person perspective of the Wolf, offering a safe distance for sensitive readers to engage in a story about death, grief, and corruption. The language is wonderfully crisp and clear, showcasing a literary style that favors a slower, more thoughtful pace but still invites a middle-grade audience. A respectful, yet skeptical, exploration of the rituals used both to cope with and exploit death adds a meaningful layer to this poignant tale.

Kirkus Reviews

A soul-ferrying Wolf tries to convince a boy to take up her mantle.In the France-inspired town of Bouge-by-the-Sea, 12-year-old White boy Gauge is the only person able to see the Great White Wolf, a supernatural canine who ferries souls to the afterlife. Ostracized by his community, whose members suspect him of witchery, Gauge is wary of the Wolf, who is pursuing him in order, readers learn, to persuade him to replace her. When Bastien the Carpenter-Gauge's grandfather and sole caregiver-dies, Gauge is accused by the Lord Mayor of being a dangerous Voyant who will bring death to the village. Fleeing his pursuers, Gauge stumbles upon unlikely allies in the form of a sickly blacksmith, who suffers from a lung ailment brought about by his occupation, and his daughter, Roux, both of whom are cued as Black. As Roux and Gauge become friends and bond over their experiences with grief, they begin to suspect that neither the Wolf nor their town's death rituals are quite what they seem-and they are determined to unearth some answers. The Wolf's present-tense, first-person omniscient narration is filled with snark (as well as parenthetical asides and occasional footnotes directly addressing readers) that provides a grim sort of levity. Accessible and intriguing worldbuilding, particularly around the Wolf's backstory, will pique readers' interests, as will larger questions about life, death, truth, and tradition.Thoughtful, creative, and engaging. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In a thought-provoking debut, Vitalis considers grief, the end of life, and the industry of death through the eyes of an otherworldly, psychopompic wolf. Twelve-year-old, light-skinned Gauge, apprentice to and grandson of Bastien the Carpenter, lives a shadow life in Bouge-by-the-Sea as a suspected Voyant-a witch able to summon the Wolf, a harbinger of death. Accused of causing the passing of the Lord Mayor-s wife five years earlier, Gauge avoids attention until the death of his beloved grandfather forces him out of hiding. Desperate to avoid capture, Gauge finds an unexpected ally in Roux, a blacksmith-s brown-skinned daughter and a collector of bird feathers, who helps him try to clear his name. But the absolutely real Wolf-whom Gauge can see but not summon-has come to persuade him to take up her vital role, and his decision may doom the entire country. Through the Wolf-s archly omniscient first-person narration, Vitalis relates the affecting stories of Gauge and Roux, whose raw mourning provides a revealing contrast to the Lord Mayor-s simmering, unprocessed grief. Well developed nautical funereal rites, including coffin-like wooden boats and a Sea-in-the-Sky afterlife, give depth and specificity to this contemplative story. Ages 8-12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (Sept.)

School Library Journal (Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2021)

Gr 4 Up This dark fairy tale from debut author Vitalis attempts to tackle the subject of childhood grief through the eyes of a soul-snatching wolf in a fantasy setting. Readers meets Gauge, a white child who lives with his grandfather, the town carpenter of Bouge-by-the-Sea. The boy has the talent of being able to see and speak to a wolf that no one else can perceive and is therefore shunned by the townspeople. They believe the ghostly animal to be a type of grim reaper, making Gauge a "voyant," or a witch, who is able to send the wolf to kill family members. When it is clear that Gauge's grandfather is sick and close to death, the boy must perform the holy act of "the Release" to make sure the departing soul gets to Sea in the Sky, their world's version of heaven, but the entirety of the town prevents him from this final, sacred effort. He bands together with the local smith's daughter Roux, cued dark-skinned, and the two deal with their separate grief and both begin to discover the hypocrisy in the town's afterworld beliefs. All of this is told by the narrator, the supernatural wolf who follows the boy around, and who consistently breaks the narrative wall by using direct address to the reader. Vitalis also uses footnotes in the first half of the book to explain how to pronounce her world's cities and last names. Although the author chooses the potentially ripe subject of how children deal with grief, poverty, and ostracization, the story is a dark one which relies on a few narrative devices that miss the mark. When the wolf addresses the reader, the tone is meant to appear as snarky commentary, but the delivery is off-putting, as is the device of using footnotes, which happens early on in the novel, but disappears halfway through. In truth, although readers get a taste of this fantasy world Gatineautheir "shell currency," for example, and traditional rites of the deadthe world-building itself is insubstantial. All in all, the story does follow fairy-tale guidelines and offers insight for children overcoming obstacles, but the narrative as a whole does not deliver. VERDICT A secondary purchase for large libraries or to use in bibliotherapeutic circles to address grief over losing a loved one, or to talk about the cruel nature of mob mentality. Rachel Joiner, Advent Episcopal Sch., Bessemer, AL