Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough

Title: Into the Mouth of the Wolf

Author: Erin Gough

Genre: YA Mystery

Publisher: Hardie Grant

Published: 1^st May 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 384

Price: $22.99

Synopsis: Part thriller, part queer romance, Into the Mouth of the Wolf is a stunning, CBCA Notable YA novel from the award-winning author of Amelia Westlake.

Dear Iris,

If all goes well I will be in touch by this evening. If you hear nothing, contact Glassy Bay International Travellers’ Hostel and ask after me. Use our real names.

Your Mama xx

Iris lives on the run with her mother, Rohan. They’re travelling to escape the earthquakes, though of course that’s impossible. And they’re being followed. One day, Rohan insists Iris repeat the phrase in bocca al lupo: into the mouth of the wolf. The next day, Rohan’s vanished, leaving no clues about where she’s gone besides a contact in an unknown town. Entirely alone and fearing the worst, Iris reaches out to a stranger for help.

When Lena gets Iris’s message, she’s busy panic-studying for year 12 and helping run her family’s hostel. She’s intrigued by Iris, and can’t deny there’s a spark between them – but she’s also worried. A dead body has just washed up at the beach in Glassy Bay. And Lena’s old best friend – who’s just returned after an unexplained absence – seems to know something about it.

Missing people. Mysterious deaths. A growing attraction between two girls caught up in the search for the truth. Somehow, they’re all connected. But in order to find out how – and in order to even meet each other – Iris and Lena will have to go into the mouth of the wolf …

​​​​​​With shades of We Were Liars and Station Eleven, this extraordinary young-adult novel explores love and grief in an uncertain climate from one of Australia’s most talented writers.

*Longlisted for the 2025 Davitt Awards

~*~

Iris and her mother, Rohan, have been on the run since their house was destroyed in an earthquake. They’re being chased by a mysterious group of people, intent on capturing Rohan, who has her own secrets, and won’t tell Iris. They’re on their way to a coastal town called Vardo, and Rohan has left a letter – directing Iris to the Glassy Bay International Traveller’s Hostel. At the hostel in Vardo, Iris meets Kazumi, who appears to be the only person she can trust – or can she? Is Kazumi as trustworthy as they say? She’s uncertain, but cannot trust anybody else in Vardo.

Lena lives in Glassy Bay at the hostel when the body of a woman shows up on the beach, her friend Prash reappears, and she’s in contact with Iris, unaware of just how close they are to each other. Lena is busy studying for year twelve, helping out at her family’s business, and grappling with rifts and changes in the climate of Glassy Bay. Then there’s the body on the beach, a death that is being investigated by the police, including her best friend Marty’s father, the Good Detective, as they call him.

Amidst all this, people are going missing, vanishing without a trace, there are strange deaths, and ponderings about where certain people have gone and why they’re turning up all of a sudden. Everything feels like it is connected, as though there is some kind of passage between Vardo and Glassy Bay. But none of the characters really know how they are related at first – just that there are two names of two scientists that are familiar in both places. And both places seem to be affected by climate change and the effects of a company called Clean Machine. This is a commentary on the big companies

Into the Mouth of the Wolf combines themes of climate change, diversity, gender identity and LGBTQIA characters with aspects of mystery, crime and thriller novels for a young adult audience. It captures all these themes evocatively, and bring them together slowly across the novel as Iris and Lena follow the clues that lead them towards each other. This novel has something unique about it that merges important contemporary themes with a touch of fantasy and magical realism in our world amidst the threats of climate change and silencing people determined to speak out. Sounds familiar, right? People taking out the people determined to make a difference happened in the 1930s, and has happened, and still happens in many places throughout history. These themes are deftly dealt with throughout the story, making it work well on many levels, so everyone who reads this will see what they need to see in this book.

This is an intriguing book, where it feels like there is something is always coming, where things are not always as they seem. And it is cleverly done, so it doesn’t feel obvious. You can work it out if you follow the clues, but the surprise of how it is all connected works as well. I did feel that some things weren’t resolved, but maybe that was done to reflect how things work in reality. Not every crime is always solved. Not every question has answers. It’s a novel that reflects a reality our world is hurtling towards in a world that will be severely impacted by climate change, which felt like the stronger message in this novel. Overall, it was a good novel, and one that will find its readers. I enjoyed it, and felt like the messages within it were dealt with very well.