Imogen starts this story as a Blue person in a cell who ends up in service to Clones. But the world of 2111 is not quite what Imogen feels, thinks, or experiences. It's a painful story, there is a lot of loss. Imogen learns much about Black history as she continues to grow over the course of the book. It's almost as if the story that Imogen weaves is a coping mechanism and echoes some of the events in her real life. There are pieces that are repeated in different spots in the narrative.
Really interesting narrative format, includes some pages from a history book that is woven into the stories that Imogen tells. Talks about the impact of trauma and generational trauma. The idea of "gone wolf" comes up repeatedly both in the idea of walking and thinkng and escape. ( )

The first half of Gone Wolf is a bleak Afro-Futurist version of life in the Bible Boot after a second Civil War splits the United States again. Inmate Eleven is a Blue in the capital city of Elite, where Clones (whites) rule, and Blues are enslaved, but everyone is fed on falsehoods and lies (sometimes via Bible Boot Learning Flash Cards) to perpetuate white supremacy. Blue and President Tuba's successor, Larkin, escape from the Bible Boot to a civil rights rally, where Larkin collapses, coughing.

The second half of the book is set in Charlottesville, VA, in 2022, where Imogen is seeing a fourth doctor. This doctor encourages Imogen to tell her story: the story of Inmate Eleven, who is infused with Imogen's own autobiographical details, like her dog/wolf Ira, her foster brothers Kin and Lark, and the pandemic that swept the world and took them away from her.

See also: The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

Quotes

"You are not being punished. This is just the way things are." (the lady in blue/Dr. Abby, 13)

"Sacrifices must be made for peace." Sometimes I feel like she should sacrifice something, but that is the thing. I feel too much. I feel so blue. (18)

Hate is illegal in the Bible Boot. Everyone lives peacefully. (flash card, 25)

Funny how quickly things become okay. (65)

It is sometimes hard not to cry, because I feel so much. (76)

"An Overseer, Inmate Eleven, is someone who teaches you." (Larkin in front of President Tuba, 93)

...I do ask a lot of questions, but just because I want to understand. (104)

That kind of sadness wears on the soul and shows on the skin. There is a word for it - generational trauma. (Truth Tubman/Inmate Sixteen letter to Inmate Eleven, 124)

"I don't know a lot about outside but I don't think people are made for things." (Imogen to Larkin, 137)

It is hard to pretend when you can't unsee something. (148)

"We should use the truth, and not what is easy." (167)

"You have to forgive and sometimes you have to forgive the same person many times."
I am working on forgiving as a verb. (192)

Voices are important...but faces tell entire stories. (196)

...history repeats itself when we forget to remember it correctly. When facts are changed and lies make people afraid, the hate can come back. (King, 199)

How many mistakes can one country make?
How much forgiveness is there? (200)

Dr. Lovingood wants me to deal with all the truth, but sometimes the truth feels like an extra-large piece of bubble gum that I can't keep chewing, because it hurts my jaw too much and makes me cry. (207)

"Sometimes stories tell us something true even if the story is not all the way true." (Dr. Lovingood to Imogen, talking about griots and the African storytelling culture, 209)

African Americans used storytelling to record history and document what happened to them while enslaved. Without this oral tradition, many truths about the American South might have been lost to history.
Slavery was abolished in 1865, which means slavery has only been illegal for 155 years. Owning human beings was legal for over 350 years in the United States... (Black History for Kids, 215)

Yesterday, I learned a new term: cognitive dissonance. It means thinking two opposite things at once. Mama taught me the term when we were watching the news. (235) ( )

I was Unimpressed with the first 200 pages (it felt unoriginal and heavy-handed) but was determined to stick it out because I knew there was a second narrator and man, did that ever turn the story on its head in an impressively unexpected way. I still think the first half could have used some tweaking but most of my objections were nullified by the revelations in the second half. ( )

In the future, 2111, a girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined in a small room with her dog, Ida. Inmate Eleven is also known as a Blue, a biological match for the president’s son, Larkin, should he fall ill. When Larkin begins taking her out of her confinement, Inmate Eleven begins to see the world that’s been hidden outside her small room’s walls and it’s a great shock.

In 2022, Imogen lives in Charlottesville, VA. The pandemic has fractured and distanced Imogen from everyone but her mom and therapist, also causing her nightmares and intense phobias. Her brothers used to help her out, but now she’s on her own. Until a college student, Toni, helps her see differently.

I absolutely loved Me (Moth) when I read it, so I was excited to pick up this novel when I saw that it was coming out. That one punched me in the gut while reading it, so I was kind of expecting this one to as well - it sure didn’t disappoint. This book is a lot - it’s about race, diversity, equality, oppression, loss and grief, and most of all, trauma.

Gone Wolf is aimed at Middle Grade readers, but in all honesty, I can see all ages beyond that enjoying this as well. This isn’t an easy read, as mentioned above, this handles a lot of topics. This story invites readers to face heartbreaking realities that parallel events people of color have gone through (and are still going through), as well as those affected by a loss(es) caused by COVID-19.

*Thank you Feiwel & Friends and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ( )