(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program.)

Nobody ever asked me
about any of it.
People don't want to hear
the stories of an old woman.
But I know things. About

the girl, the wolf, what
happened that night
when the moon moved past
the woods and the ground
grew too cold for snow.

("What Happens in the Dark When It's Cold Outside")

She never listened to the tales about her,
choosing to remain buoyant and open.

("Fiction")

Why am I the one who has to be confined?

("Grounded")

OUR WOLVES is a poetic reimagining / retelling / reexamination of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Within these pages, the wolf could be anyone, from the canine's wild cousin, a Big Bad lurking in the woods, to Red herself. It's an alluring idea, although I naturally enjoyed some of the poems more than others ("School for Girls Who Shouldn't Trust" and "You All Been Waiting for a Wolf Confession" are particularly biting). I'm not sure I entirely understood some of the others; perhaps a second or third read-through is in order.

I do wish the collection was longer; the final piece, "How to Make a Hand Shadow Wolf" almost felt like the end of a first act, a promise of more to come.

Also, have a not-so-petty complaint about the print book - the text is tiny! Like eight point at best. As short as the book is, I developed a headache from eye strain two thirds of the way in. I know I'm getting up there, but still. ( )

I was really intrigued by the description of this book but quickly found it to be quite dark. This take on the Red Riding Hood story is bleaker than the original, not so happy tale.
Undertones of abuse really disturbed me, also. Not my cup of tea. ( )

Our Wolves – poetry by Luanne Castle (2023)
Wow! I guess all those times I was read or told the story of Little Red Riding Hood has finally paid off. Castle gives us new points of view for this story, as well as a widely varying poetic style that turns out to be the only ‘page turner’ in the poetry section of my library. Red, Granny, and Wolf become real, three-dimensional characters, and each get a chance to ‘clarify’ the events.

"Everybody blames someone
But study how it played out."
- Luanne Castle, Our Wolf>em>

You must own this book (even if you ‘don’t read poetry’).

Yes, you do have room for one more book. ( )

Disclaimer: I received a copy via Librarything.
Castle’s poetry collection is focused on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The poems in this collection aren’t interconnected per se, though you could argue that some of them are. Some of the poems focus on the wolf, some on the grandmother, some on huntsman, and some focus on everything. There are even a few that focus on the idea of fiction and of fictional characters as well.
Perhaps one the most powerful poems is “What Happened in the Dark When It’s Cold Outside” which not only plays on the title of the song but is told from the viewpoint of the grandmother. The grandmother wonders “Did her mother make her visit?/She is never blamed, the wolf/faulted for his gruesome end/ and me for being old and needy” (11). It is a fair point.
Some of the poems use the idea of sexualization of children, the whole “she was asking for it” theme. This is true not just in “You All Been Waiting for A Wolf Confession” – which you can hear as an actual defense that some men might be forward – but also of “Interrogation” or “I’m a Woodcutter, Damnit”.
There are also poems that deal with making the wolf something other than the wolf. Reclaiming yourself from the wolf or delivering yourself from the wolf. This includes a wonderful poem about shadow puppets.
Both the poems “Fiction” and “Human Origins” address Red Riding Hood as something other, an other that gets things pinned on to her as opposed to simply being herself. It is this playing with the idea of fiction and of what stories tell us as well as the power of stories themselves that runs though the collection.
In many ways the style of the poems – the theme and use of description -reminds me strongly of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, in particular “The Company of Wolves”. There is the same sense of sexuality and responsibly. Castle uses as the theme of blame or of guilt. Who is guilty in the story of Red Riding Hood is in fact something that many of us wonder – the wolf of course, but who else?
If you are interested in Red Riding Hood or love Angela Carter, I highly recommend this collection. ( )

What is a wolf if not
the hungry wildness in the heart?

–“Human Origin”

I read fairy tales when I was a child and was often hoodwinked by them. I tended to take things literally so, for example, when reading about Rapunzel, I considered whether I go could grow my hair as long. Or, after reading Hansel and Gretel, I became suspicious of my neighbor who liked children and liked to bake. Little Red Riding Hood made me afraid of the woods and the wild creatures that might hunt me there.

For that reason, Little Red Riding Hood always bugged me. So I was eager to devour (pun intended) Luanne Castle’s latest chapbook, Our Wolves.

We meet all sorts of wolves in this slim volume. There’s the father whose eyes turn yellow when he loses his temper. There’s the young man who taunts the young girl taking diabetic jelly to her diabetic grandmother. There’s the wolf as victim, as the misunderstood protector of the girl from the huntsman.

I took the precautions of locking granny
in her closet and when the girl got there, put
her in with the old lady, then waited
for the hunter to show up with his knife
and leering face. But it didn’t go well for me.

–“You All Been Waiting for a Wolf Confession”

In “What Happens in the Dark When It’s Cold Outside,” even the grandmother doesn’t entirely blame the wolf. Castle twists the tale of the grandmother who is faulted for

being old and needy.
I am old and need to be heard.

She also twists the tale of the huntsman or woodcutter, noting the history of variation and revision, a man less of a protector and more of a slacker:

When the wolf came back to the forest,
he wanted to work off some calories
and offered to chop some trees while
I took a nap in the echoing silence.

–“I’m a Woodcutter, Dammit”

I enjoyed Castle’s versions of the fairy tale, giving each character voice and showing how any one of them could be a wolf. Her interpretations encourage me to rethink the story and its multitude of meanings.

The poems where she describes living with wolves in real life chill me more than any fairy tale. In “How to Digest the Wolf,” we learn about a girl who would

Study his face for bared teeth or curled lips.

Take the belt without crying.

[…]

Find a wolf hunter to be your boyfriend.

Having been a follower of Luanne’s blog (Luanne Castle: Poetry and Other Words (and cats!)) for several years and an avid reader of her poetry and other writing, I’m aware that some of these poems might be autobiographical. (Perhaps we can call them “autopoetry”?)

Ultimately, though, the girl–the poet–wins.

You’re in charge.
Tip your hand, open the mouth,
and howl at the moon, all aquiver.

–“How to Make a Hand Shadow Wolf”