Into the Mouth of the Wolf

Amelia Westlake was a stand-out title when it was published in 2018, winning The Readings Young Adult Prize. It’s been a long wait for Erin Gough’s next novel, but the delay has been worth it. Into the Mouth of the Wolf is radically different and pitched slightly younger, but it is no less impressive.

Iris and her mum are permanently on the run in an alternate future where earthquakes destroy towns regularly and many people have been displaced. Someone is hunting them, but Iris’s mother won’t tell her who or why. When her mother suddenly disappears, Iris has little to go on bar the Spanish phrase ‘in bocca al lupo’ (into the mouth of the wolf), which her mother made her memorise, plus the name of a hotel in a town called Glassy Bay.

In search of answers, Iris connects online with Lena, whose family runs the Glassy Bay International Travellers’ Hostel, and the two develop a growing attraction. Meanwhile, in Glassy Bay, some very suspicious things are happening, not least the washing up of a woman’s body on the shore. There are numerous plots converging within this murder mystery, not least that Glassy Bay can only be reached from Iris’s world by a secret underwater portal.

Peopled with a large cast of unique, wholly realistic characters, Gough’s third novel has elements of dystopia, eco-thriller and romance, all bound together in a fast-paced, exciting mystery. I highly recommend this fascinating Australian novel for readers aged 11+.