Reader Score
76%
76% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 7 reviews on
"A hair-raising, head-banging, meet-the-Devil epic tale of love, youth, and rock 'n' roll." --Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less Is Lost
Kip, Leslie, and Kira are outliers--even in the metal scene they love. In arch-conservative Gulf Coast Florida in the late 1980s, just listening to metal can get you arrested, but for the three of them the risk is well worth it, because metal is what leads them to one another. Different as they are, Kip, Leslie, and Kira form a family of sorts that proves far safer, and more loving, than the families they come from. Together, they make the pilgrimage from Florida's swamp country to the fabled Sunset Strip in Hollywood. But in time, the delicate equilibrium they've found begins to crumble. Leslie moves home to live with his elderly parents; Kip struggles to find his footing in the sordid world of LA music journalism; and Kira, the most troubled of the three, finds herself drawn to ever darker and more extreme strains of metal. On a trip to northern Europe for her twenty-second birthday, in the middle of a show, she simply vanishes. Two years later, the truth about her disappearance reunites Kip with Leslie, who in order to bring Kira home alive must make greater sacrifices than they could ever have imagined. In his most absorbing and ambitious novel yet, John Wray dives deep into the wild, funhouse world of heavy metal and death cults in the 1980s and '90s. Gone to the Wolves lays bare the intensity, tumult, and thrill of friendship in adolescence--a time when music can often feel like life or death."A cacophony of literary talent and incredible storytelling...This masterful work -- buoyed by Wray's clear skill when it comes to writing music and the power it wields--is perfect for fans of literature and rock and roll alike." --The Today Show
"As terrifying as the novel becomes, it's also, at its core, a lot of fun. . . . Gone to the Wolves is an anti-establishment treatise, bildungsroman and extreme love letter to the flame of youth." --Sarah Gerard, New York Times "A blast of a summer novel." --Chicago Tribune