The Gilded Wolves

Happy Release Day to The Gilded Wolves! 🎉

If you follow me on any of my social media accounts, you may have seen me talk about this book in all its green and gold gorgeousness. I absolutely loved this book. Kirkus calls it “an opulent heist adventure that will leave readers voracious for more” and I’m officially one of those readers. 🙋🏻‍♀️

If you’re curious about whether or not this book is for you, I’m here at your service! Here’s my spoiler-free review:

Disclaimer: ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
Published by Wednesday Books on January 15, 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 464
Format: ARC, Hardcover
ISBN: 9781250144546
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

Set in a darkly glamorous world, The Gilded Wolves is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous but thrilling adventure.

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can't yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they'll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

Six of Crows meets The Da Vinci Code and The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue in Roshani Chokshi’s tale of treasure hunts and cryptic riddles with compelling characters whose witty banter and dramatic gestures are sure to entertain.

The Gilded Wolves has three of my favourite things: a heist story, fascinating magic, and REPRESENTATION.

Our story is set in 1889, when a world’s fair called the Exposition Universelle was held in Paris. The major attraction of this event was a human zoo, then called a “Negro Village”, a large colonial exhibit which
displayed over 400 indigenous people from a host of French colonies. In her Author’s Notes, Roshani mentions this time in history was what inspired her to write The Gilded Wolves.

“History is a myth shaped by the tongues of conquerors. What appears good may eventually sour and curdle in our collective minds. What appears bad may later bloom and brighten. I wanted to write this trilogy not to instruct or to condemn, but to question what is gold and what glitters.”

— Roshani Chokshi

In the midst of this ugly reality, we find ourselves in a place thriving with Forging, the science of bringing life to matter. People believe that Forging comes from the presence of scattered fragments from the Tower of Babel when it was destroyed, and finding a Fragment can either birth or end a civilization.

This is where we meet our cast of ragtag renegades. (They’re officially my children and I will stan them for the rest of time.) If you’re a lover of diverse reads, you’re going to love Roshani because The Gilded Wolves doesn’t shy away from diversity, feminism, LGBTQIA+ representation, and inclusivity. I’m a bit of a character design enthusiast and I’m in awe of Roshani’s ability to not only write characters with such distinct personalities, but to write them in a way that I understand and feel the strength of their motivations.

I love that she writes about marginalized characters and their struggles, and especially loved reading about Enrique, a Filipino-Spanish character who is a member of The Ilustrados — a group of European educated Filipinos who dreamed of reform for the Philippines. However Enrique, unlike other members of The Ilustrados, looks more Spanish than Filipino and has always felt left out of the group’s inner circle.

As a Filipina, I can’t even begin to tell you how it felt to read a bit of our history in the pages of this book. Enriques desire to free the Philippines from Spanish colonization resonated so strongly with me and it goes without saying that his arc is the one I’m most eager in following. I was also overwhelmed by the fact that readers who may not know much about the Philippines get to see this part of our history and I absolutely loved that.

Enrique may be my obvious favourite, but from Zofia to Laila to Tristan and Séverin, I love them all. It’s rare for me to care about all of the characters in the cast and want a book about each of them. They’re so well-written and fleshed out, I can recognize them from a distance.

The Gilded Wolves is one of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a long time. There wasn’t a dull moment in this book and I found it evenly paced. There are hints of romance, most of which manifest as sexual tension, and while moments of it happened a bit too often for me, I generally found it wickedly teasing. 😉 I also loved that it was pre-existing, and there’s history between the characters involved.

The Gilded Wolves is a strong start to what’s shaping up to be a series to be reckoned with. The worldbuilding was a little infodumpy in the beginning but it’s such a small factor to everything else I loved about the book. It’s alternate historical fantasy with mythologies, secret societies, and mysteries. It’s for fans of beautiful imagery, found families/friendships, diverse characters, and snarky, humorous banter. It’s a smorgasbord of everything I love and I feel like Roshani wrote it for me. 💕