Suspenseful story about choices and at what stage doing the right thing trumps the family bond.
Feature image credit: Penguin Books Australia
Australian author Tristan Bancks has written many books for children, most notably his suspenseful thriller Scar Town, which won the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year for Younger Readers in 2024.
His new novel Raised by Wolves is actually a sequel to Two Wolves, published in 2014. It is absolutely not necessary to have read the other book before reading this one. Raised by Wolves takes place five years later and is written from the perspective of Ben’s younger sister, 12-year-old Olive.
Olive has learnt to check every room in her house whilst holding a knife. Her dad is a criminal and five years ago he let his family take the fall for his crime. But one day she sees him outside her school and is torn between seeing this man who is her father, and being pulled back into his life of crime and danger. Can she trust him? But when he turns up at her house and asks to come in, she thinks just maybe he has changed and she will be able to forgive him. An added complication is that her older brother Ben is a couple of days away from graduating from the police academy, and what would getting involved with a criminal mean for his future career?
Even though this story takes place over a very short time, a lot happens! Each named chapter gives us an idea of what is to come, and it also has a time stamp so we are always aware of how much time has actually passed. We are also very aware of the decisions Olive must keep making, to protect herself, her brother and maybe her father.
Bancks is very good at keeping the suspense going. With snap decisions and noises in the dark, this story could so easily have become bogged down. It takes place over such a short space of time, and there’s a lot of thinking on the part of Olive. But it never drags.
There are many questions that this story brings up which would make excellent discussion points. Does family come before the law? Are we all owed a better life? What are kids supposed to do and feel when the people who should be looking after them are the ones who let them down?
Raised by Wolves is definitely not for the fainthearted, but definitely a story worth reading.
Reviewed by Sue Mauger
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Penguin Books Australia
Released: May 2026
RRP: $17.99
