Book Review: Dogs of the Deadlands by Anthony McGowan

Chernobyl 1986. Those left behind must fight to survive.

The world is coming to an end. Dragged from her bed in the middle of the night and forced to leave her beloved puppy behind, Natasha has no idea if she’ll ever return home.

Growing up in the shadow of the ruined nuclear power plant, pups Misha and Bratan need to learn how to live wild - and fast. Creatures with sharp teeth, scythe-like claws and yellow eyes lurk in the overgrown woods. And they’re watching the brothers…

But will the dogs survive without humans?

And can humans live without them?

GENRE: C hildren's / Middle Grade

PURCHASE LINKS: A mazon | Hive

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anthony was born in Manchester in 1965, and went to school in Leeds. He has an M.Phil in philosophy and a PhD on the history of the concept of beauty. In the past he worked as a nightclub bouncer, civil servant, and Open University tutor in philosophy. He now lives in London and is married to the fashion designer and LSE academic, Rebecca Campbell. They have two children, and a dog, Monty, who has been featured in two of his books: The Art of Failing (2017), a humorous account of the writer’s life, and How to Teach Philosophy to Your Dog (2019), an introduction to philosophy.

His debut novel was an adult thriller, Stag Hunt, published to wide critical acclaim by Hodder & Stoughton in 2004. A sequel, Mortal Coil, came out in 2005. In the same year, Random House published Hellbent, which was his first novel for teenagers. A second young-adult book, Henry Tumour, was published in April 2006.

The Knife That Killed Me was published in 2008 and has proved both highly controversial and topical. It deals in a hard-hitting, intensely realized way with the problems of knife crime and youth violence. Of it, Meg Rosoff (2007 Carnegie Prize winner) has written, ‘Every writer hates to hear the words “stunning new talent” applied to someone else, but in the case of Anthony McGowan nothing else will do.’ The novel was filmed and released in July 2014.

He has also written feature articles for The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and The Evening Standard, on subjects ranging from the nightmare of being a relative failure married to a superwoman, to travel, and the dangers of hunting rats with a crossbow.

Review & Recommended Listening

A reader said this book was "both savage and beautiful" and I agree. The author also said this is Call of the Wild meets Watership Down meets War and Peace — and "if it doesn’t frighten and excite you, and eventually make you cry, then I've failed."

He definitely did not fail. He's weaved a tale of tragedy and hope using, quite interestingly, both human and non-human POVs, and it all comes together in a beautiful, bittersweet way. The prose is easy to get through without sacrificing any of the emotional impact; I finished the whole thing in a day yet I was moved despite the speed of which I went through with it.

This book is also beautifully illustrated by Keith Robinson, and as a dog person I went "awww" on more than one occasion!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommended Listening: As I mentioned in my open call for books to review, I’ll now be adding a song to my reviews! It’ll be one that either sums up the book for me, what I’d imagine in a trailer were it a movie, something that I associate with the story or one of the characters for whatever reason… or maybe even an original inspired by it 😉