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Sora Sakurai’s life seems to be hanging on by a thread. Prone to dark thoughts, destructive tendencies, and living on the fringe of society, she is haunted by the trauma of the Okami attacks that killed her entire family. Working as a Keeper, Sora patrols the outer edges of Sector Five to protect the people from wolves—people who can also morph into a wolf form. The secret she’s keeping from absolutely everyone is that she is a wolf herself. When the ghosts of her past spring forward and task her with establishing peace to fulfill a prophecy, Sora has to shed her lone wolf lifestyle and start her own pack. The fate of the world relies on Sora bringing in runaways, people she thought long dead, and even some human friends that she must sway to her identity and cause.
Colored with influences from Japanese culture, this book depicts a bleak future ravaged by nuclear war and the only territory still intact on the verge of tearing itself apart. Each chapter is narrated by one of the various characters, providing a differing storytelling style, a range of action, and an examination of multiple viewpoints from within. The contrast between dystopian urban life and the sort of nomadic mysticism that many of the wolves engage in separates the two sides without making either of them seem fully alien. As tensions mount, and Sora and her allies seek to stop the militant Jougen from eliminating the humans while avoiding detection and execution from either group, the action quickly becomes frantic. What starts as a fascinating study of tempestuous young characters escalates into a battle with the last remaining people’s lives at stake. Though it hits suddenly, the conflict grips readers and keeps them hooked to the very last page.