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Book Summary and Reviews of Blacktail by Scott Hawkins

Blacktail by Scott Hawkins

Blacktail

A Novel

by Scott Hawkins

  • Publishes:
  • Sep 1, 2026, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The long-awaited second novel from the author of the cult hit The Library at Mount Char, a one-of-a-kind dark fantasy in which a wolf sets out on an epic journey of revenge.

The wolf Blacktail is faithful to his Forest God, but in these times, faith is not enough. His world is besieged by men. Soon his territory will be overrun, and then there will be nowhere left to go. When his mate, a house dog, is killed, Blacktail rebels. He invades the house of her owners, seeking vengeance.

Blacktail's fury catches the notice of an ancient and terrible feline witch, who makes an offer. What if Blacktail could end the human race responsible for the death of his family and for the destruction of the natural world, altogether? To do so, Blacktail must find and wake the Forest God. Only He might stand against the plague of men. Blacktail knows that his north woods are dwindling to nothing. He sees no other choice.

As Blacktail journeys farther from his wild home and deeper into the world of man, he encounters strangers—animal, mortal, and otherworldly—who, for their own reasons, want to help Blacktail rid the world of humans. Along the way, it becomes clear that he is more than just a wolf. The Forest God is sleeping, yes. But what will be the price of waking him?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Blacktail is a serious, wild, trippy, and gory flight of imagination. It's also an angry romp through our current wasteland. No one is spared the fang." —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts

"Mesmerizing and strange, like the headiest of folklore. Blacktail is one to savor; one to delight in the eccentricities of; one to sit with long after it ends." —Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Girl Dinner

"A mad, feral fable—this is beautiful, brutal fantasy, red in tooth in claw. Funny, heartbreaking, violent. All hail Blacktail. Down with the two-legs." —Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents and The Staircase in the Woods

This information about Blacktail was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Scott Hawkins

Scott Hawkins is the author of The Library at Mount Char. He works as a Linux engineer focused on big data. He and his wife live in a woodsy area about an hour north of Atlanta. She keeps a nice garden. He's in his tenth year of failing to remodel the basement. Blacktail is his second novel.

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