I see the importance of a book like this. Unfortunately the writing style was not for me. I think people that enjoy slow character development and literary style may like this.

The Beartooths are a mountain range near Yellowstone National Park. In this novel, two brothers, Thad and Hazen, live in the house their father built, just outside the park. They have neglected the house since their father passed away. Their mother left years ago, but suddenly shows up on their doorstep. Thad and Hazen make their living by cutting and selling firewood to locals. But, they never make enough to do repairs on the house. A local man recruits them in an unscrupulous way to trespass into the park and collect a lot of antler sheds for him to sell. He tells them they will make a lot of money. Hazen is interested, but Thad is not. Until the man makes Thad agree by unscrupulous means. It has life-altering consequences for both of them.

The novel addresses some important subjects. The bonds of family are tested. There are themes of revenge, betrayal, loyalty, love and loss, desperation, all in the breathtaking wilderness of Montana's mountains. The characters are well-developed and their personalities are unique. Each has motivations that the reader eventually understands.

To me, the ending was a bit ambiguous. It left some questions, but that is good in a way. It makes you think about it longer than if it was wrapped up neatly and stated openly. I think this was a masterfully written novel that brought in elements that drew my attention throughout. I loved the setting. The conflict between the brothers, and between Thad and his mother, were made realistic and believable. I enjoyed this novel and hope to read more from this writer.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow. This is one well-written story. I literally wanted to mark every other sentence as exceptional. This is typical: “He felt himself draining in some elemental way, hollowing day by day. He occasionally had the thought that it could go one of two ways. Either he’d empty until there was nothing left and a strong wind would blow him away, or he’d slowly fill back up, and what he’d been before would be replaced with something different altogether. He’d heard somewhere that every ten years the cells in your body are completely renewed. He felt that it was happening to him now in some sort of accelerated process that he wasn’t sure he’d survive.”

Beartooth tells the story of two brothers, Thad and Hazen, living in the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Thad is solid and capable, the voice of reason and the handler of real-world issues like finances and taxes. Hazen is younger and impulsive, less concerned with limitations and more in tune with the natural world. Desperate for money after their father dies, the brothers become involved with a shady figure and undertake an illegal enterprise. Things don’t go as planned and the brothers come face to face with the law and mortality. It’s a rough-and-tumble story about the coming-of-age of two men who approach life very differently, and it kept me compulsively turning the pages.

I have to address the ending because readers will likely find it abrupt, as I did. Not all questions are answered…not everything wrapped up nicely. I was slightly disappointed. Not with the unanswered questions, I can deal with that, but with the fact that I could have happily read 200 more pages about these two characters and their often funny encounters with nature and their fellow man. As I have said, the writing is extraordinary. Callan Wink is brilliant and deserves to be widely-read.

Much thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A riveting story of two brothers desperate to save the family home. Set with the magnificent Yellowstone national park in the background, Thad and Hazen are two simple guys (simple meaning they don't live a luxurious life) just barely getting along. When Thad realizes that the family home is in jeopardy due to an unpaid tax bill, he and Hazen decide to do what must be done to get the bill paid.  This is one of the greatest most unusual heist stories that I have ever read. The unconditional love of brothers shines brightly. Very fast paced. An epic adventure.

5 stars

Beartooth by Callan Wink is a gripping tale of survival and brotherhood, set against the raw and rugged backdrop of the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains on the edge of Yellowstone. In a timber house hand-built by their grandfather, two brothers, Thad and Hazen, are struggling to stay afloat after their father's death, weighed down by debt and isolation. Living off the land, far from society, they face mounting pressures—from unpaid medical bills to a looming tax lien on their home.

Thad, the more pragmatic of the two, takes charge of these burdens, while Hazen is more at one with the wilderness, guided by instinct rather than practicality. The brothers' already precarious existence is pushed to the brink when a shadowy outsider presents them with a dangerous proposition that promises money but comes with profound consequences.

Wink’s writing is evocative, vividly bringing to life the grandeur of the American West and capturing the brothers’ struggles in an unforgiving world. The tension between survival and morality pulses through the pages, and the bond between the two brothers, though fraught, is deeply compelling. There are moments of unexpected poignancy that balance the hard-edged narrative, making this book as emotionally resonant as it is fast-paced.

Fans of Cormac McCarthy and Donald Ray Pollock will find much to appreciate in Beartooth. It’s a masterful exploration of desperation, revenge, and the unbreakable ties of family. The vivid scene setting and the development of both plot and characters kept me thoroughly engaged from start to finish. Highly recommended for those drawn to gritty, atmospheric tales of survival.

Read more at The Secret Bookreview,

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Callan Wink’s “Beartooth” is a masterful exploration of survival, brotherhood, and the rugged beauty of the American West. This novel, set against the majestic yet unforgiving backdrop of Yellowstone National Park, weaves a tale that is both thrilling and deeply poignant.

The story follows two brothers, Jack and Sam, who are struggling to make ends meet in their remote home in the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains. Desperation drives them to agree to a dangerous heist, setting off a chain of events that tests their bond and their will to survive. Wink’s depiction of the setting is breathtaking, capturing the grandeur and peril of the wilderness.

Jack and Sam are compelling protagonists whose relationship forms the heart of the novel. Jack, the older brother, is pragmatic and protective, while Sam is more impulsive and idealistic. Their dynamic is both touching and fraught with tension, reflecting the complexities of sibling relationships. 

 “Beartooth” delves into themes of survival, loyalty, and the moral ambiguities of desperate actions. The novel examines the lengths to which people will go to protect their loved ones and the sacrifices they are willing to make. 

Wink’s writing is lyrical and precise, with a keen eye for detail that brings the landscape and characters to life. His prose is evocative, capturing the raw beauty of the wilderness and the emotional intensity of the brothers’ journey. 

“Beartooth” is a powerful and evocative novel that combines the thrill of a heist gone wrong with a profound exploration of brotherhood and survival. Callan Wink has crafted a story that is both gripping and deeply moving, with characters that resonate long after the final page. This novel is a must-read for fans of literary thrillers and anyone captivated by the rugged beauty of the American West

Callan Wink’s Beartooth is a captivating, immersive novel that pulls readers into a rugged wilderness setting. Though I’m an urban person with little connection to survivalist experiences, I found myself completely absorbed in the story's world. Set in Yellowstone country, the novel follows two brothers, Thad and Hazen, who are left to fend for themselves after their mother, Sacajawea, abandoned them, and their father recently passed away.

These brothers, though deeply connected, are opposites in temperament. Thad is pragmatic, organized, and carries their father’s disciplined work ethic. Hazen, by contrast, is more laid-back, living in the moment and rarely considering the consequences of his actions. Their dynamic, as they navigate dangerous circumstances, is at the heart of the book. The plot kicks into motion when a shady Scotsman offers them an illegal job smuggling elk antlers from Yellowstone. It’s risky—if caught, they could face heavy fines and jail time—but with their situation growing desperate, they agree.

Wink’s writing powerfully conveys the vastness and danger of the natural world, both externally and in the brothers’ internal struggles. The novel’s raw and visceral quality makes it hard to put down, keeping readers hooked as they follow Thad and Hazen’s perilous journey.

In short, Beartooth is a compelling, unforgettable story of survival and brotherhood. Wink skillfully blends adventure with emotional depth, making this a five-star read.

I’d never heard of Callan Wink before reading Beartooth and was drawn to this purely because of its description. I’m so happy I decided to give it a shot, because wow. As a lifelong hiker and camper, I love reading books that largely take place in nature, and bonus if it involves isolation and survival (see - Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds, one of my favorites). Add in a thrilling heist, beautiful prose, and a complex sibling relationship, and I was hooked!

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced e-copy for review.

Thad and Hazen are two brothers living in remote Montana, somewhere near Yellowstone National Park. Their father has recently died and, unlike his careful and meticulous care of their home, the brothers have let things go. The roof is leaking, the outside needs painting, and they are very behind in their real estate taxes. They make a meager living selling firewood to residents and wealthy second home owners in their area.

Thad almost always takes the lead and is the initiator and planner. Hazen follows along and the reader is left to wonder if he is somewhat cognitively impaired or on the autism spectrum. Their father was a man of conscience and hard work, attitudes he attempted to instill in his sons. However, they both grapple with ethical and moral issues, especially Thad. His endeavors become shady and he often asks himself what his father would have thought about what he is doing.

Into the picture comes Sacajawea, their absent mother, who one day appears in their yard hanging her wash on a clothesline and parking her RV near their home. Sacajawea is somewhat like a hippie with wanderlust. She left the brothers when they were very young and only very occasionally reappeared for short periods. It appears now that she plans to stay. Thad won't acknowledge her but Hazen seems intrigued by her arrival.

There is also the mysterious Scot, a large and tall man, with a mystery about him. The brothers often sell him wood and are intrigued by his silent adult daughter who sits in the front of the car and occasionally plays the bagpipes for them. The Scot may not really be Scottish, and there is something about him that worries Thad. Thad likes to have his 22 pistol on him when he deals with the Scot who is said to have killed a young man who was robbing him.

Callan Wink writes beautifully and his descriptions of the land's beauty, brutality, and mysteries are carefully employed in the narrative. His characterizations are detailed and descriptive. I felt like I was in Thad's head as he grappled with his angst and conscience. This book was so good that, upon finishing, I ordered a copy of Mr. Wink's book of short stories.

I thank NetGalley, the author and the publisher for granting me the privilege of reading and reviewing this early review copy.

I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC, but sadly this book didn't clique with me.
I couldn't care for the brother's relationship (the good and the bad) and the horror aspect of it fell flat to me.
I was never truly engaged with anything, really. And that's a bummer, because I really liked the plot. :(
I'm sure other horror readers will enjoy this book much more than I did.

An exhilarating, myth-making blend of adventure, family dynamics, introspection, and heist action. Packed with fascinating characters and deeply resonant generational glimpses both backward and forward in time.

After their father’s passing, two brothers resort to dire methods in order to simply get by. Living in a fatigued cabin located on the outskirts of Yellowstone, neither Thad nor his brother, Haven, hold steady employment; earning money the best way they know how: providing other local residence with firewood for their winter stockpile, and the illegal hunting of animals that provide goods that go for a high price on the black market. However, when they receive a notice that they are behind on property taxes and may lose the property that has been in their family for multiple generations, they result to desperate and dangerous measures to keep their home and the memories they have there.

This is a fast-paced story that will hook readers who enjoy the outdoors…or who like the idea of the outdoors. It is a tale of survival that feels so real that it will have you planning your next trip to Montana in hopes of bumping into one of these brothers. NetGalley and Spiegel and Grau for the advanced digital copy, but I will definitely need a physical copy to annotate and keep close at hand. It will make an especially wonderful companion on future camping trips.

Such a quick and gripping read that I plan on rereading whenever I feel stuck in a societal rut and need a mental escape to the great outdoors of the west. I have already added Wink’s backlist titles to my TBR in hopes that they can provide that same sort of escapism.

Hmmm

I’m going to settle on a 3.5, I just don’t feel like I was the right audience for this book but can very much appreciate it.

If you love nature and the elements this book really excels at awakening all the senses. The writing is very vivid sometimes even stomach turning, but it felt honest.

While the two brothers were juxtaposed against one another I really got into the dichotomy this offered.

A book for those looking for something gritty and authentic with a good dose of cinematic plot.

This book will pull in the reluctant reader and keep them on the edge of their seat. The strong bond of brothers was evident throughout the story. A few swear words and drinking were included but made the story more realistic.

This review is based on an ARC of Beartooth which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Spiegel & Grau).

This is a novel that will stick with me, with prose as unsuspecting, beautiful, rugged as the land in which it's set. Beautiful and rough-hewn too are the brothers Beartooth centers on: man-children adrift after the loss of their father, sinking in debt, holding dear to their meager belongings and morals as debt-collectors and deadlines close in.

I really enjoyed this story. The pacing, the wording, the atmosphere; the working parts of this novel are well-tuned and play well together. What I enjoyed most is the believability of it all. This could be a memoir just as readily as fiction (albeit with a touch fancier prose).

Why I do not grant Beartooth a full five stars is because of its' anticlimactic ramp-ups. In every case where the tension builds, the lead-up grows intense, the drama is about to peak-- suddenly circumstances change and the tension drops like a broken thread. The anxiety is broken by contrived and rather ideal outcomes. As a reader, I (however unintentionally) expect stories to follow a certain pattern, and Wink does not abide by this pattern. I cannot fault the author too harshly though--his style certainly kept me curious and kept the storyline rolling.

For lovers of sibling stories, edge-of-civilization settings, slice-of-life dramas, or the atmosphere of the melancholy ghost towns of the modern American West, Beartooth is for you.

The teasers for this book sold it was Cormac McCarthy-esque and I can definitely see it. This was BEAUTIFUL imagery of Montana and the Yellowstone area. This book follows That and Hazen, brothers who live on the edge of the wilderness, grieving the recent loss of their father who was the glue that allowed them to make ends meet. That spends most of his time managing Hazen, who has a bit of a failure to launch vibe. When the brothers, desperate for money, end up in an illegal poaching scheme with a threatening local, they are forced to reckon with what kind of people they want to be and the trajectory of That's life starts to change after he's gravely injured.

This book was a super interesting commentary on familial relationships and the intersection of man and nature. What can we claim, and what belongs to the land? An absolutely gorgeous book that was a tense, slow burn.

Thank you NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for allowing me to read and review this eARC!

First and foremost, I think Callan Wink is a ridiculously talented writer. His flair for creating intense imagery with his words and setting descriptions is a huge asset and I think will keep him on the path to success as an author. Beartooth was not a book I think I would typically gravitate towards but the cover and synopsis intrigued me so greatly that I had to try it. The positives of this book to me were, as previously stated, the amazing writing and imagery as well as the well-done character development. Thad in particular changed so much from the start of the book to the end especially regarding his motivations and his outlook on life. He slowly became my favourite character and I ended the book hoping so much for him and his success. I was also happy to learn more about Sacajawea as the book went on, I believe her back story was vital for us to understand her motivations and to heal her relationship with Thad. Hazen to me was fully fledged from the beginning, he was just not fully understood by Thad.

My criticisms of Beartooth are mostly about the flow of the plot and overall story. I felt at some times that the plot was jumping from moment to moment far too quickly. I did not understand how we had moved to another part of the story so quickly without any guiding. This possibly may have been due to the layout of the eBook version, but I believe more concise chapter separations or just some more concise wording about the passage of time/change of scenery would have helped me in reading this novel. I also felt like the story of the Scot and Naomi was not fully fleshed out at all. I truly believe we needed to understand more about what was going on with them, especially once Naomi came to live with Thad and Sacajawea, it was all just wrapped up far too quickly for me.

Overall, I would rate this book a 3.5/5 and I would certainly pick up more from Callan Wink!

A huge thanks to Mr. Wink and Netgalley for the ARC. This was my first experience with this author’s work, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The official description held high praise, and was compared to two of my favorite writers, so I was compelled to pick it up.

“Two brothers in dire straits, living on the edge of Yellowstone, agree to a desperate act of survival in this taut, propulsive novel reminiscent of the works of Peter Heller and Donald Ray Pollock.”

While I agree that there are certainly elements of Peter Heller, I’d disagree with the inclusion of Pollack. Not to say that’s a bad thing. I adore Pollack, but Beartooth more resembled Cormac McCarthy’s early work, with a sprinkling of Michael Farris Smith. McCarthy is, of course, the GOAT, so that alone should encourage you to grab a copy.

The pacing was near perfect, and the dialogue was spot on. Wink did an amazing job of fleshing out the characters while maintaining critical plot points. The conflict/ tension was held tight, allowing the story to move forward through the main story, as well as the subplot.

The description was, well, quite perfect. It’s clear that Wink has the American West running through his veins. This book was expertly crafted, and I’m excited to see what this author does next.

Not my usual type of book, but I enjoyed the ride just the same. This reminded me of books I enjoyed as a kid - Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain - but with real adult fears thrown in: debt, injury, the existential dread of an older sibling watching their younger sibling be an adult.

The writing is spare but evocative, I really felt like I was breathing in that fresh Montana air, and I felt every challenge and setback the brothers faced deeply. I wanted a little more from the ending, but I do think it fit the novel overall. Life goes on, Thad and Hazen endure.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Okay so I am in a major phase right now with reading books about survival in the wilderness and I requested this so fast! This book follows two brothers, Hazen and Thad, and their life in the remote Montana wilderness near Yellowstone National Park, where they camp, hike, and live partly off the land while trying to make a living chopping wood and end up engaging in illegal poaching.

I expected this book to be more adventurous than it actually was, and while we do still follow Thad and Hazen's wilderness poaching adventures, this story was much more about the bonds between family members and the effects of poverty and living in remote areas.

Hazen and Thad are very close, each having essentially nobody else in the world aside from each other. They were relatively close to their father, but have strained and limited contact with their mother, who was away during most of their childhood. This book takes place after their father has died and their mother has showed up in their lives again, while they struggle to find a way to make ends meet in order to keep their house, leading to the whole poaching situation and unplanned contact with some shady people.

The ending of this book surprised me, as I was expecting a more thriller-type story that would also make me want to go take a walk outside. However, I came away from this book with a sad, lonely feeling and rather than wanting to take a walk outside, it made me want to call up my sister or go into town and be among people. A strange and haunting book!