The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
⭐⭐⭐ (3.5) Fantasy: A found family of teens goes on a magical heist
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3.5)
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Key topics/tropes: Magic, found family, heist, secret society, colonization
Grade: Young Adult
Series: The Gilded Wolves #1
Published: Jan 15, 2019
Length: 388 pages
Format Read: Ebook
POV: Third, multiple perspectives
Reread: ✅
Content warnings & important topics (More in Spoilers):
Death
Violence
Racism
Ableism
Antisemitism
Homophobia
Links
Summary
In 1880s Paris, hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie accepts a mission given to him by the elite Order of Babel in exchange for his right to House Vanth, a claim previously denied to him after he inexplicably failed the inheritance test. He calls on his found family of experts to see the mission through: Zofia, an engineer who struggles to understand human behavior; Enrique, a historian shunned by his peers; Laila, a dancer with a dark childhood secret; and Tristan, a lover of nature and Séverin’s adoptive brother.
Review
I first read this in 2019, and while the premise and key character moments stuck with me, I couldn’t actually remember much of the actual plot. I don’t want to say that’s a fault with Chokshi’s writing, since I personally feel the characters and their relationships are at the core of the story.
Each of the characters is loveable in their own way, and I loved the diversity of representation across race, sexuality, neurodiversity, life experience, etc.
Séverin — Algerian and French. He grew up in foster homes with Tristan and serves as the leader of the group, bringing strategy, money, and connections to high society.
Zofia — Polish, Jewish, and coded as autistic. She’s an exceptionally talented engineer, so while she’s extremely book-smart, her neurodiversity sometimes hinders her ‘people skills’.
Enrique — Filipino, Spanish, and queer. As a historian, he brings valuable insights into cultural contexts to help solve puzzles. He aspires to join a Filipino revolutionary group, but is shunned for his Spanish background.
Laila — Indian. By day, she’s the anonymous L'Enigme, a famed cabaret dancer. Laila uses her alter ego to help the group when they need distraction or deception, especially among men. She holds a secret from the rest of the group, but the secret gave her a power to ‘read’ items. Séverin knows of her power, but not her whole secret.
Tristan — Séverin’s adoptive brother. He’s a renowned gardener, which provides some social connections.
Hypnos — French, Haitian, and queer. He’s not officially part of the group (which affects him deeply) but was a playmate of Séverin during childhood. He’s the Patriarch of House Nyx, and offers resources and authority as a recognized member of high society.
📍 I can’t speak with authority on how well all of the representation is done, except maybe surface-level insights on Enrique who’s half-Filipino (though I am ‘full’ Filipino). But from my reading experience and other reviews I’ve read, there were no glaring injustices done.
Every key aspect of a character’s identity contributes to the story, informing their personality and how they navigate their relationships and the setting. Basically, you don’t get a sense that Chokshi is going for ‘diversity points’. For the most part, each character effectively brings unique skills or resources to the group. Only occasionally does it feel like one person’s job isn’t as ‘important’ as the others.
Each chapter is told from a POV of each member of the team, so we get to know each one’s quirks and backstory, as well as deeper insights into the dynamics between the current narrator and other characters. I tend to like this structure in books, but it has one glaring downside for this particular plot (More in Spoilers).
Plot-wise, there are definite Dan Brown vibes with the characters decoding puzzles, explaining historical contexts and mythologies, etc. Dunking on Dan Brown’s writing is a meme by now, but I’ve usually had light-hearted fun reading his books, so it’s not a negative comparison.
What sometimes interrupts the otherwise fast-paced adventure is some of the dialogue. There are a few tense moments where comic-relief dialogue is thrown in and it’s meant to be charming, but I occasionally rolled my eyes. But again, I’m an adult reading YA, etc. And anyway, when the same type of dialogue is more appropriately timed during the lower-stakes scenes, it outweighs the eyeroll moments.
After a deliberate reread, I honestly still couldn’t outline the plot events off the top of my head, but I’m okay with that. Again, I feel the characters and their relationships are at the core of the story, and those are the elements I emotionally connect with most, so it’s all good.
Author Rep Notes
Roshani Chokshi is Indian and Filipino.
Character Rep Notes
Race
Séverin — Algerian and French. His light skin tone allows him to pass as a Frenchman.
Laila — Indian
Enrique — Filipino and Spanish. His lighter skin tone due to Spanish blood marks him as separate from his Filipino peers.
Hypnos — French and Haitian
Sexuality
Hypnos and Enrique are openly queer, expressing interest in both men and women, but no labels are specified.
Neurodivergence
Zofia is coded as being autistic, experiencing trouble understanding unspoken nuances in social interactions.
Notable quotes
“I don’t want to be their equal. I don’t want them to look us in the eye. I want them to look away, to blink harshly, as if they’ve stared at the sun itself. I don’t want them standing across from us. I want them kneeling.”
“If you get in the way of a woman’s battle, you’ll get in the way of her sword.”
“But what no one tells you is that even when you decide which world you will live in, the world may not always see you as you would wish. Sometimes it demands that you be so outrageous as to transcend your very skin. You can change your name. Your eye color. Make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself.”
Also by Roshani Chokshi:
The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2)
🚫 Spoilers ahead
Additional content warnings:
Child abuse
Animal cruelty
Issue with the POV chapters
You learn early on there’s an established cast of main characters (the 5 members of the team) and that each chapter is told from one of their POVs. Inevitably, two things can happen:
After a few cycles, you realize you’re not getting any POVs from one of those main characters, and/or
You happen to be reading the ebook and see from the table of contents that the one character never gets a POV chapter
These are usually clear signs that something bad is going to happen to them and/or there’s a twist surrounding their identity. And that’s how I got an early hint that there was something funky going on with Tristan. I didn’t anticipate the specific events surrounding him, but once I realized his POV was missing, it was always in the back of my mind that he’d be involved in a twist.