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Seekers: Return to the Wild #4
Forest Of Wolves (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Seekers: Return to the Wild) by Hunter, Erin (2015) Library Binding
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First published January 7, 2014
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1613 people want to read
About the author
Erin Hunter
277 books10.7k followersErin Hunter is the pseudonym of five people: Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui T. Sutherland, Gillian Philip, and Inbali Iserles, as well as editor Victoria Holmes. Together, they write the Warriors series as well as the Seekers and Survivors series. Erin Hunter is working on a new series now called Bravelands.
Erin Hunter is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having a great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior, shaped by her interest in astronomy and standing stones.
Erin Hunter is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having a great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior, shaped by her interest in astronomy and standing stones.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
April 17, 2014
Personally, I think that the Forest of Wolves if the best book in this series.Erin Hunter compares the bears as humans, using extended personification in this book.
Toklo, Lusa and Kallik are bears facing the destruction of their habitats (some of their habitats)so they go on a journey to find a place that really means home to them.They finally come to Toklo's place, but unexpectedly, the place has been overwhelmed by wolves!So they fight to drive those wolves away.
This book describes the undying unity and loyalty between friends.Erin Hunter describes the typical obstacles that a normal bear faces these days.Like Yakone's paw trapped in a 'flat-face' trap and succumbs to a deadly fever, avalanches of stone coming down from a valley.
The bears plan to drive the wolves away like a normal tactical military force.They lure the wolves to a place with prey, then Toklo and Yakone would fight the wolves (just enough to scare them), then the wolves would be chased towards a sheer cliff by Aiyanna, Makya, Maniitok (bears from Toklo's brithplace) and Lusa.Then Izusa and Kallik would start an avalanche to block the wolves from coming back.
Yakone, Kallik and Lusa has also faced racism from other brown bears when they've arrived to Toklo's birhtplace, as the technique of personification goes.For example: when Kallik and Yakone had saved Izusa and her cubs from a deadly avalanche that gave Kallik the idea of blocking the wolves, Izusa had said:"You risked our lives for us, but you're white bears...you didn't have to."And that's what some people face in their daily lives.
I believe that this book deserves to be the best-seller because of the lessons it teaches us and the content.I recommend it to all ages and I'm certain that all of you would find it entertaining.
Toklo, Lusa and Kallik are bears facing the destruction of their habitats (some of their habitats)so they go on a journey to find a place that really means home to them.They finally come to Toklo's place, but unexpectedly, the place has been overwhelmed by wolves!So they fight to drive those wolves away.
This book describes the undying unity and loyalty between friends.Erin Hunter describes the typical obstacles that a normal bear faces these days.Like Yakone's paw trapped in a 'flat-face' trap and succumbs to a deadly fever, avalanches of stone coming down from a valley.
The bears plan to drive the wolves away like a normal tactical military force.They lure the wolves to a place with prey, then Toklo and Yakone would fight the wolves (just enough to scare them), then the wolves would be chased towards a sheer cliff by Aiyanna, Makya, Maniitok (bears from Toklo's brithplace) and Lusa.Then Izusa and Kallik would start an avalanche to block the wolves from coming back.
Yakone, Kallik and Lusa has also faced racism from other brown bears when they've arrived to Toklo's birhtplace, as the technique of personification goes.For example: when Kallik and Yakone had saved Izusa and her cubs from a deadly avalanche that gave Kallik the idea of blocking the wolves, Izusa had said:"You risked our lives for us, but you're white bears...you didn't have to."And that's what some people face in their daily lives.
I believe that this book deserves to be the best-seller because of the lessons it teaches us and the content.I recommend it to all ages and I'm certain that all of you would find it entertaining.
May 13, 2014
Such a good book, all of Erin Hunter's books tells a good story. I couldn't put this book down once I started reading it.
October 21, 2018
I already adored the books before this one. I love the way Erin Hunter writes and can probably make anything sound amazing!
April 10, 2014
Love Seekers. Can't put them down.
May 26, 2017
This is a book about a bear named Toklo who has gone on a journey with his friends to a place that no one believed existed to complete. When he returns back home the territory in which his kind used to live is now dominated by wolves who have come down the mountain in search for food. He has to battle to the death against a giant grizzly bear who already had a home where Toklo looked to live and that giant grizzly turned out to be the father that abandoned Toklo and his mom when his younger brother was sick and about to die. Toklo learns the truth of what has happened and decides to protect his friends and his territory from these vicious invaders. Find out if Toklo does this by reading the book Seekers Forest of Wolves. This is a book that is great for all fans of adventure and fantasy.
July 24, 2025
I’m a big fan of warrior cats, so I had high expectations for this book. It just didn’t surface. 90% of the book was glorified walking. I feel that this series has been dragged out for too long. I know Erin Hunter’s potential, and the group just doesn’t seem to have put as much effort into this piece. Perhaps I’ve just outgrown these books. Please don’t be discouraged from continuing the series as I am planning to give the benefit of the doubt.
April 18, 2022
The adventure continues as the 4 bears decide to go to Great Bear Lake so Lusa can also find a new family of black bears before all the bears separate. But first they must get rid of the wolf pack that is taking up Toklo's forest. The 4 bears demonstrate to the other bears that working together and being kind and helpful is beneficial for everybear.
August 8, 2025
Solid three stars. Thankfully an improvement from book three.
Forest of Wolves has the typical Erin Hunter writing: easy to read and generally fast-paced, if a bit stereotypical. But there weren’t any typos that I noticed in this one, which is a nice change from most Erin books.
The plot and pacing of this book was. . . Fine. Yakone losing three toes exists as a reason for ‘character development’ (which will then proceed to disappear and never be mentioned again in typical Erin fashion), so I guess the last book had some relevance. . . But for the most part this book is spent in a completely different setting with new characters and new challenges. The Seekers books are starting to feel like a really boring travel anthology of sidequests, with each book encompassing a new sidequest that usually has little to add to the overall story. The difference with this book is that it does, thankfully, contribute to the overarching plot, at least a little bit.
We spend the book in Toklo’s birth home, calling back to his manga book plot, which was kind of cool, and taking the forest back from wolves that had overrun it. I thought the pacing of the story was actually not bad, all things considered. It definitely dragged at parts, but it wasn’t a slog to read like last book. And while the plot was once again boring and incredibly predictable, there were enough moving parts and FINALLY some varied character interactions that made it far more interesting and enjoyable than the last one.
I do feel like the setting should have felt more familiar, if this was apparently where Toklo was at the start of the series. But honestly, I don’t think the Erins really ever do a good job with continuity, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was SUPPOSED to be where the first part of Toklo’s story took place, and they just completely changed it because they didn’t remember or care how it was described earlier.
But overall, the background and setup for this book was done much better than the previous one. It really feels like they just used book three as filler because they didn’t know where else to go with the story, and after that we now can commence with the actual plot.
The characters are still painfully weak, but it was nice to get some new side characters that exist long enough for me to remember their names. Aiyanna is the most memorable, as Toklo’s tentative love interest, and while she (and the other background characters) have exactly 0 personality to speak of, some of them had unique skills or situations that made them feel more interesting than the last batch of forgettable bears. Also, Chenoa was not, in fact, mentioned or even thought about at all in this book. So she WAS completely irrelevant. What a surprise.
Anyways, this book centers on Toklo, so I guess I’ll discuss him first. He retains the vaguest of grumpy personalities. And he thinks about his family in this one, which should theoretically be interesting, but, you know. Hard to care when he has basically nothing setting him apart from everyone else. I can appreciate that his romance with Aiyanna isn’t rushed or even really shoved in our faces that hard; a nice change of pace for Erin Hunter books. And his relationships with Chogan, Tobi, and Oka add enough new stuff and old interactions to keep the book feeling fresh.
Kallik is fine. She has nothing to her as usual, but again she’s kept busy enough that the story can make her more interesting, even if she is a bland character. Her relationship with Yakone is fine; it’s supposed to be wholesome I guess, but neither of them can keep a personality or idea long enough for any real drama that would make their romance vaguely investing.
Yakone is in the same boat. His ‘arc’ surrounding his injuries should have been interesting, but it really felt like the Erins were just checking boxes of a typical ‘injury recovery’ trope. I wish Yakone had anything unique going for him at all.
Lusa is fine in this one. Unlike the others, she keeps a unique-ish personality, but when compared with three characters who feel the same, Lusa ends up seeming grating. I think it’s because she usually has an optimistic or naive understanding of the world, and because that personality never gets a chance to rub against or agree with other unique personalities, she ends up feeling like the obligatory ‘annoying happy viewpoint’ rather than like an actual character.
Chogan is kind of a villain in this book, or maybe an anti-villain? Either way, I think he was criminally underutilized. His relationship with Toklo could have been fascinating to explore, and instead we got some pretty basic fight scenes and nothing more. I do think what we got functioned well enough and wasn’t inherently bad, but I do think there is serious missed potential with him.
And the actual villains were the wolves. They served their purpose, and not much else. Last book’s coyotes definitely made them feel less unique and more uninspired, though, so let’s take some more points from River of Lost Bears for that mistake.
Certainly better than the last book, but nothing really that special in my opinion. Is it worth hoping the last two are actually good?
SERIES RATINGS:
Island of Shadows: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Melting Sea: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
River of Lost Bears: ⭐️⭐️
Forest of Wolves: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Burning Horizon: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Longest Day: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Forest of Wolves has the typical Erin Hunter writing: easy to read and generally fast-paced, if a bit stereotypical. But there weren’t any typos that I noticed in this one, which is a nice change from most Erin books.
The plot and pacing of this book was. . . Fine. Yakone losing three toes exists as a reason for ‘character development’ (which will then proceed to disappear and never be mentioned again in typical Erin fashion), so I guess the last book had some relevance. . . But for the most part this book is spent in a completely different setting with new characters and new challenges. The Seekers books are starting to feel like a really boring travel anthology of sidequests, with each book encompassing a new sidequest that usually has little to add to the overall story. The difference with this book is that it does, thankfully, contribute to the overarching plot, at least a little bit.
We spend the book in Toklo’s birth home, calling back to his manga book plot, which was kind of cool, and taking the forest back from wolves that had overrun it. I thought the pacing of the story was actually not bad, all things considered. It definitely dragged at parts, but it wasn’t a slog to read like last book. And while the plot was once again boring and incredibly predictable, there were enough moving parts and FINALLY some varied character interactions that made it far more interesting and enjoyable than the last one.
I do feel like the setting should have felt more familiar, if this was apparently where Toklo was at the start of the series. But honestly, I don’t think the Erins really ever do a good job with continuity, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was SUPPOSED to be where the first part of Toklo’s story took place, and they just completely changed it because they didn’t remember or care how it was described earlier.
But overall, the background and setup for this book was done much better than the previous one. It really feels like they just used book three as filler because they didn’t know where else to go with the story, and after that we now can commence with the actual plot.
The characters are still painfully weak, but it was nice to get some new side characters that exist long enough for me to remember their names. Aiyanna is the most memorable, as Toklo’s tentative love interest, and while she (and the other background characters) have exactly 0 personality to speak of, some of them had unique skills or situations that made them feel more interesting than the last batch of forgettable bears. Also, Chenoa was not, in fact, mentioned or even thought about at all in this book. So she WAS completely irrelevant. What a surprise.
Anyways, this book centers on Toklo, so I guess I’ll discuss him first. He retains the vaguest of grumpy personalities. And he thinks about his family in this one, which should theoretically be interesting, but, you know. Hard to care when he has basically nothing setting him apart from everyone else. I can appreciate that his romance with Aiyanna isn’t rushed or even really shoved in our faces that hard; a nice change of pace for Erin Hunter books. And his relationships with Chogan, Tobi, and Oka add enough new stuff and old interactions to keep the book feeling fresh.
Kallik is fine. She has nothing to her as usual, but again she’s kept busy enough that the story can make her more interesting, even if she is a bland character. Her relationship with Yakone is fine; it’s supposed to be wholesome I guess, but neither of them can keep a personality or idea long enough for any real drama that would make their romance vaguely investing.
Yakone is in the same boat. His ‘arc’ surrounding his injuries should have been interesting, but it really felt like the Erins were just checking boxes of a typical ‘injury recovery’ trope. I wish Yakone had anything unique going for him at all.
Lusa is fine in this one. Unlike the others, she keeps a unique-ish personality, but when compared with three characters who feel the same, Lusa ends up seeming grating. I think it’s because she usually has an optimistic or naive understanding of the world, and because that personality never gets a chance to rub against or agree with other unique personalities, she ends up feeling like the obligatory ‘annoying happy viewpoint’ rather than like an actual character.
Chogan is kind of a villain in this book, or maybe an anti-villain? Either way, I think he was criminally underutilized. His relationship with Toklo could have been fascinating to explore, and instead we got some pretty basic fight scenes and nothing more. I do think what we got functioned well enough and wasn’t inherently bad, but I do think there is serious missed potential with him.
And the actual villains were the wolves. They served their purpose, and not much else. Last book’s coyotes definitely made them feel less unique and more uninspired, though, so let’s take some more points from River of Lost Bears for that mistake.
Certainly better than the last book, but nothing really that special in my opinion. Is it worth hoping the last two are actually good?
SERIES RATINGS:
Island of Shadows: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Melting Sea: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
River of Lost Bears: ⭐️⭐️
Forest of Wolves: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Burning Horizon: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Longest Day: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 12, 2022
By far one of the better of the return to the wild arc books. Lots of action, emotion, and general feels. It felt good and was a very satisfying ending with toklo finally dealing with his family issues proper. And of course finding lusa her home
July 21, 2018
I love this series! I only have two books left in this series and then, the series will be over! I'm going to be so sad when there are no longer any new Seeker books to read. 😭
November 13, 2020
Yes kids, solve your family problems with fighting. It fixes everything.
March 7, 2021
Great 4th book of the seekers series
I love the fight scenes between Toklo and Chogan and the bond between Aiyanna and Toklo
I love the fight scenes between Toklo and Chogan and the bond between Aiyanna and Toklo
January 1, 2023
4 stars
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May 25, 2023it was good if you like animals and fantasy.
July 29, 2014
The four bears from the Seekers series -Toklo, Lusa, Yakone, and Kallik- return to Toklo's childhood home. There they are faced with a series of harrowing challenges with wolves that have taken over the territory They must outwit the wolves before the bears can move onto their individual homes. This fourth book in the series deals with the four bears previously introduced in the series. There is plenty of action as the bears battle the wolves who have taken over their territory. Readers who have read the first three books in the series will equally enjoy this book. Likewise, new readers to the series will be able to pick up the story easily.
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December 24, 2023Oh, thank goodness, this is so much better than the third one.
I almost DNF'd this series after the disappointment and repetitiveness of the last book, but I decided to read a few chapters before giving up entirely. By page 15, I was hooked. This brings back so many things that I enjoy about the second series: camaraderie, helping other bears, and a general sense of adventure that was absent from the last volume. There were so many moments when I wanted to cheer, and several when I actually did. Hopefully, this will continue in book 5, and even if it doesn’t, I’m happy with what I found here.
4.25/5 stars
I almost DNF'd this series after the disappointment and repetitiveness of the last book, but I decided to read a few chapters before giving up entirely. By page 15, I was hooked. This brings back so many things that I enjoy about the second series: camaraderie, helping other bears, and a general sense of adventure that was absent from the last volume. There were so many moments when I wanted to cheer, and several when I actually did. Hopefully, this will continue in book 5, and even if it doesn’t, I’m happy with what I found here.
4.25/5 stars
May 20, 2024
I thought this book was okay. There aren't a whole lot of problems with it, but I just wasn't a fan of some of the choices the authors made regarding the plot and character developments. I thought the stakes were fairly high at the start of the book, but then it gets resolved a bit too easily in my opinion. Some of the characters in this book are interesting. The theme of working together seems to be consistent in this series. Most of the book's conflict is with the wolves, but they don't seem all that intimidating. Not like the coyotes in the last one. Seems a little repetitive and forced.
December 29, 2023
Actual rating 3.25 stars
While introducing a few new and mildly interesting elements (the wolves, Chogan) this book falls into the same trap most Seekers books fall into: being incredibly repetitive and thus boring to read. There were a few nice characters in here and the conflict was mildly interesting, but it doesn't save the book from being yet another rather mediocre installment in the series.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
While introducing a few new and mildly interesting elements (the wolves, Chogan) this book falls into the same trap most Seekers books fall into: being incredibly repetitive and thus boring to read. There were a few nice characters in here and the conflict was mildly interesting, but it doesn't save the book from being yet another rather mediocre installment in the series.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
February 8, 2014
3.5 stars.
It was alright. I feel like the Seekers books are getting a little repetitive, but it was still fairly enjoyable.
It was alright. I feel like the Seekers books are getting a little repetitive, but it was still fairly enjoyable.
August 5, 2016
I thought that the "Forest Of Wolves" by Erin Hunter was a great book.
I specifically liked how the author described the setting. I also liked how in every book Erin Hunter has the bears over come a challenge for ex: the oil rig, the wolf pack, avalanches,humans and many more.
I would especially recommend this book to people that like action, planing and Erin Hunter books.
I specifically liked how the author described the setting. I also liked how in every book Erin Hunter has the bears over come a challenge for ex: the oil rig, the wolf pack, avalanches,humans and many more.
I would especially recommend this book to people that like action, planing and Erin Hunter books.
March 20, 2014
I really liked this book. It was a good follow-up from the book Seekers: River of Lost Bears. The story and the characters are very cool to learn about and I can't wait for the next book in the series.
January 3, 2015
I had a hard time picturing the landscape as it was described. None of it made sense, but after a while I just let it go and pictured a generic scene instead. I had a feeling Aianna would come around to Toklo. I hope there's a future for them together.
September 9, 2014
It was pretty good!
March 18, 2015
Amazing
An amazing book but THE ENDING!!!!!!! I am praying that there is another book to be found or she is writing a new one.
An amazing book but THE ENDING!!!!!!! I am praying that there is another book to be found or she is writing a new one.
June 1, 2016
They rock
Fun fact Erin Hunter is really 6 women not one! The women live in northern Canada where this book is taken place.
Fun fact Erin Hunter is really 6 women not one! The women live in northern Canada where this book is taken place.
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June 11, 2016amazing.
June 26, 2016
Euhh
liked the plot, but the writing was so bad I would consider it fanfiction levels of bad. it's that bad.
liked the plot, but the writing was so bad I would consider it fanfiction levels of bad. it's that bad.
January 3, 2015
This is my son's favorite series
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March 12, 2019weird how toklo what his father area
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews