In the Big Sky, Beartooth mountains of Montana, two brothers, Thad and Hazen, are trying their best to make life work after the death of their father. One of them is more responsible than the other. Life is hard in the great outdoors -- made even more difficult by the loss of their parents -- their mom had abandoned them early on in life. As she comes back into their lives, explaining her multiple absences, we see them struggling through forgiveness.

The story is completely atmospheric -- Yellowstone's views almost a character itself.
I think I expected more in terms of actual plot -- it missed some oomph for me -- it was a slow build that never quite made it to the top -- BUT, it had some pretty colors along the way. "The sound of the river pulses in an arterial manor."... "The human vascular system resembled the drainages of mountains...the branching prongs of a lightening strike."

3.5 rounded down.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review!

Really good read. Loved the characters and plot. Intense and in-depth look into the lives of 2 brothers and the hardships they encounter .

Beartooth tells the story of two brothers, Thad and Hazen, living in the isolated Beartooth Mountains of Montana. There are bears and elk antlers and poachers. This was a satisfying read. The author is talented in composition and description. I read both the ebook and the audiobook. The narrator of the audiobook was exceptional. Not the most positive portrayal of women or most men I suppose, but an interesting story worth reading reflecting on family and American heritage.
Thanks to NetGalley, Spiegel and Grau, and Spiegel and Grau for Spotify Audiobooks for the advanced copies to review!

Wink's second novel is an engrossing drama about two brothers who are barely making ends meet; they're certainly not strangers to bending the law to earn cash. They're approached by a man who is offering a huge payout, one that could take all of their problems away . . . but the heist he has in mind might land the brothers in jail for a long, long time.

Rugged, outdoorsy, and oozing manliness - this one is a winner for C.J. Box/Paul Doiron/William Kent Krueger fans. Animal lovers may want to steer clear, however, as bad things happen to wildlife.

I'm definitely ordering this one for the library.

When you open Beartooth, by Callan Wink, you find yourself in the world of Thad and Hazen, two brothers in Montana who are doing whatever it takes to survive.

We begin with the killing of a bear out of season. Wink’s talent is obvious from the start. We imagine the rancid stink he eloquently describes and we want more of it. We aren't wanting for long.

It's a great entrance into the rugged and gritty reality tucked into those corners of America that city folks read about in idealized pastorals.

Thad is the more mature brother, more head-smart. Hazen is a bit of a dumbass but in the charming kind of way that entertains you and hints that there's more going on under the surface. As the narrative unfolds you'll find that these two compliment each other well.

These brothers are shaped and molded to and by the land. In a sense, they're where they belong. But they need to make money and it isn't always easy. They're harvesting bears right now but a lucrative offer comes their way from a man known as The Scot.

This larger-than-life character reminds us of The Judge in Blood Meridian. In a similar way we want more of him even though we can sense and feel his danger. We can't help it.

The lucrative offer? Simple, provide elk antlers for an Amish guy who makes giant chandeliers out of them. It doesn't take long for Thad to turn it down, it's timely or risky and you can't get enough in a short amount of time. But Hazen knows a way.

You can find them all over the place in Yellowstone. It's a terrible idea. But, it might be their only opportunity to get paid.

With tightly packed descriptions and a keen sense of place, Wink has managed to fit a sweeping narrative into about 250 pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Looking to escape whatever city you're stuck in right now? Open this up and you'll be able to safely spend some time in a beautiful and unforgiving wilderness you're probably unprepared for in real life.

Real Rating: 3.25* of five

All y'all seem to be lovin' you some Western-set crime shows, like Costner's Yellowstone that lasted six years in a media landscape full of disposable shows. There are other series reads in this setting (eg C.J. Box's Joe Pickett books, Craig Johnson's five-year TV run for Longmire TV show and ongoing novel series) but all of those are borderline copaganda in their focus on police procedural plots, and valorization of the settler-colonial worldview endemic in the men of this family. The brothers in this story, coming as they do into control of valuable natural resources after their father's expensive death that threatens their grandfather's stolen homestead.

It was pretty hard for me to work up much sympathy for Thad, the brother whose show of privilege leads them into the nightmare of property loss, which they agree to solve, and to restore their stolen "birthright" homestead, by doing things so far beyond the pale of acceptability that I had a lot of trouble pushing through the details to get to the ending.

Animal abuse is rife.

I'm impressed by Wink's ability to evoke the Montana setting with near-hallucinatory clarity. I could feel the unique quality of Yellowstone's air, see the special way light limns the edges of distant objects; I was a lot less excited when the poaching scenes were also evoked as clearly. Hazen, the more nature-oriented brother, still finds it in himself to commit acts I find reprehensible for short-term gain. It's almost always the case that criminals are simply bad at planning and lack foresight; that fits these brothers to a T. They're led into criminality to solve a problem they created with no shred of common sense to their behavior.

What happens is a drawn-out reckoning for the past and against the future. Their long-fled mother, Sacajawea, shows up to add her dose of unpleasantness. I expected to be more led along by the strands of family dissolution and reckoning. Their criminality, the means and motivation for it, led me to finish this short (under 300pp) tale of men acting like kids who need a spanking, in over a week.

I seldom take more than three days to finish 256pp, more often two.

Wink can write. His plotting is logical, his pace is chosen carefully to immerse the reader not whiz past anything. I wish I'd loved it by the end as much as I started out loving it.

Animal lovers are cautioned...the awful things done to them aren't valorized, but still happen with no sense on my part they were being condemned, either.

A beautifully written tale of two brothers trying to eke out a living I the Montana hills. It was sad but not without some uplifting parts and the detailed descriptions of the surroundings and nature made even grizzly events interesting.

Brothers, different in most every way, they have an unusual sibling relationship. The elder brother feels responsible for the younger even though both are adults. Living on the edge of pverty, just one step ahead of losing everything that has meaning to them, their circumstances will push them to ignore conscience to earn money. The story is hard, these brothers have been together their whole lives and now.......to say more will tell too much.

Callan Wink is a new author to me. His writing fits the story or the story is bettered by his writing, take your pick. The time and effort taken to build the community the brothers live in, adds so much to the story and the characters history. This is their history and their future, they know no other. It's obvious the characters were real to Wink, he made them real to readers. 5 easy stars and it's going to be interesting to see what Wink brings us in the future.

𝑩𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑶𝑶𝑻𝑯 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒌, an extraordinary story of two brothers in the wilds of Montana from @spiegelandgrau @spotify books that I was able to experience via @netgalley.

I heard the comp to Peter Heller, who I love, and I am happy to agree, though this did feel quite distinct.

Thad and Hazen are brothers struggling to make ends meet on the edge of Yellowstone by doing the odd jobs their late father had done before them, and possibly adding a bit of poaching on the side. They are presented with an opportunity to make some real money on a job about the same time their free-spirited mother returns, and they decide to risk it. It turns out that this is a catalyst for change for the brothers in ways they wouldn't have seen.

I was quite taken by the language and writing of this story. It was billed as more of a heist story, but I would argue it is a brotherhood story with certain events bringing out the deep in both men. It is also a gorgeously sensory tale with vivid descriptions of the land and place. I was captivated by both the characters and the setting.

I had both digital and audio available, and loved the immersion into the story with the narration by Will Damron. He embodied both brothers so well. I highly recommend any format, though, as there are lines that deserve to be seen and heard.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
(my only issue was the with the name, Thad...I had a lifeguard with that name as a kid and he was the quintessential 80's prep guy, making it hard for me to imagine him as a mountain man!)

As a side note, my husband is a fly fisherman, so I caught some fun descriptions of how intelligent brown trout are. This was just one of the many bits of authentic outdoorsmanship I read, having just recent been in the Montana mountains (trying to fly fish!).

I was skeptical at the start, feeling like this maybe was not something I would enjoy. But I was pleasantly surprised at the depth achieved by the storytelling. The characters and their relationship was deeply interesting. I found myself wanting to keep reading to learn more about these brothers and their situation. They lead what is, to me, a very different lifestyle and I loved the slow unfolding of their life. The descriptions and atmosphere of both their home and the land were so well done and absolutely transport the reader.

My only complaint is wanting more, but stylistically the direction this went and ending point of the story were exactly what this book calls for.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This muscular novel focuses on two brothers, cautious Thad, twenty-seven, and his impulsive younger brother, Hazen, twenty-six, who break the law to support themselves after their father’s death from a long illness leaves them in financial peril. When the story opens, the brothers had poached black bears for their gallbladders in violation of federal law They sold their contraband to the mysterious Scot, a menacing local man who had killed a sixteen year old boy in his living room but was cleared of all charges after arguing that he had acted in self-defense after a drug-fueled breaking and entering.

When the brothers return to their home, they find that their estranged hippyish mother, Sacajawea, has parked her camper on their land. “She’d come and gone for most of their childhood.” When her boys were in their late teens, she left and never reappeared. It was their Dad who raised them and taught them to shoot, fish, ski, swim, and to perform basic small engine repair and carpentry.

The brothers typically earned money by chopping firewood and delivering it, but doing a full day’s work for half a day’s pay and “[d]oing it all over again tomorrow seemed impossible.” Further, the brothers were awash in debt incurred during their late father’s illness, and their rickety house was on the verge of being foreclosed. When the Scot proposes that the brothers procure elk antlers for an Amish man making chandeliers and selling them for outlandish prices to the second-home, ski-vacation crowd in Big Sky, Thad declines, concluding that the Yellowstone outback was federally protected land with too many rangers and tourists. But, when Thad’s thirty year old truck needs repairs that require a tow and a costly shop bill, he reconsiders and devises a plan to enter Yellowstone and retrieve fallen elk antlers. Although haunted by the sense of morality of their late father, the brothers reason that “[i]t was like having an apple orchard and not wanting the fruit but at the same time denying access to those who would gladly go in and make use of it.

Wink has written a novel in which the natural landscape is as much a character in the novel as his human protagonists. He writes clearly about the hardship of living hand to mouth and eking a living through physical labor in the wilderness. The struggles he depicts are enough that even those with the strongest moral and ethical principles might consider an illegal proposition. Thank you Spiegel and Grau and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this taut wilderness novel.

8 / 10 ✪

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2025/02/10/beartooth-by-callan-wink-review/

Beartooth isn’t exactly your conventional thriller. Yeah, it’s thrilling, reasonably fast-paced, and a pretty quick read, but it doesn’t start out the gate with the one, narrow plot—of turmoil in the backcountry—which it’ll ride to the end. Instead, there’s more of an Americana feel to start with (as opposed to a true thriller), a real Montana feel. A simple life, with simple wants. To fish, hunt, play in the backcountry. To get lost in all the nothingness, out in-between the lines. The annoyance of millionaire out-of-staters buying up all the good land, and closing off access. Millionaires often with more money than sense.

It’s a good read, one that felt authentically Montanan. Quick, emotional, often thrilling. A little bit of Americana, one set in the corridor between heavily trafficked tourist areas and obscure backcountry no-gos. But as far as it may seem at times, you can never forget about the park.

Not a lot of criticism for this. Since it doesn’t conform to the typical thriller formula, there is some lagging. In the early stages when the plot is still getting set, even later, after the brothers make their play for glory. The pacing gets interesting approaching the close, and I might’ve found the end a little underwhelming—though I did like it more than not. And I enjoyed the book more than not. Far more, in fact.

Yellowstone NP is one of my favorite vacation destinations, so I jumped at the chance to read Callan Wink's new novel, Beartooth. The novel is about two brothers who have reached the point of desperation in their attempts to make a living. The plan they come up with is risky and illegal, but will pay off in the end, if they are successful.

Callan Wink's writing takes the reader on a journey into the psyche of the two men at the center of the novel, as well as the environment in which they live. The story is not as action-packed as I expected, as the actual heist is only a small portion of the book, in fact. This is a slow-moving, in-depth character development novel that makes the reader feel Thad and Hazen's struggles. Personally, I had to work hard to like the characters much, even though the author helped me understand their motivations.

Thank you to Netgalley and Spiegel and Grau for the digital ARC of Beartooth by Callan Wink. The opinions in this review are my own.

A wilderness survival story about two brothers making a living on the remote edges of Yellowstone. This was suspenseful with a great atmospheric setting that would appeal to fans of authors like Peter Heller. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy of this new to me author's latest book.

A darkly atmospheric and urgent novel about brothers living on the edge in Montana. Thad and Hazen have always been on the margins but things have gotten worse thanks to the crushing medical debt after the death of their father so they're supplementing their woodcut income with poached bear parts when the mysterious Scot (he wears a kilt) convinces them to go into Yellowstone to collect elk antlers. Thad is the sensible one, the one who keeps things running while Hazen, well, Hazen's not quite right. Their mother who has been gone for most of their lives has turned up adding to the conflict in Thad's head. Nothing happens and everything happens on the trip to collect the antlers, a trip with consequences Thad could not have imagined. You will feel for these brothers and you will feel Thad's physical and mental anguish. I like that Wink parcels out the back story, peeling it over the course of the novel. He's a terrific storyteller. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I was a fan of August and this, this shows that Wink has grown as an author. It's a great read.

Immerse yourself in the harsh wilderness that is the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains, on the border of Yellowstone. Two brothers do what it takes to make a buck and survive another day, and they drag you through their gritty journey with them. It is unexpectedly emotional, edged with suspense, but mostly quiet and slow, mirroring the wilderness that they call home.

Don’t expect fast-paced action. And don’t be disappointed that this isn’t what a Callan Wink is offering. In a world that races to the next thing, find yourself ensnared in descriptions that transport you to the middle of nowhere.

An absorbing and fascinating look at two men living on the edge of poverty, Beartooth is a raw, poignant, and impactful story that I could not put down.

While this book includes aspects of living off-grid, and there’s also a wilderness heist aspect and a mystery at the end, it is more about how some people slip into poverty and struggle to remain afloat. Primarily, it’s about one man learning to live again after hitting rock bottom. It’s a later-in-life coming-of-age novel.

A lot of times novels like these - set in rougher areas and focused on men - either fail to include women at all or have them as reductive characters. Instead, this book includes two women who have a major impact on both men’s lives, but not as girlfriends or daughters. We learn almost as much about Thad’s mother, Sacagewea (yes, her name is explained), as we do him. I really appreciated that aspect.

Thad himself was an understandable and sympathetic character; you really felt for him and understood his struggle and why he made the choices he did. It's depressing at times yet overall hopeful.

It’s the writing in the novel that is so entrancing. It’s quite pared down in a sort of Hemingway-esque way. There’s a big focus on descriptions of landscapes and comparisons with the natural world to broaden out the characters. A lot of the story is just Thad and Hazen doing everyday stuff around their house, like cutting down trees and making repairs. Yet it’s this sort of pared-down life, the sheer necessity of how they live, which is entrancing with middle-class life being so full of just technology rammed down your throat. You can’t do anything without needing an app now, and it seems the world is designed to prevent you from detaching and just working with your hands. There’s something humble about Thad’s life as much as some aspects of it are awful. It’s the stark contrast between him being forced to live like he is versus choosing it that raises such poignant questions about how our society is evolving.

Overall, it’s a novel that made me think and feel and wonder, as well as being a terse and suspenseful story at times. It was excellent.

Beartooth
By Callan Wink

I found this book to be an enigma. It is a beautifully written tale of two brothers brought up in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana living a survivalist sort of lifestyle. Thad, being the eldest, has spent his life watching out for Hazin, his younger brother, who appears to be in need of a protector.

When Thad is severely injured as a result of one of their adventures gone south, their roles reverse. It is Hazin who gets a job, buys a car, and ultimately frees them from an evil presence by doing the unthinkable.

When Hazin makes good his escape, Thad realizes he has lost his brother for good and his is now totally and forever alone, with only himself to rely on for company.

The author ties in relics from the ancient past where the living was hard with the life his protagonist is living in the present. It is a way of life based solely on self-reliance – survival of the fittest. I am not sure what exactly the author wants the reader to glean from the story, but for a certain kind of reader, it will prove an interesting read.

Thanks to Netgalley and th publisher for this ARC.

An incredibly atmospheric novel, Beartooth was a book that felt almost thick to read, if that makes sense? I felt as if I was wadding through the woods and swamps myself reading about Thad and Hazen. Sensory wise, I've never read a book before that's felt so real. It reminded me of where I grew up in the backwoods of Oregon. There was so much life and nature buzzing throughout this novel, it really came alive. I loved the brothers and the slight mystery that always comes with a small town setting. A strong and powerful book about family, sense of self and connections to nature. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Beartooth #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book! From the beginning I felt like I was full immersed in the woods with the characters. Watching the dynamic between the brothers develop was fascinating. It was an eye opening story of survival off grid. I found myself cringing at some of the decisions made and often had my hairs stand up on my arms.