Wolf Siren

Wolf Siren is a 2025 British children's fantasy novel by Beth O'Brien. Her debut novel, it is published by HarperCollins Children's Books on 27 March 2025, it is a feminist reimagining of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, focused on Red, a visually impaired girl who is drawn to a forbidden forest beside her village. The novel explores disability, gender, the abuse of power, grief and the relationship between people and the natural world.

In 2026, the book won the Carnegie Medal for Writing. The novel also won the Carnegie Shadowers' Choice Award for Writing and the 11–14+ category of the 2026 United Kingdom Literacy Association Book Awards. Carnegie judges praised the novel's language, symbolism and treatment of contemporary issues, while describing Red as a heroine combining traditional fairy tale characteristics with modern concerns.

Background and publication

HarperCollins Children's Books acquired the book Wolf Siren in 2023 as O'Brien's middle grade debut, initially announcing that it would be published in April 2025. The book was ultimately released on 27 March 2025..

O'Brien developed the idea for the novel while studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. During a module dealing with fairy tales, she began considering a new version of Little Red Riding Hood. Her own experience of visual impairment influenced both Red's character and the way in which the forest is described and perceived. O'Brien has said that she deliberately created a system of magic that assists Red rather than curing or erasing her disability, in contrast to portrayals of disability in some traditional fairy tales. She conceived the village as a patriarchal hunting community in which women possess an ability to enter the surrounding forest more safely than men, creating tension between established authority and female independence. The resulting story incorporates elements of environmental fiction, with deforestation, the treatment of wolves and the villagers' relationship with the woods forming part of its wider examination of power and fear.

Plot

Red lives in an isolated village beside woods which the inhabitants have been taught to fear due to wolf attacks. Following attacks by wolves on men and boys, entering the woods is forbidden, although a female woodcutter is required to work there. Red nevertheless feels drawn towards the forest, particularly because her grandmother disappeared there several years earlier. Red is visually impaired and is regarded with suspicion by some members of the village because of both her disability and her fascination with the woods. When she enters the forest alone, she discovers a mysterious connection with its wolves. As tensions between the villagers and the natural world increase, Red begins to question the village's accepted version of events and discovers secrets concerning both the woods and her own family.

Reception

BookTrust described Wolf Siren as a powerful and gripping reinterpretation of a familiar fairy tale, praising Red as a distinctive protagonist and highlighting the novel's treatment of feminism, power and environmental responsibility. Books for Keeps characterised the novel as a work of eco fiction as well as a fairy tale reimagining, noting its use of symbolism, role reversals and Red's visual perspective. It was selected as one of the 2026 Summer Reading Challenge titles of the The Reading Agency.

Awards

External links

• Wolf Siren at HarperCollins