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rubeusbeaky 's review for:
Wolfsong
by TJ Klune
The way this book was written almost entirely in free verse with tons of impactful of refrains, as if it were a song, is impressive and evocative.
...
That is the only positive thing I can say about this book. :/
I'm sure the age-gap, friends-to-lovers thing is somebody's ship. SOMEBODY watched Ouran High School Host Club, saw energetic and emotional little Hani and gentle giant Mori, and had an immediate sexual awakening! But I did not go for the romance that began with a 10 year old proposing to a 16 year old. Nor did I care for the younger, Joe's, clinginess and jealousy. He sulked, and was rude, and leaned on his traumatic past to make Ox feel guilty, and shrink their world to them two.
About 200 pages in, it hit me that the whole guilt trip THING is a reoccurring theme in TJ Klune's writing. It's not always romantic, but an older, average man is surrounded by fantastical beings, is instantly praised and adored as if his basic human compassion is a superpower, and then guilted into being the emotional anchor for an abused minor. And once I saw the pattern, I got squicked out :/. There is being available for someone. And there is being guilted into believing that someone cannot function without you. The fact that over and over again these found families keep grooming the protagonist to exist for someone else's mental and emotional health is unsettling. A person is a person, and a person can offer empathy and sympathy and support, but a person is not a cure. No person should be used to hold another person together. Sacrificing one individual for another is not romantic, it's an unhealthy form of attachment. I don't know what it says that Klune's writing consistently marries child abuse, queer awakening, grief, and fated romance. But it's a recipe I'm no longer comfortable supporting O_o.
((PS - And this is reeeeeeally nitpicky, but Richard Collins is the name of the villain XD. I don't know why that's so funny! But to have a fantastical setting and the villain's not Voldemort or Sauron or Maleficent.... It's Richard XD. RICHARD! That's my uncle's name! XD I mean, sure, everyday people can be monsters, a villain can hide behind an unassuming moniker, like Jeffrey Dahmer. But, for me, I had a hard time suspending disbelief for Richard.
In fact, I had a hard time suspending disbelief for a lot of the book. The fact that Ox didn't realize his neighbors were shifters is mind-boggling. They were doing obviously inhuman things, like sniffing him. Or, their eyes changed color. Or, they openly said things like "pack" instead of family or "wards" instead of house alarm. I had a hard time believing that the villain got through said wards, or past said pack, when everybody is empathically linked and would feel the presence of interlopers/traitors. I just... overall had a hard time with this book.))
...
That is the only positive thing I can say about this book. :/
I'm sure the age-gap, friends-to-lovers thing is somebody's ship. SOMEBODY watched Ouran High School Host Club, saw energetic and emotional little Hani and gentle giant Mori, and had an immediate sexual awakening! But I did not go for the romance that began with a 10 year old proposing to a 16 year old. Nor did I care for the younger, Joe's, clinginess and jealousy. He sulked, and was rude, and leaned on his traumatic past to make Ox feel guilty, and shrink their world to them two.
About 200 pages in, it hit me that the whole guilt trip THING is a reoccurring theme in TJ Klune's writing. It's not always romantic, but an older, average man is surrounded by fantastical beings, is instantly praised and adored as if his basic human compassion is a superpower, and then guilted into being the emotional anchor for an abused minor. And once I saw the pattern, I got squicked out :/. There is being available for someone. And there is being guilted into believing that someone cannot function without you. The fact that over and over again these found families keep grooming the protagonist to exist for someone else's mental and emotional health is unsettling. A person is a person, and a person can offer empathy and sympathy and support, but a person is not a cure. No person should be used to hold another person together. Sacrificing one individual for another is not romantic, it's an unhealthy form of attachment. I don't know what it says that Klune's writing consistently marries child abuse, queer awakening, grief, and fated romance. But it's a recipe I'm no longer comfortable supporting O_o.
((PS - And this is reeeeeeally nitpicky, but Richard Collins is the name of the villain XD. I don't know why that's so funny! But to have a fantastical setting and the villain's not Voldemort or Sauron or Maleficent.... It's Richard XD. RICHARD! That's my uncle's name! XD I mean, sure, everyday people can be monsters, a villain can hide behind an unassuming moniker, like Jeffrey Dahmer. But, for me, I had a hard time suspending disbelief for Richard.
In fact, I had a hard time suspending disbelief for a lot of the book. The fact that Ox didn't realize his neighbors were shifters is mind-boggling. They were doing obviously inhuman things, like sniffing him. Or, their eyes changed color. Or, they openly said things like "pack" instead of family or "wards" instead of house alarm. I had a hard time believing that the villain got through said wards, or past said pack, when everybody is empathically linked and would feel the presence of interlopers/traitors. I just... overall had a hard time with this book.))