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2.5 stars.
Let me preface this with the fact that I am a BIG fan of TJ Klune. I have read several of his books and rated all of them 4.5 stars or above until this. And oh this was painful. I held on to the end hoping for things to get better, but they really didn't.
The premise and underlying emotional/relationship messages of the plot had good intentions, but the execution just about did me in. The writing has a very young voice to it with not a lot of sophistication...definitely not the style I'm used to with Klune. There is a mixture of this voice with a decent amount adult content, so it's a bit of an odd juxtaposition. There is just so much cringe to the conversations and the overall attitude of the characters. And there is a LOT of repetition in the plot. There were quite a few times where I felt like I was being beat over the head with some of the information. Very frustrating.
The characters themselves also proved problematic for me. Though the "romantic" action doesn't come to true fruition until Joe is of age, the gap between Joe and Ox and the relationship between them is uncomfortable and bordered a bit on pedophilic. It was too much for me to stomach and I really wish it would have been constructed in a way to completely avoid that kind of context.
There is levity and some of that awkward joking/snark that comes with Klune's writing territory (which was highly appreciated), but it just wasn't enough to overwhelm the general feeling of werewolf POV Twilight fan fiction. And Klune was clearly aware of this parallel as it is directly mentioned in the text as a bit of meta context. It just wasn't good.
Again, I love TJ Klune's other books and still highly recommend him as an author, but this one just wasn't it. It's a rough debut that I struggled to finish and probably rated slightly higher than I should have simply because I have some attachment to Klune and could understand where he was trying to go with the story. But phew...I'm glad it's over.
Let me preface this with the fact that I am a BIG fan of TJ Klune. I have read several of his books and rated all of them 4.5 stars or above until this. And oh this was painful. I held on to the end hoping for things to get better, but they really didn't.
The premise and underlying emotional/relationship messages of the plot had good intentions, but the execution just about did me in. The writing has a very young voice to it with not a lot of sophistication...definitely not the style I'm used to with Klune. There is a mixture of this voice with a decent amount adult content, so it's a bit of an odd juxtaposition. There is just so much cringe to the conversations and the overall attitude of the characters. And there is a LOT of repetition in the plot. There were quite a few times where I felt like I was being beat over the head with some of the information. Very frustrating.
The characters themselves also proved problematic for me. Though the "romantic" action doesn't come to true fruition until Joe is of age, the gap between Joe and Ox and the relationship between them is uncomfortable and bordered a bit on pedophilic. It was too much for me to stomach and I really wish it would have been constructed in a way to completely avoid that kind of context.
There is levity and some of that awkward joking/snark that comes with Klune's writing territory (which was highly appreciated), but it just wasn't enough to overwhelm the general feeling of werewolf POV Twilight fan fiction. And Klune was clearly aware of this parallel as it is directly mentioned in the text as a bit of meta context. It just wasn't good.
Again, I love TJ Klune's other books and still highly recommend him as an author, but this one just wasn't it. It's a rough debut that I struggled to finish and probably rated slightly higher than I should have simply because I have some attachment to Klune and could understand where he was trying to go with the story. But phew...I'm glad it's over.