Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Wolfsong

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

264 reviews

_forestofpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was very nearly a new favorite of mine. This was all the nostalgic teen wolf feelings.

I felt instantly protective and connected to Ox, and in love with how TJ Klune wrote him and his journey from an abused and bullied boy to a confident man with a pack he'd do anything for. He's a precious character that I will love always.

Why am I rating this lower? Mostly, because of the repetitions, the pacing which was a mess past the 300 page mark and the writing which started so well but I think deteriorated toward the end of act 2. It felt like a lot of that section was padded and just went on for too long, for me. I do love the ending, but it was still a lot of conversations being repeated and parts that definitely could have been cut and nothing about the story or character development would have changed. Also, the choice to make the age gap six years and have one of them be eleven when they meet is something I will never like or understand. He could have been a year older or maybe two, why six??

(Side note: I am picky about sex scenes because if it's too detailed I can't take it seriously and I usually just laugh. The one really explicit scene in this book was WAY too detailed and IMO went on too long. It was like fifteen pages ffs)

Overall, I am excited for the rest of the series, despite my issues with the length and bloat of book 1.

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yoursisterscanary's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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ninja5phinx's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kstacy91's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A beautiful, adventurous ride from start to finish. The story blends romance, found family, and the supernatural so smoothly that you can enjoy the world without feeling lost. The characters are phenomenal, dynamic, relatable and lovable. I’d recommend this for fans of urban fantasy series such as The Last Sun by K. D. Edwards or looking to dip their toes into adult lgbt+ fantasy.

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marieeh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.0

This book was hard for me to rate. On the one hand, I loved the writing, the meandering chapters taking me through the story. I liked that this was a long, slow paced story spanning many years. I really loved the examples of non-toxic masculinity - men who loved each other openly, hugging, crying, sharing their emotions. It was refreshing. I also really liked the descriptors. "Candy canes and pinecones". I can smell that, but I also feel like I understand the emotions those scents evoke. That phrase made me feel something every time it was mentioned.

However, I got really icked out by the

age gap romance. I tried to get past it since all the characters just sort of explain it away as a mates thing and "when you know, you know", but I had a really hard time and never really did. I just don't see why Joe couldn't have been aged up even to like 14. Everything else could have happened exactly the same. And I could accept a 3 year difference a little more easily. I honestly think I could have even accepted it if they both met as adults (21 and 28) but since they met when Joe was 10 and Ox almost 18?? I couldn't. I was also kind of blindsided by the very explicit and lengthy sex scene. I am not big on those to begin with, and it came late in the book and kind of without warning - there had been really nothing sexual like that and then boom. And the fact that the epilogue was a sex scene too? I loved the way the final chapter ended, it was beautiful, but then throwing that in (I know it was an important "mating") just kind of cheapened it to me.

All that said, it was a good, sad story. I wasn't expecting how emotional of a read it would be. I really liked the characters, though I wish some had been fleshed out more (maybe in the other books in series?) and like I said before, I loved the writing. It was very poetic in places. I'm not jumping to read the rest of the series right now, but I will definitely check out more by this author.

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maralaene's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

4.75

This book is a rollercoaster. At 30% in I thought for sure I had to be near the end, but I wasn’t even close. There is so much in this single book—it is wild. The narrator did a fantastic job and I would definitely recommend.

I just can’t even imagine how there are 3 more books in this series…but now I’m hooked. And I will most definitely be reading all of TJ Klune’s books now.

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saretta02's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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bookwitch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

THIS WAS SO LONG. Ox as a narrator was really difficult to get used to, especially for that many pages. It may be a personal thing, but the age gap romance aspect felt a tad too uncomfy for me. While Ox was a decent character, I think I was overall just interested in others, which could have led to this being just an okay romance. Not to say it was inappropriate, it was done in the correct way, I just did not particularly like the characters at the center, nor did I like seeing them from such a young young age at the beginning.
Somehow though, despite my little issues, TJ Klune manages to grip me in a way that few others have. His writing is magical in itself, and has easily made him an auto-buy author for me.

While I am more interested in the main characters of other books in this series, the length keeps me at bay, at least for now.

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fritopie's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wish the author had aged up the characters instead of them meeting at 10 and 16. The story would have still worked.

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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

2.75

Finished reading: September 10th 2024

“It was candy canes and pinecones. It was epic and awesome. And it was home.”

WARNING: it's another unexpected stop of the unpopular opinion train!!

I'm honestly still shocked and sad this has happened. I mean, I absolutely adored T.J. Klune's writing in the three books I've read before Wolfsong, and I was SO sure I was going to love this story as well. Sure, I don't exactly read a lot of shapeshifter romances, but this author always seems to create the most wonderful characters and worldbuilding in his books and I was fully convinced this was going to be one of them. I guess I was wrong. It's not that I don't like the premise or general idea behind this book... But somehow the story itself just didn't work for me this time around. I think this had a lot to do with the way this story was written; while unique, I was never able to warm up to the writing style and the constant repetition of certain words and phrases got so EXTREMELY annoying after a while. In fact, you could probably cut out at least 200 pages and still not get rid of all that repetition... While I liked what it represented in the beginning with the pack mentality and connections, it soon really started to grate on me. Especially the second half was a struggle to get through, because I was long over the way this story was written by then. Also, am I the only one wondering about just how inappropriate the relationship between Joe and Ox is, since he was only ten when they first bonded? Sure, nothing sexual happened until they were both adults, but still... I can't say that I was a fan. And then I'm not even talking about the extremely graphic steamy scenes when they appeared. *shudders* The whole quest thing was also extremely frustrating and it seems like it was only used to keep them apart until Joe was of age. There was so much drama and angst in general, and the story gave me Twilight vibes (for me personally that is NOT ment as a compliment). All in all Wolfsong wasn't the story for me, and I won't be continuing the series. I loved the premise, but the execution somehow just didn't hit the mark... This doesn't mean that I love his other stories any less though!

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