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yvo_about_books's review against another edition
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
adbooks20's review against another edition
It started out strong, but then began to get super depressing and I just couldn't get past the weirdness of the relationships going on. I don't care how strong the trauma bonding, nothing can make the fact that the two main characters were basically mated when one was 10 and the other 16, ok for me. I also didn't like how touchy-feely the younger kid's family was with the older kid. It made me uncomfortable, and nothing that happened really made up for it. It also bothered me how few females there were in it- it seemed unbalanced, especially after one of them died.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
vvayl's review against another edition
Stopped at chapter 22, I asked what happened next and it's more of nothing.
The book is just nothing.
Ox my most hated fictional character ♡
The book is just nothing.
Ox my most hated fictional character ♡
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
joygarcialim's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This book was bad bad bad and crap crap crap. The best part of it was before I started reading it.
The book was so disjointed in so many parts that I didn’t know what happened between one part of the writing and other parts. There was basically no flow. Ox and Joe are walking red flags, even outside of their inappropriate relationship, they are immature, whiney and possessive. The dialogues between characters were so similar that they all seemed to have the same personality- one-dimensional. The book came across as it was written by a 12 year old with a Twilight obsession, with no understanding of character-building or world-building. Maybe except for the sex scenes, I would have been completely convinced this was written by a kid. The writing was that juvenile. I don’t understand why every time Ox has an emotion, he has to write out a soliloquy about them. I’m not talking artistic, literary soliloquies- they were very whiney and he thinks he’s suffered the most or something. And it’s repeatedly used. By other characters too. There was a lot of repetitiveness. It was a long book not because a lot happened, but because there was a lot of repetition and Klune used a new line for every sentence he wrote in some parts.
The sex scenes were probably the best part of the writing tbh. They were incredibly detailed and less whiney than the other parts- all 15+ pages of it. It wasn’t great, I got second-hand embarrassment from it. It didn’t need to be that long.
TJ Klune, if this book is a reflection of your reality, please get professional help from a therapist and a psychiatrist.
The book was so disjointed in so many parts that I didn’t know what happened between one part of the writing and other parts. There was basically no flow. Ox and Joe are walking red flags, even outside of their inappropriate relationship, they are immature, whiney and possessive. The dialogues between characters were so similar that they all seemed to have the same personality- one-dimensional. The book came across as it was written by a 12 year old with a Twilight obsession, with no understanding of character-building or world-building. Maybe except for the sex scenes, I would have been completely convinced this was written by a kid. The writing was that juvenile. I don’t understand why every time Ox has an emotion, he has to write out a soliloquy about them. I’m not talking artistic, literary soliloquies- they were very whiney and he thinks he’s suffered the most or something. And it’s repeatedly used. By other characters too. There was a lot of repetitiveness. It was a long book not because a lot happened, but because there was a lot of repetition and Klune used a new line for every sentence he wrote in some parts.
The sex scenes were probably the best part of the writing tbh. They were incredibly detailed and less whiney than the other parts- all 15+ pages of it. It wasn’t great, I got second-hand embarrassment from it. It didn’t need to be that long.
TJ Klune, if this book is a reflection of your reality, please get professional help from a therapist and a psychiatrist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Abandonment