Reviews with content warning for Death - Wolfsong

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

174 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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brookeisbusyreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

After coming to a printing error in my fancy special edition hardback of this book where ~30 pages had been printed incorrectly, I managed to finish it thanks to KU. So now I don’t have said hardback…which is okay?

I know this is a really popular series…but I feel very meh about this book. And apparently the other books are told from different characters that I’m not all that interested in reading about (except Carter—I’m very interested in his perspective).

Things I Liked:

The setting and worldbuilding (reminded me of how the werewolves and pack thing was done in Twilight movies)
The found family dynamic
Thomas Fucking Bennett
Mark’s role in the whole story
Using colors to represent emotions
The two and a half times this book ripped my heart out then apologized and did it again
SOME of the repetition
Richard Collins’s evil-ness
Carter and Kelly’s brotherhood

Things I Disliked:

~95% of the repetition (I got very annoyed so many times but occasionally it would work)
Being beaten over the head with how Ox’s dad told him he’s “gonna get shit”, Joe’s explanation of how much Ox means to him, and Joe’s traumatic experience (all said pretty much word for word over and over again, I might add)
The idea of tethers seeming like they’re important but getting drowned out by the Alpha stuff
The possessiveness, especially with Joe (I get the bonding thing and I was all for it at the start of the story, but it does get controlling by the end.)
THE 20-OR-HOWEVER-MANY PAGE DETAILED SEX SCENE (Yes, I know this is an adult book but I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT detailed. Also, I don’t know, I felt that scene cheapened another scene later on.)

Overall, I’m really just disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it like I was hoping to. I don’t see myself continuing the series but I might revisit it later.

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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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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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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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