Reviews with content warning for Violence - Wolfsong

I feel like this is a huge "your mileage may vary" sort of book. For some, like myself, it's a story that is easy to lose yourself in. The Bennett pack welcomes you into their found family and doesn't let go. But I can see how the story and its writing wouldn't vibe with other readers. I say vibe because this book is very much a vibe. It's, much like Ox, "candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome". But all of that comes with a narration that is very steam-of-consciousness. Ox tells the story as if he were sitting down with a stranger and telling them everything about himself and Joe and the whole Bennett pack as he remembers it. There's repetition and clunky sentences, especially in terms of back-and-forth dialogue. It isn't refined. It's personal. I can see how this could be annoying for some readers and charming for others. Honestly, at times it felt tedious, which is why I went with four stars instead of five. Overall though, I found the narrative choices compelling.

Another hangup I imagine readers might have with this book is the age gap between Joe and Ox. Joe is 10 and Ox is 16 when they first meet and while there is an obviously special connection between them from the start nothing romantic or sexual occurs between the two of them until much later. Klune does a good job of clearly showing Ox interested in other people for romantic/sexual relationships while Joe is still a kid. Granted, Joe is still a teenager when they go on their first date but the plot interrupts everything and nothing substantial happens between them until Joe is firmly an adult. Plus all of this is handwaved under the fated mates trope. Personally, I think that Klune established the relationship over the course of the novel well enough that I was invested in them. However, I can see how it would be a sticking point for other readers.

Above the romance though, the found family is really the heart of the story. Ox and his mother were abused and abandoned by Ox's father, leaving them a bit broken and a bit empty. The arrival of the Bennett back signals a new beginning for them and they are enveloped into a brand new family that only grows over the course of the novel. I found every member of the pack to be endearing in their own way, and look forward to seeing more of them in the books that follow.

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4.0

I loved most of this story. The things that weirded me out or almost made me dnf was how much Ox thought of Joe always as a little boy or a young teen, usually in sentimental and intimate moments. I know what Klune was going for, but it didn’t quite land right with me.

Nor did the way Ox’s dad spoke to him. There’s zero mention that I could find that the R-word would be used so heavily in the first 60 pages. Again, I get that his dad was trash, but could he have used another method to describe that he viewed Ox as “simple and dumb.” hell, I just did 😒

Also, Ox is anything but simple and dumb 😡

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