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A review by jhuskisson
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
3.0
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so conflicted about a book.
On the one hand, I adored the protagonist, his internal monologue, his character development and story arc, and really everything about the characters and setting. The language in the book is a wonderful combination of simple but poetic. There were many passages that made me laugh or stop to just savor the really beautiful language. Five stars for all of those elements, for sure.
On the other hand, this book was much longer than it needed to be, for me. The plot was straightforward enough, but we had to listen to different combinations of characters have the same conversations over and over and over. There were lines of dialogue that were repeated many times in the protagonist’s head as he remembered them. There was way too much angst and rumination for my liking. I feel like the same book with a different editor could have been tight, fast-paced, and still have packed the same emotional punch.
And I could have done without the central romantic relationship altogether. The age gap between a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old just felt icky to me, especially when they met when they were 10/16 and both repeatedly say things like “I have loved you for a long time.” They are mostly talking about platonic brotherly love that turned into romantic love, but it still felt icky. By the time the two spicy scenes rolled around the characters were 20 and 26, but I still felt so weird about the way they initially came together that I had to mostly skip those scenes. That said, this doesn’t seem to be an issue for most readers of this book, and it’s a less egregious age gap than many paranormal or fantasy romances. I just don’t seem to be the target audience for this type of romance.
Long story short, I think you could strategically delete 1/3 of this book with no other edits, and I’d give it 5 stars in a heartbeat.
On the one hand, I adored the protagonist, his internal monologue, his character development and story arc, and really everything about the characters and setting. The language in the book is a wonderful combination of simple but poetic. There were many passages that made me laugh or stop to just savor the really beautiful language. Five stars for all of those elements, for sure.
On the other hand, this book was much longer than it needed to be, for me. The plot was straightforward enough, but we had to listen to different combinations of characters have the same conversations over and over and over. There were lines of dialogue that were repeated many times in the protagonist’s head as he remembered them. There was way too much angst and rumination for my liking. I feel like the same book with a different editor could have been tight, fast-paced, and still have packed the same emotional punch.
And I could have done without the central romantic relationship altogether. The age gap between a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old just felt icky to me, especially when they met when they were 10/16 and both repeatedly say things like “I have loved you for a long time.” They are mostly talking about platonic brotherly love that turned into romantic love, but it still felt icky. By the time the two spicy scenes rolled around the characters were 20 and 26, but I still felt so weird about the way they initially came together that I had to mostly skip those scenes. That said, this doesn’t seem to be an issue for most readers of this book, and it’s a less egregious age gap than many paranormal or fantasy romances. I just don’t seem to be the target audience for this type of romance.
Long story short, I think you could strategically delete 1/3 of this book with no other edits, and I’d give it 5 stars in a heartbeat.