A review by impeachnixon
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I'm writing this review years and years after I read it, so it won't be very detailed or anything, but it's taken me this logn to form my thoughts on it (and I still don't really know how I feel). All I can say is that I'm incredibly torn. I read this book when I was a 15 year old girl, and I was immediately put off by certain elements of it. In one scene, June calls Toby her boyfriend (as a "joke"? I didn't get it then and I don't get it now) and he isn't put off by it. There's the one scene where he, like, breathes down her neck? It made me extremely uncomfortable as a young girl. I don't need books that feature such complicated and controversial topics to explicitly spell out that they are bad, but, at the same time, I felt EXTREMELY uncomfortable at just how un-challenged some of these scenes went, especially as someone who was similar in age at the time to the main character. There were also many instances where June spoke about her love in language that was transparently meant to parallel the gay experience-- talking about how it isn't a love she chose, etc. That, plus one of the most prominent gay male characters (in my opinion) crossing the line in this book really made me feel like this book was not having the conversations about homophobia or incest that it wanted to be having, and that it was drawing extremely questionable comparisons between the two. I didn't need it to so explicitly condemn any of the character's actions or feelings-- I think that the reader should be trusted to form their own opinions about the events in the book. Besides, if Toby didn't act the way he did and didn't allow June to say and do some of the things she said and did, I have no problem with the book depicting and exploring the feelings that June had for her uncle. Honestly, I think my biggest complaint is just that I was lead to believe the book was in the young adult age range. The cover design, the synopsis advertising that it's about a 14 year old girl, and the synopsis not mentioning that she has feelings for her uncle had all kind of contributed to this idea for me. I still can't tell if it's YA or not-- although I hope it isn't intended to be. I can't really let myself give it under 3 stars because I did really enjoy reading certain parts of it. I think it was really well written, I loved June's relationship with her sister being explored. Although I wish that it was explored in a different way (namely, Toby handling June's feelings better and not having lines that seem to compare incest to homosexuality), the themes explored in this book and the relationships depicted were interesting and impactful. This book brought a lot of conversations that are very uncomfortable to the forefront. Still, I can't get over how uncomfortable it made me to read this book as a girl similar in age to the protagonist. For years, I've struggled to put together my feelings on this book, but I think that's my basic review. I felt like it was well written (although not flawless), but, in my personal experience, it was not tactful enough to make someone in the same demographic as the main character have a comfortable reading experience. And it wasn't always uncomfortable in the sense that it challenged me (although, to its credit, this book did challenge me in a way that I think is productive and conducive to the conversation it wanted to start). Rather, it often made me uncomfortable in the sense that I felt like I was supposed to like and relate to characters who didn't make me feel safe. I don't know how many stars off that warrants, if any. All I know is that it's one of the strongest memories I have of reading a book in that time of my life, and, although i don't know exactly what feelings I have about this book, they are no doubt very strong feelings.
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