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annalynn912's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
stella94's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.5
pinxsol's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't realize how much I was pining after Supernatural (the show) until I read the first pages of this.
This book was the last chance that I was giving the author before I completely gave up on his work (love the ideas, don't enjoy the writing style), and gotta say... I was ordering book 2 in the series before I hit 100 pages. It feels very different from his other books, more explicit, less of a fairy tale that the cerulean sea and the whispering door were.
I don't usually enjoy the author's humour, but this one just hit. There was the giggling behind my hand, the kicking of feet, the witch-closing-the-cellar-door laugh, even ridiculous exclamations that I'm a bit embarrassed to admit to.
This, too, is way less of a psychologist appointment than the other books from the author (though you can never quite escape the occasional mental health talk. Which isn't a bad thing, just not something that I usually seek in my books). I am loving the gruff mechanic types blindly stumbling through feelings, oh god, please give me more of them.
I am going to bestow upon this book the highest rating I could ever give, which is: a-supernatural-AU-fanfic out of 10. Let it be known that this book is just as masterfully written as Dean Winchester discovering his repressed sexuality whilst working in a tattoo parlor.
This book was the last chance that I was giving the author before I completely gave up on his work (love the ideas, don't enjoy the writing style), and gotta say... I was ordering book 2 in the series before I hit 100 pages. It feels very different from his other books, more explicit, less of a fairy tale that the cerulean sea and the whispering door were.
I don't usually enjoy the author's humour, but this one just hit. There was the giggling behind my hand, the kicking of feet, the witch-closing-the-cellar-door laugh, even ridiculous exclamations that I'm a bit embarrassed to admit to.
This, too, is way less of a psychologist appointment than the other books from the author (though you can never quite escape the occasional mental health talk. Which isn't a bad thing, just not something that I usually seek in my books). I am loving the gruff mechanic types blindly stumbling through feelings, oh god, please give me more of them.
I am going to bestow upon this book the highest rating I could ever give, which is: a-supernatural-AU-fanfic out of 10. Let it be known that this book is just as masterfully written as Dean Winchester discovering his repressed sexuality whilst working in a tattoo parlor.
teenykins's review against another edition
5.0
Story: 5 stars
Narration: 5 stars
I'm glad that I gave this series another chance, because at the time I first tried it, it didn't work for me. Also I'm an impatient person when reading, so it was hard to go past Ox and Joe being kids, Ox having a gf and then sleeping around with guys while poor Joe was just dying a bit because he was a minor and Ox had no clue about werewolves and mates. Anyways... audiobooks in cases like that, for me, are a savior.
So here I was preordering the "new version" of this and diving right in at work. AND PEOPLE WOULDN'T STOP BOTHERING ME!!! People I'm in this story that I don't want to let go off and you are in the way of me listening to it!!!
Kirt Graves was EPICALLY AMAZING!!!
As for the story... better reviews than I could write have already been written! Just prepare yourself for a whole range of feelings and emotions to hit you. You'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll be hurt, you'll be frustrated, you'll be so invested the story will become a part of you! So try this even if you have tried TJ Klune before and he wasn't your cup of tea (like it was for me).
Narration: 5 stars
I'm glad that I gave this series another chance, because at the time I first tried it, it didn't work for me. Also I'm an impatient person when reading, so it was hard to go past Ox and Joe being kids, Ox having a gf and then sleeping around with guys while poor Joe was just dying a bit because he was a minor and Ox had no clue about werewolves and mates. Anyways... audiobooks in cases like that, for me, are a savior.
So here I was preordering the "new version" of this and diving right in at work. AND PEOPLE WOULDN'T STOP BOTHERING ME!!! People I'm in this story that I don't want to let go off and you are in the way of me listening to it!!!
Kirt Graves was EPICALLY AMAZING!!!
As for the story... better reviews than I could write have already been written! Just prepare yourself for a whole range of feelings and emotions to hit you. You'll cry, you'll laugh, you'll be hurt, you'll be frustrated, you'll be so invested the story will become a part of you! So try this even if you have tried TJ Klune before and he wasn't your cup of tea (like it was for me).
otterkitty's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
5.0
darbyart's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
5.0
amarreth's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and Death
sarah621's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
laelyn's review against another edition
2.0
Oh how excited I was to dive into Klune's werewolf series! I absolutely adored his latest standalones so I felt like he's the perfect author fit for me. Sadly, this turned out to just not be the book for me, and noone is sadder about this than me. It's not at all a bad book and I can absolutely see why it has so many fans, but I guess I'm just not as much into werewolves as I thought I am.
"Wolfsong" tells the story of Ox, a simple dude in a simple town with a horrible dad, an amazing mum and a set of new neighbours that are a little peculiar to say the least. The new family comes with a ten year old boy called Joe who immediately clings to Ox like they are meant for each other. Spoiler alert: They are.
This is probably one of the big things that made me uncomfortable from the get go. Ox is 16 or 17 when they meet, Joe is 10, which is a big age gap when you're this young. And yet, noone including his own family seem to mind that little Joe has now more or less imprinted on his future boyfriend. Sure, nothing happens between them until Joe is 17, but he's basically been a possessively jealous little thing from day 1, effectively punishing Ox for having dates and relationships. He literally tells him he had a hard time not killing the people Ox liked, not tearing him apart to be able to taste him, not marking him all over so noone would ever touch him again. I know a lot of people are into this kind of primal, obsessive romance behaviour but dear god I wanted to send him to therapy. This is not how I like my werewolves. Ox and Joe also more or less grew up as brothers after meeting very young, with Joe's father calling Ox his son in all but blood, so... I don't know. It just didn't feel romantic at all to me, and I might just not like the whole Mates thing. I find it a little creepy.
I quite liked the family dynamics and how welcoming the pack was to Ox, and I enjoyed the larger world building around the different packs, the Omegas, the witches. I especially enjoyed Gordo as a character, he might be my favorite. But because this is primarily a romance (and one I didn't enjoy for the aforementioned reasons), all the other plot points kind of fall flat., There are big battles, but in the end, they're mostly there to further the romance. The pacing is rather slow too, so I was honestly a little bored and wanted to skip entire pages at some points. This is not helped by the choice of writing style - while I liked Ox' voice and I really enjoyed him as a character, too, it was a bit tiresome to read.
So this is a very unpopular opinion and I by now way am saying this is a bad book, but well. It's just definitely not for me and there are too many themes and tropes I simply don't enjoy or make me uncomfortable within the narrative and the characters and their relationships so I can't give this more than 2 stars. You should probably ignore my review if you're into those very themes and tropes though.
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan, Tor and Netgalley for the arc!
"Wolfsong" tells the story of Ox, a simple dude in a simple town with a horrible dad, an amazing mum and a set of new neighbours that are a little peculiar to say the least. The new family comes with a ten year old boy called Joe who immediately clings to Ox like they are meant for each other. Spoiler alert: They are.
This is probably one of the big things that made me uncomfortable from the get go. Ox is 16 or 17 when they meet, Joe is 10, which is a big age gap when you're this young. And yet, noone including his own family seem to mind that little Joe has now more or less imprinted on his future boyfriend. Sure, nothing happens between them until Joe is 17, but he's basically been a possessively jealous little thing from day 1, effectively punishing Ox for having dates and relationships. He literally tells him he had a hard time not killing the people Ox liked, not tearing him apart to be able to taste him, not marking him all over so noone would ever touch him again. I know a lot of people are into this kind of primal, obsessive romance behaviour but dear god I wanted to send him to therapy. This is not how I like my werewolves. Ox and Joe also more or less grew up as brothers after meeting very young, with Joe's father calling Ox his son in all but blood, so... I don't know. It just didn't feel romantic at all to me, and I might just not like the whole Mates thing. I find it a little creepy.
I quite liked the family dynamics and how welcoming the pack was to Ox, and I enjoyed the larger world building around the different packs, the Omegas, the witches. I especially enjoyed Gordo as a character, he might be my favorite. But because this is primarily a romance (and one I didn't enjoy for the aforementioned reasons), all the other plot points kind of fall flat., There are big battles, but in the end, they're mostly there to further the romance. The pacing is rather slow too, so I was honestly a little bored and wanted to skip entire pages at some points. This is not helped by the choice of writing style - while I liked Ox' voice and I really enjoyed him as a character, too, it was a bit tiresome to read.
So this is a very unpopular opinion and I by now way am saying this is a bad book, but well. It's just definitely not for me and there are too many themes and tropes I simply don't enjoy or make me uncomfortable within the narrative and the characters and their relationships so I can't give this more than 2 stars. You should probably ignore my review if you're into those very themes and tropes though.
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan, Tor and Netgalley for the arc!
starfleeting's review against another edition
1.0
Sadly, I did not like this book. At all.
I'm deeply disappointed at how many one stars I've given out this year because they were mostly for books I was really hyped for. And this book was another one of those. I was sooo hyped when I saw the new printings of this series.
It has so many things I am into: werewolves (and gay ones, at that!), fated mates, some possessiveness and romance, found family dynamics. I am very sad to report every bit of this was Not What I Enjoy. None of it was written in a way I liked and was often left going "what the fuck???".
The age gap is too icky for me to wave off, the dynamic between the mates/main couple is incredibly toxic and disturbing (like yes I enjoy some possessiveness and co-dependency with romance because I enjoy it in my fiction but THIS was not it, not the mate describing how he wants to rip his other mate open and "crawl inside" jesus fucking christ). Even the whole fated mates part was written in a way that made me make faces while I read.
This was not at all what I wanted, and I continue to be saddened by this turn of events.
And then we get to the writing. It... was terrible, guys. There's no way I can mince words over this. It was awful. Repetitious af, non-descriptive to the point of the story having zero sense of setting, cringey dialogue that gave me secondhand embarrassment, and stylistic choices that were just unpleasant to read.
I know there are people that love this series, and I was honestly hoping to be one of them! I am glad people can enjoy this, but I cannot. It's just bad and was painful to read for me.
So yeah, this is a Nah from me and I can't recommend it.
P.S. - I am totally here for authors repurposing fanfiction as books. Like for real, get your bag. But man, I have a sneaking suspicion this started out as genderbent Bella and Jacob m/m fanfiction with the wolf dynamic made even more intense. It's written so much like a lot of those fics were back on FF.net, and it would explain so much if that was the case lmao.
I'm deeply disappointed at how many one stars I've given out this year because they were mostly for books I was really hyped for. And this book was another one of those. I was sooo hyped when I saw the new printings of this series.
It has so many things I am into: werewolves (and gay ones, at that!), fated mates, some possessiveness and romance, found family dynamics. I am very sad to report every bit of this was Not What I Enjoy. None of it was written in a way I liked and was often left going "what the fuck???".
The age gap is too icky for me to wave off, the dynamic between the mates/main couple is incredibly toxic and disturbing (like yes I enjoy some possessiveness and co-dependency with romance because I enjoy it in my fiction but THIS was not it, not the mate describing how he wants to rip his other mate open and "crawl inside" jesus fucking christ). Even the whole fated mates part was written in a way that made me make faces while I read.
This was not at all what I wanted, and I continue to be saddened by this turn of events.
And then we get to the writing. It... was terrible, guys. There's no way I can mince words over this. It was awful. Repetitious af, non-descriptive to the point of the story having zero sense of setting, cringey dialogue that gave me secondhand embarrassment, and stylistic choices that were just unpleasant to read.
I know there are people that love this series, and I was honestly hoping to be one of them! I am glad people can enjoy this, but I cannot. It's just bad and was painful to read for me.
So yeah, this is a Nah from me and I can't recommend it.
P.S. - I am totally here for authors repurposing fanfiction as books. Like for real, get your bag. But man, I have a sneaking suspicion this started out as genderbent Bella and Jacob m/m fanfiction with the wolf dynamic made even more intense. It's written so much like a lot of those fics were back on FF.net, and it would explain so much if that was the case lmao.