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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
This helped heal my still grieving inner fourteen year old self
Carol Rifka Brunt’s novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home, is a most terrible love story about terrible love. Love that is so intense, so powerful, that it both creates and destructs all whom succumb to it. There are many different kinds of love that can be experienced, but none compare to this kind. Fortunate and unfortunate at the same time, the holder of this love becomes the memory-keeper for all the remaining years to come.
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I will divulge that I haven't cried this much while reading a book since Margarete Cassalina's Beyond Breathing. Margarete's story is non-fiction, and I know her and her struggles well, so the emotional outpouring was not surprising. But Brunt's work of fiction cuts as deep as any true-to-life story. Her words may never have occurred in the waking world but the underlying sentiment will have you believing that it did; and you'll know that because your life has terrible love and shiny black buttons in it too.
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I will divulge that I haven't cried this much while reading a book since Margarete Cassalina's Beyond Breathing. Margarete's story is non-fiction, and I know her and her struggles well, so the emotional outpouring was not surprising. But Brunt's work of fiction cuts as deep as any true-to-life story. Her words may never have occurred in the waking world but the underlying sentiment will have you believing that it did; and you'll know that because your life has terrible love and shiny black buttons in it too.
This is my favorite kind of book: the kind that is character-driven. Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a coming of age story about June, a 14 year old Medieval enthusiast, struggling to cope with the death of her favorite uncle. Her uncle had died of AIDS in a time when little was known about the disease and before any sort of treatment existed. June develops an clandestine and complicated friendship with her uncle's partner, Toby, who is also deeply grieving, but shunned by the rest of her family. One of the main themes of the book is jealousy, and it also looks at often complex sibling relationships.
I wanted to love this book so much. The writing was so well done and it was beautiful and easy to read. But I couldn't get rid of the unsettling feeling in my stomach. The relationship between June//Finn//Toby was not okay. The love she felt for them, the secrets, the grown men wanting to spend time drinking/smoking/hanging out with a 14 year old girl is disturbing, no matter the intention.
I didn't like June, I didn't like the obsession Greta had with being her sisters friend, or the at June interacted with Ben.
As wonderfully painted this story is, the characters and lives they've lived is just too damn unlikeable for me to truly love their story.
I didn't like June, I didn't like the obsession Greta had with being her sisters friend, or the at June interacted with Ben.
As wonderfully painted this story is, the characters and lives they've lived is just too damn unlikeable for me to truly love their story.
The storyline in this book kept me interested from beginning to end. The author did a great job of capturing the emotions and thoughts of an early-teen girl who is trying to grapple with identity, family, feelings of the heart, and the sensitive subject of AIDS. While parts did seem to drag on a bit, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.
2.5 stars. The start of the book had me intrigued and wanting to know more about the “special” partner and the painting, but soon thereafter I felt like I was slogging through neverending pages of a teenage girls romantic obsession with her uncle. I understand the touches on grief and complex relationships, but overall found the book okay.
I was waffling between 4 and 5 stars on this one, and finally I decided to round up. I really loved it. The voice of the narrator, June, age 14, is spot on. She is just as self-centered, confused, and grasping as anyone who is that age, simultaneously wanting to grow up and be independent and to remain a child and be cared for. Trying to figure people out, and yourself. Puzzling over people's motives, trying to reconcile people's words with their actions. Trying to understand love, in its many forms. Well maybe we're all like that, at any age.
So many interesting relationships here: June and Finn, June and Toby, June and Greta, Danielle and Finn...
Good writing, good pace, and it's hard to come away from this one without being moved.
So many interesting relationships here: June and Finn, June and Toby, June and Greta, Danielle and Finn...
Good writing, good pace, and it's hard to come away from this one without being moved.