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blubbn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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
dontwanthvn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
bibi_reads_writes's review against another edition
4.0
“In my head I heard whispers of pack and brother and love, but there was also a song of mourning, and it ached so bitterly that I thought I would fall apart at the midnight-blue weight of it.”
After reading Wolfsong, I remember thinking, “I hope we’ll know more about the witches in the next one!” This is exactly what this one did. Gordo is one of my favourite characters, and I loved getting to know him better. What a ride that series has been so far! Can’t wait to read the next one.
❤️ Worldbuilding and lore
❤️ Loveable and strong, but flawed and relatable characters
❤️ The banter and pack dynamics
❤️ Positive queer representation
❤️ Skillful trauma and grief representation
❌ Banter/humour often at the wrong moment
❌ Lack of romance / main couple hard to ship
Plot:
A year after the events of Wolfsong, Gordo Livingstone is slowly nursing his wounds and getting used to being the witch of the Bennett pack—the only pack led by two alphas, but also the pack that betrayed him beyond repair when he was only a teenager—while ignoring the man who shattered his heart in a thousand pieces. Unable to shake the feeling that something is coming, Gordo will give everything he has to protect Green Creek and his pack despite the trust and mating bonds that were severed long ago.
We’re following our favourite grumpy-marshmallow garage owner with glowing tattoos and magical powers. Most of the book is about him not being able to forgive the members of the Bennett pack who left him behind when he was only a teenager and needed them the most, especially his mate, Mark. I’m usually not a fan of the “I hate you / I can’t forgive you” trope, but Klune makes it work but diving deep into Gordo’s trauma, feelings of betrayal, and coping mechanisms. However, I thought it dragged on too long, especially given that he’s done the same thing to Ox in the previous book. I thought Gordo’s feelings were justified, but to an extent. It seemed like everyone in the pack made mistakes, and they eventually forgave each other, but he’s the only one hanging on to his hate like it’ll save his life. It’s so strong, even after decades, that his relationship with Mark feels hopeless. It makes them hard to ship, although I absolutely love both of them and only wanted them to be together and happy.
Other than that, I thought the pace was great, the plot captivating (LOVED the omega infection storyline!). It’s really the Bennett pack against the world, and the stakes felt much higher than in Wolfsong. Klune is setting up Robert Livingstone as one of my favourite villains so far.
Characters:
Love them, all of them, again. Klune is an absolute wizard when it comes to creating loveable characters that are incredibly strong despite being flawed and relatable. The character and pack dynamics were once again amazing, and I felt a twinge more than once knowing I’ll never experience something like this myself. I can’t wait to follow Robbie in the next one—he and Kelly are so sweet and awkward aarghhh I love them. I even love the timber wolf and I SCREAMED when his identity was revealed.
Writing:
I won’t repeat *again* how much I love Klune’s writing. The flow and pace, the prose, the interactions (dialogues and messages communicated through the bonds), the descriptions, etc. His writing always feels accessible and unassuming, but at the same time rich, delicate, and evocative. My ONLY complaint is that too much banter/humour was introduced at the wrong moment. It was funny once, twice, thrice when the garage boys said inappropriate things at inappropriate times, but it was overused and quickly got old. The interactions were funny, but the timing should have been different in many instances.
After reading Wolfsong, I remember thinking, “I hope we’ll know more about the witches in the next one!” This is exactly what this one did. Gordo is one of my favourite characters, and I loved getting to know him better. What a ride that series has been so far! Can’t wait to read the next one.
❤️ Worldbuilding and lore
❤️ Loveable and strong, but flawed and relatable characters
❤️ The banter and pack dynamics
❤️ Positive queer representation
❤️ Skillful trauma and grief representation
❌ Banter/humour often at the wrong moment
❌ Lack of romance / main couple hard to ship
Plot:
A year after the events of Wolfsong, Gordo Livingstone is slowly nursing his wounds and getting used to being the witch of the Bennett pack—the only pack led by two alphas, but also the pack that betrayed him beyond repair when he was only a teenager—while ignoring the man who shattered his heart in a thousand pieces. Unable to shake the feeling that something is coming, Gordo will give everything he has to protect Green Creek and his pack despite the trust and mating bonds that were severed long ago.
We’re following our favourite grumpy-marshmallow garage owner with glowing tattoos and magical powers. Most of the book is about him not being able to forgive the members of the Bennett pack who left him behind when he was only a teenager and needed them the most, especially his mate, Mark. I’m usually not a fan of the “I hate you / I can’t forgive you” trope, but Klune makes it work but diving deep into Gordo’s trauma, feelings of betrayal, and coping mechanisms. However, I thought it dragged on too long, especially given that he’s done the same thing to Ox in the previous book. I thought Gordo’s feelings were justified, but to an extent. It seemed like everyone in the pack made mistakes, and they eventually forgave each other, but he’s the only one hanging on to his hate like it’ll save his life. It’s so strong, even after decades, that his relationship with Mark feels hopeless. It makes them hard to ship, although I absolutely love both of them and only wanted them to be together and happy.
Other than that, I thought the pace was great, the plot captivating (LOVED the omega infection storyline!). It’s really the Bennett pack against the world, and the stakes felt much higher than in Wolfsong. Klune is setting up Robert Livingstone as one of my favourite villains so far.
Characters:
Love them, all of them, again. Klune is an absolute wizard when it comes to creating loveable characters that are incredibly strong despite being flawed and relatable. The character and pack dynamics were once again amazing, and I felt a twinge more than once knowing I’ll never experience something like this myself. I can’t wait to follow Robbie in the next one—he and Kelly are so sweet and awkward aarghhh I love them. I even love the timber wolf and I SCREAMED when his identity was revealed.
Writing:
I won’t repeat *again* how much I love Klune’s writing. The flow and pace, the prose, the interactions (dialogues and messages communicated through the bonds), the descriptions, etc. His writing always feels accessible and unassuming, but at the same time rich, delicate, and evocative. My ONLY complaint is that too much banter/humour was introduced at the wrong moment. It was funny once, twice, thrice when the garage boys said inappropriate things at inappropriate times, but it was overused and quickly got old. The interactions were funny, but the timing should have been different in many instances.
atsumeri's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
4.25
rjsthumbelina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
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? Yes
4.25
electricshe's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Something made me finish this book, even as I didn’t really like it. It has a lot of issues and needed stronger editing. You can really tell it’s an older work of his for this reason. And I am a fan, liked Wolfsong a lot AND Gordo was my favourite in that book, but this one just dragged. There’s so much repetition of phrases, dialogue, even whole scenes seem to repeat over and over. I put up with it in Wolfsong because (I thought) it was telling us about Ox’s character. (A couple times I actually forgot the first person perspective was Gordo and not Ox still.) Instead of being impactful, this repetition starts to get boring very quickly. Every scene can’t be trying for an emotional punch, can’t be undercut by silly humour, can’t be one character winning a contrived verbal sparring match against the other. It could be summed up as follows:
“Mark loves you Gordo, and Thomas loved you, and we all love you.”
But my mom told me wolves lie, they use you. And Thomas left me behind. “That’s bullshit.”
“You don’t believe that Gordo, I can hear your heartbeat and I know you’re lying.”
“Goddamn you.”
And it could be literally any character having that conversation with him, which most of them do. The amount of times Gordo, an adult man, says “fuck off” or “goddamnit” or some other angsty cringe thing that real humans over thirty would never say is extraordinary. Scenes needed shredding and merging, characters needed individualizing because they all start to sound the same, and Gordo needed to change beyond just finally hitching up with Mark.
To be honest, I’m not sure what I did like about this one. But I kept reading it, even though I have no problem DNFing books. So… 2.5 stars I guess. I laughed once or twice, and there were some cool bits when the action picks up. Gordo is still interesting to me despite this character assassination attempt of a book.
“Mark loves you Gordo, and Thomas loved you, and we all love you.”
But my mom told me wolves lie, they use you. And Thomas left me behind. “That’s bullshit.”
“You don’t believe that Gordo, I can hear your heartbeat and I know you’re lying.”
“Goddamn you.”
And it could be literally any character having that conversation with him, which most of them do. The amount of times Gordo, an adult man, says “fuck off” or “goddamnit” or some other angsty cringe thing that real humans over thirty would never say is extraordinary. Scenes needed shredding and merging, characters needed individualizing because they all start to sound the same, and Gordo needed to change beyond just finally hitching up with Mark.
To be honest, I’m not sure what I did like about this one. But I kept reading it, even though I have no problem DNFing books. So… 2.5 stars I guess. I laughed once or twice, and there were some cool bits when the action picks up. Gordo is still interesting to me despite this character assassination attempt of a book.
ambivalex's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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? Yes
4.5
mandyvpelt's review against another edition
emotional
funny
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
4.5
4,5⭐️
suvoroch's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0