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A review by maxfelixwp
Bear, Otter, and the Kid by TJ Klune
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
Wanted desperately to love it - and made it about halfway through! - but couldn't make it work. I love the author, and I was drawn to the set-up: small Pacific Northwest seaside town, a young man dealing with an impossible situation with his younger brother, a powerful found family story, an unlikely romance...
At first, I really enjoyed it, and I was really struck by the writing from Bear's perspective. His journey, pain, love, and relationships felt completely believable to me.
But then we switch to Otter's perspective, and the whole tenor changed for me. It's one thing for Bear to have a teenage crush on an older boy - that's very normal. And they didn't have their first connection until Bear was well past 18, already graduated and responsible for Ty - again, very normal and okay. And they don't reconnect more seriously until Bear is 21 - fine. But in Otter's flashbacks, Otter makes it explicit that he was attracted to Bear when Bear was 16 and Otter was 24!!!! Of course he didn't act on it, and they don't reconnect until Otter is in his late 20s to Bear's 21 - but the core of their relationship being a 24-year-old's attraction to a 16-year-old really sours it for me. I saw the whole thing differently at that point and couldn't get back into it.
I do appreciate that a young guy and an older man is very common in MM romance (and in the lives of real-life gay men) - as a gay trans masc myself, I understand that. But a flat-out attraction to a 16-year-old, which the older man hides from other people in his life as well, just doesn't sit well with me.
At first, I really enjoyed it, and I was really struck by the writing from Bear's perspective. His journey, pain, love, and relationships felt completely believable to me.
But then we switch to Otter's perspective, and the whole tenor changed for me. It's one thing for Bear to have a teenage crush on an older boy - that's very normal. And they didn't have their first connection until Bear was well past 18, already graduated and responsible for Ty - again, very normal and okay. And they don't reconnect more seriously until Bear is 21 - fine. But in Otter's flashbacks, Otter makes it explicit that he was attracted to Bear when Bear was 16 and Otter was 24!!!! Of course he didn't act on it, and they don't reconnect until Otter is in his late 20s to Bear's 21 - but the core of their relationship being a 24-year-old's attraction to a 16-year-old really sours it for me. I saw the whole thing differently at that point and couldn't get back into it.
I do appreciate that a young guy and an older man is very common in MM romance (and in the lives of real-life gay men) - as a gay trans masc myself, I understand that. But a flat-out attraction to a 16-year-old, which the older man hides from other people in his life as well, just doesn't sit well with me.