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ekyoder 's review for:
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
by Carol Rifka Brunt
A sensitive, well-written coming-of-age story. I was skeptical of the book at first for a few reasons:
There's a child narrator, which I often find cloying. Brunt avoids making her protagonist, June, precocious or annoying. She carefully balances the worlds between childlike imaginative play and discovering difficult complex truths about her family.
Additionally, AIDS is a major topic in the book. After several of my recent reads, I was worried it would be handled too sentimentally. Brunt avoids this as well. Her depiction of the unnecessary paranoia and stigma around this disease in the 1980s is handled quite well.
Initially the characters seem too black and white. June's sister Greta, plays cruel tricks; June's parents demonstrate blatant homophobia. The beauty of this book is that Brunt allows her characters to change and develop in believable ways. As June slowly grows up and realizes that her family members are more complex than she gave them credit for, each person--sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically-- reveals new depths.
There's a child narrator, which I often find cloying. Brunt avoids making her protagonist, June, precocious or annoying. She carefully balances the worlds between childlike imaginative play and discovering difficult complex truths about her family.
Additionally, AIDS is a major topic in the book. After several of my recent reads, I was worried it would be handled too sentimentally. Brunt avoids this as well. Her depiction of the unnecessary paranoia and stigma around this disease in the 1980s is handled quite well.
Initially the characters seem too black and white. June's sister Greta, plays cruel tricks; June's parents demonstrate blatant homophobia. The beauty of this book is that Brunt allows her characters to change and develop in believable ways. As June slowly grows up and realizes that her family members are more complex than she gave them credit for, each person--sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically-- reveals new depths.