A review by bingereadingandtea
Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I kinda wish that Tripp and Virgil had ended up together, and the ending is overall a bit too open for me. Was still a great read though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Alcohol

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual assault

actually, something that bothered me was how the grandparents just suddenly sart being supportive of Virgil, when they were treating him so harshly before. I know that this book aims more for realism in the relationships, but it is very frustrating that everyone (besides Tripp and Astrid) constantly treats Virgil like crap, and that the only one, who gets any consequences at all, is the teen boy bully.Half the town was bullying Virgil for something they know to be true, and no consequence whatsoever. His family members were mean to him (his grandpa even talked about beating him) and they constantlyvictim blame him, but no. Everything's great here. Frustrating. At the beginning (until his family had that personality switch) i kept thinking: "yeah, that's how ypu get family members to go no contact with you", but then it was just fine??? Also: So if Finn didn'tdrug the girls, does that mean that Jarrett did? Why? And why does it read like Reba was involved at the end?