Wolfsong by: TJ Klune (review)

SYNOPSIS:

Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn't worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.

Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn't spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane.

Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy's secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces.

It's been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he's a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

REVIEW

Cons:

1. The book felt dense, but not particularly in a bad way. However, it was dense without much happening. A lot of the plot is internal conflict, which is great, but I'm not sure if some points needed to be driven home nine-thousand times.

2. Rude to make the pinnacle sex scene the epilogue!!! Fan-service me a little. But so worth the wait. (This point probably doesn't belong in the "con" list).

3. I think in order for the main villain to be as "bad and scary" as the characters make him seem, we needed to see him do something terrible on screen. I don't know. I knew he was a horrible person, but I didn't see him do anything "horrible" enough on screen to really merit that. But the villain isn't really the point of the story.

4. I love witches and werewolves and vampires etc. But I feel like sometimes when you start throwing all these monsters and themes together it just feels "over-done." I'm still deciding how I feel about the witches being a part of this story. I know the sequel deals more with the witch as the main character, so maybe that will help me to understand why witches are so important in this universe.

Pros:

1. It's a gay romance that's not hokey. I'm not even sure if it's REALLY a romance -- I guess I haven't read that much romance so I can't be the judge of that.

2. If it IS a romance, the romance I don't really think takes center stage. I mean, the main character thinks about his "significant" other quite often, but it's not all pining and annoying. However, it is angsty. There is a LOT of angst.

3. I loved the writing style. I loved the choppy paragraphs (if they can even be called paragraphs). It was very stream of consciousness and I don't read enough books written this way and I SHOULD, because I love it. It makes it a whirlwind to read.

4. I loved the science of how the alphas worked. I think it was done in a way that many other werewolf stories tried to tell, but didn't quite get the "feeling" of it. I felt it.

Final Score: 5/5