Tell the Wolves I'm Home

by Carol Rifka Brunt

[brokentune]

"Watching people is a good hobby, but you have to be careful about it. You can’t let people catch you staring at them. If people catch you, they treat you like a first-class criminal. And maybe they’re right to do that. Maybe it should be a crime to try to see things about people they don’t want you to see."

2.5* really - but rounded up.

I usually try and stay away from YA literature, but was persuaded to pick this one up because a couple of friends, who usually share my hesitation about YA, recommended this - and what can I say?

For the first half of the book, the recommendation was spot on! I loved the characters, I loved the story, the development, the notion that there are several sides to a story - that by observation or questioning a truth can change -, that ... it sometimes takes effort and courage to be the one who is not content with the facts as they seem.

When June's uncle dies from an AIDS-related illness and her family try to come to terms with their own grief and try to find someone to blame for his death, June is having to overcome her family's silence on the matter and find out what the real story is.

So, why - I hear you ask - only 2.5*?

Well, as much as liked the beginning of the book, there is a point when events become a little over-dramatised. They did not need to be. The story was good as it was. It was the descriptions of June's journey, her coming of age, that made the story special, not the random events that plot seemed to include in the second half.

What really annoyed me, tho, was the ending! I won't go into details as I do not want to spoil the book, but suffice it to say that I have not read anything dwelling on pathos so unapologetically since The Book Thief.