Tell the Wolves I'm Home | Carol Rifka Brunt | Review

Tell the Wolves I'm Home | Carol Rifka Brunt | Review

• Wednesday, 13 March 2013

“I thought of all the different kinds of love in the world. I could think of ten without even trying. The way parents love their kids, the way you love a puppy or chocolate ice cream or home or your favorite book or your sister. Or your uncle. There's those kinds of love and then there's the other kind. The falling kind.” - Carol Rifka Brunt, Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt is story that touches many important subjects like loss, love, family, friendship and prejudices. June is fourteen years old when she loses her uncle Finn who's also her godfather and best friend to AIDS. Her family is convinced that Finn's death is all his mystical special friend Toby's fault. But when someone disguised as a postman turns up at June's doorstep with Finn's old teapot and a note about wanting to meet her she doesn't know what to do. How can the man that her loved Finn choose to spend his life with be that bad?

Tell the Wolves I'm Home is also the story about June and her family and how they for different reasons have drifted far apart from each other. This part of the story especially focuses on June and her older sister who used to be really close but who really struggle with their relationship.

When I saw Tell the Wolves I'm Home at my local library I got really excited because I had read so many good reviews about this book. I also got a bit excited because I really like the title and the cover design but I guess that's not that important in a book review (but still, the title and cover design is pretty awesome!). But to be honest, after reading this book I'm not completely sure how I feel about it...

Don't get me wrong! This is in many ways a beautiful book and I'm pretty sure many of you would love it. I personally really enjoyed Carol Rifka Brunt's writing style and I liked many aspects of the actual story. I especially like the development of the relationship between June and her sister. I thought that was a really real and believable part of the story and I think it was a nice portrayal of the difficulties that can occur in the relationship between siblings. But apart from that I have to be honest here, the whole reading process was so slow for me! It wasn't a book that I couldn't put down or a book that I couldn't wait to get home to after a day at work. I'm not sure who's to blame, it might probably be me and the fact that I'm addicted to fast paced books and action. But it could also be a fact that some passages in this book are actually a bit too slow.

Yes, this make it really difficult for me to rate this book. Should this review be about my personal reading experience or the general quality of the book and the story? I guess I have to go for both. This is a good quality story and I think that many of you would really enjoy this book if you read it! But I didn't personally fall head over heels with this novel. So, help me out here! What should I do with the rating? How do you rate a book that you really appreciated but still didn't fall in love with? Well, I think I know how to solve this. I would personally maybe give this book 3,5/5 stars. But because I do really want you to give it a go because I think you might love it I give it 4/5 stars as an encouragement to all of you to pick it up! There we go..it wasn't that hard after all...and like I said, you should give this book a go! You might fall in love with it...

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.