Okay, wow. Wasn’t a good idea to finish this while sitting in a cafe. People think I’m barking. I’m not going to go in depth on this one for two reasons: a) If I were to do that I would spoil the hell out of anyone reading this, and b) the emotions are a little too raw for me to even want to. This book affected me.
To sum it up (very) briefly, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is about June Elbus, a fourteen year-old girl who’s just lost her Uncle Finn to AIDS. It’s 1987, and all that implies. But Finn wasn’t just her uncle. He was her godfather, and her best friend in the world.
June is a bit of an oddball. She is tall for her age and constantly feels physically out of place with kids her own age, but more what makes her an outcast are her interests. She’d rather spend time in the woods behind the school, wearing her special medieval boots Finn gave her and pretending to be from another time than do whatever it is other kids do. She spends most of her free time with Finn, eating at fancy restaurants, visiting museums, and going to the Cloisters (their special place). So when Finn dies, it affects her more than it does her family. She lets it affect her more. And then her uncle’s partner, Toby, shows up, and June has to deal with keeping that a secret. Her family dislikes Toby vehemently, viewing him among other things as her uncle’s murderer. But Toby and June strike up a friendship, and June has to face the possibility of once again losing her only friend to AIDS. There’s also a whole plot involving a portrait (also titled “Tell the Wolves I’m Home”) Finn was painting of her June and her sister Greta. Finn is a world-famous artist, and his death (and the portrait being the last thing he ever painted) brings a level of scrutiny to the Elbus household that only heightens their grief.
See, I’m doing a piss poor job of explaining this. I’m making it sound dumb. Ugh. Just read the damn book.
Carol Rifka Brunt is good at words. Her characters were so real to me I kept getting angry and upset at things they were doing on their behalf. And it’s only marginally about AIDS. The real focus of the book is June and her family, and the fragility of the relationship between siblings. I don’t normally read literary fiction much anymore, mostly because I think it takes itself too seriously, and I can’t stand things that are pompous like that. But this book is not pompous. It’s tiny and perfect and moving and real. I liked it a lot.
I keep looking at this and then getting scared that it’s too intense for me to deal with. Kind of like The Fault in Our Stars, you know? I’ve had that on my TBR list forever, but I just don’t know if I’m emotionally strong enough to handle it.
No, do it! It’s not the same kind of sad as TFIOS. TFIOS was more about dealing with death, and this one is about dealing with life. I mean, it’s sad, but that’s not actually what affected me the most. It’s more like the tone of it was very personal? And Brunt uses the specifics of June’s situation to hit on some universal truths that punched me in the gut.
I bought this on kindle last year when my pretend best friend Lauren Graham tweeted about its awesomeness. Now I guess I’m officially adding it to the list!
Isn’t LG everyone’s pretend best friend?
Oh, I picked this up randomly last year and loved it! It was so surprisingly sweet and relatable–not what I expected at all (I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t that.) Glad to see this make it onto this year’s Cannonball.
This will qualify nicely in my “What an Animal” reading challenge (where I have a goal that at least half of the twelve books I’ve signed up to read should be NON-shapeshifter books, cause they totally qualify). Wolves in the title counts and the book sounds amazing. Although I may have to save it until a month when I’m not feeling quite so stressed and frazzled, I suspect it may break me otherwise.
So just exactly how many challenges are you entered into? :)
I’d had my eye on this but then came across one or two less positive reviews and shifted it down on my list. Now that it has your endorsement, I may pick it up much sooner after all – especially since I’m doing that same challenge Malin is :p – to answer your question, she’s doing all the challenges.
Pot. Kettle. Black. It’s all your fault. You got me hooked on them. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be the first to 52 now, thanks to your terrifying head start, is it? :P I need to get my kicks somehow.
You can beat me to the double again!