Wednesday, May 2, 2012

WHO WE ARE – TJ KLUNE – A REVIEW



Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Author: TJ Klune
Title: Who We Are (Sequel to: Bear, Otter And The Kid)
SBN-13:  978-1-61372-461-3
Pages:  350
Cover Artist:  Paul Richmond
Categories: Novels, Contemporary,
Book Type:          eBook
File Formats Available: .epub, .prc, .prc, html, pdf
Price: $ 6.99


 
BLURB

Sequel to Bear, Otter, and the Kid

Bear, Otter, and the Kid survived last summer with their hearts and souls intact. They’ve moved into the Green Monstrosity, and Bear is finally able to admit his love for the man who saved him from himself.
But that's not the end of their story. How could it be?
The boys find that life doesn’t stop just because they got their happily ever after. There’s still the custody battle for the Kid. The return of Otter’s parents. A first trip to a gay bar. The Kid goes to therapy, and Mrs. Paquinn decides that Bigfoot is real. Anna and Creed do… well, whatever it is Anna and Creed do. There are newfound jealousies, the return of old enemies, bad poetry, and misanthropic seagulls. And through it all, Bear struggles to understand his mother’s abandonment of him and his brother, only to delve deeper into their shared past. What he finds there will alter their lives forever and help him realize what it'll take to become who they're supposed to be.
Family is not always defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole—those who make us who we are.

REVIEW

This long awaited sequel to the controversial yet beloved BEAR, OTTER AND THE KID was well worth the wait.  The book begins with a story within the story before we are rejoined with our characters only months after the first book left off.
Bear and Otter’s relationship has moved forward on shaky legs but we see it gaining strength as the pages go by, the kid is growing up and he meets his own Otter in the form of Dominic, a neighbor who is fostered to a less than friendly couple who don’t seem to really care what he does as long as they get their money and Bear and Otter keep their hands to themselves.  As if they would touch a 15 year old boy!
Anna, Creed and Mrs. Paquinn are all along for a bumpy ride.  As with all family drama a little tragedy must befall our characters but I won’t tell because that would be a spoiler.
As in life some will stay with us and some will pass on to the next life while new life is brought into the world.  Relationships grow and change and families learn to accept one another, warts, orientation, and all.
Klune has a terrific handle on first person narrative and uses it to move the story alone at a rapid pace that wouldn’t let me go.  There is more sex in this book than there was in the previous one and the drama, humor and characterization are at least equal to or surpassing the first novel.
T. J. Klune is a gifted author and I will be watching and reading for years to come as he continues to grow and write more terrific books, hopefully a few more of them will be about Bear, Otter and The Kid.  

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