reading: wolfsong & ravensong

[sword_logic]

(note: i'm 68% okay i just read like 6 more pages, now i'm 69% (nice) done with ravensong as i write this.)

wolfsong is a paranormal/supernatural romance novel by tj klune, published in 2016, with the sequel ravensong published in 2018 as part of the green creek series. ox matheson is a small-town kid whose life gets turned completely upside down when the bennett family moves (back) in to the house at the end of his lane.

the first thing that hit me about this books is that - in an interesting reversal of how i felt about red, white & royal blue - it felt like reading fanfiction in the way it feels like being home. i would not at all be shocked to find out that the author is a fanfiction writer. so much of his style feels like what i'm familiar with and i felt immediately connected to the story just because of that. the dry humor, the repetition, really everything about the author's prose feels familiar in a good way. reading wolfsong made me want to write fic.

the underlying plot of wolfsong and what i've read of ravensong shares a lot of broad-strokes story beats with the twilight series, which honestly just makes it better for me. it's like the author looked at the fantasy of twilight and said "yeah, i'm gonna do this but better and with gay werewolves."

the werewolf mythos is pretty interesting - the pack dynamic is an alpha who leads a pack of betas, and one beta is the alpha's second; omegas are packless. some packs have a witch that helps them remain human, and both witches and wolves need tethers to help them stay grounded. there's a lot of non-romantic, non-sexual intimacy, physical and emotional, and i really, really appreciated it all. the author is also really adamant about involving consent in the whole mate thing, which i also appreciated; mates/soulmates are kind of a soft squick for me, and the author put a lot of work into making sure the main couples in both wolfsong and ravensong get plenty of time and space to consider their choices.

wolfsong was really long. really long. i read it on hoopla, and it showed about 5,500 pages; amazon/kindle claims 609 pages "using settings to closely represent a physical book," but to me it felt like easily 200,000 words, if not more. by contrast, ravensong is about 1,800 pages on hoopla. it didn't drag, per se, but the book hit a point where the build-up crashed into a fuckload of whump. i think from about 40% of the book till the last handful of pages, it was almost nothing but whump. some aspects i appreciated; the main relationship drama wasn't some weakly manufactured "bloo hoo i'm not good for you" but rather a choice made under extreme duress, the ramifications of which are still being felt deeply in ravensong, which is set a year after the end of wolfsong. but my god, the whumpfest was fuckin' real. i will say, though, that the queer couple survives and is together at the end. no gays buried.

ravensong feels a bit more balanced so far - it's more plot-heavy than wolfsong, which was basically character-driven for that first whump-free 40% of the book. the world and shifter rules are, again, super interesting and i'm really curious to finally get down to the meat of the Big Reveal because i really want to know how the crew pack is gonna solve their problem.

there are a couple things holding me back from wholeheartedly saying "i love this," which is mostly the whump in the current plot and in characters' backstories. it's never without a reason, and a lot of it comes full circle (especially in ravensong) but oh boy, there's a lotta trauma. some of the side characters feel a little caricature-ish, notably the latino dude (in ravensong especially it's... oof.) and one of the women who's a Tough Girl who Plays with the Boys, but honestly, this series has been such an engaging and fun read and a really cool fresh look at shifters, and the male characters having absolutely zero Ye Olde Toxic Masculinity is so nice. it feels self-indulgent and idfic-y and there's clearly so much of the author's careful love in this story and i'd say, if you're feeling an itch to read some gay werewolf romance, go for it.