☊☊☊☊☊ Audio book review: Who We Are by T.J. Klune ☊☊☊☊☊
A highly recommended audio book! And at the time of writing this review on special from Audible for only $3.49 so get shopping!
- Bear, Otter, and the Kid – book #1
- Who We Are – book #2 – the audio book is reviewed in this post
- The Art of Breathing – book #3 – release date unknown
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Who We Are
Author: T.J. Klune
Narrator: Charlie David
Length: 12 hours 42 minutes
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The 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.
So what did I think?
I read Bear, Otter, and the Kid in 2012 and absolutely loved the beautiful story of family and love. I’m not sure why it took so long for me to get to Who We Are but when I was looking for a new audio book to listen to, it seemed a great time to continue the story.
This is a story of Bear and Otter, wrapped in each other’s love, facing the next steps in their future.
“….I came back for you, and I promised myself that I was never going to let you go again.” He sighs. “All I want is to grow old with you and know that one day, it’ll just be you and me, that we’ll be able to look back and be proud of what we’ve done with our lives. I want to know that you belong to me and I belong to you. I love you with everything I have and I can promise you what I’ll never ever stop. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. It won’t be perfect, Bear, nothing ever really is. There will be days when we are angry with each other, and days where it seems the world is a fucking messed up place, but it won’t matter. Because I’ll have you and the Kid and you’ll both have me…..”
The blurb provides a really good indication of the journey this book takes – it’s full of love and family, happiness and sadness, heartache and jealously, death and new life – hilarious one minute to warm and sweet the next to shedding tears – definitely an emotional journey!
As far as being a tearjerker, there was a section of this book that had tears streaming down my face as some of the book seemed so relevant to recent events in the author’s life. Those of you who know or follow T J Klune will know exactly what I am referring to…
Spoiler Alert!
I have no idea how to add a spoiler in WordPress (I need to do some research!) so be warned that what follows is a big spoiler. Stop reading here if you don’t want to find out about one of the events in the book. If you want to read the review with spoilers hidden, check out the review on Goodreads.
It was so heartbreaking to read the scenes of Bear sitting by Otter’s hospital bed, holding his hand while he is unconscious and not knowing what the future will hold. What if Otter didn’t wake up? What if he was different? What would it mean for their lives?
“I brought up my free hand to wipe at my face, and the ring on my finger glinted in the low light, a flash that was brilliant and heartbreaking. I dropped my left hand on top of his. “You’ll see,” I said. “You’ll see. You and me? We aren’t done yet. Not by a long shot. I promise you that. I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care how you come back to me. But you come back, you hear me? You come back and everything will be fine. I don’t care if you can’t walk right, or if you can’t think right, or if you can never remember my name. It won’t matter to me, just as long as you come back. You’ll see. You’ll see how great it can be.”
The audio book is narrated by Charlie David and I loved the way he voiced this book. It is obvious that the narration is by an actor. Charlie David really captures the emotion in the moment, not just reading the words from the pages. His pace is quite fast which I really, really like. It is not a slow, dragged out kind of reading, rather a vibrant and engaging telling of the story. I think he perfectly captures the characters and is wonderfully suited to the craziness of thoughts in Bear’s head! The sex scenes are fabulous with the voice capturing passion and love. He could be soft and loving, funny and sarcastic, quite, thoughtful…….If you haven’t checked out any audio books narrated by Charlie David, do give them a try!
And speaking of other books, there is good news! As we speak TJ Klune is working on the third book in the series. There is no release date as of yet but if the epilogue of this book is any indication, pretty soon we will be hearing more of the Kid!
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To find out more about T.J. Klune and his books visit his website.
Buy Who We Are from Amazon.
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If you would like to support T.J. Klune and Eric Arvin, please do so at the following site or by buying their books!
