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Tell the Wolves I'm Home
BOOK 19: Tell The Wolves I'm Home
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1. Do you think June's narration was realistic for a fourteen year old girl, or did she sound too young/too old at any point?
i thought june came across as much younger than her intended age. if i didn’t know her age and there weren’t mentions of high school, i would probably guess 10-12?
2. What did you think about the dynamic between June and Toby? Was it a healthy relationship? Was it right for June to keep it from her parents?
this was such an interesting element of this story, to me. like i tend to be a big proponent of ‘any sort of relationship between an adult man and teenage girl, unless they’re related, is NOT OKAY!!!!!’ but there was a lot of nuance to this one that made me think twice. same with june keeping it from her parents - as a generalization i’d say that that is never a good idea, but i don’t see how it was avoidable in this case; june’s mom was obviously so prejudiced against toby that she never would have allowed it and the events of the story never would have unfolded the way they did.
3. Which characters did you sympathize with the most and least?
i actually sympathized with greta the most and i wasn’t sure i was supposed to? but i found her problems to be really relatable, and her breakdown was one of the more compelling elements to this story for me. i also thought toby was a very interesting character who i’d love to learn more about. the character i actually liked the least was june! i just kept thinking that i would prefer that the story be told by greta or toby, though obviously it wouldn’t have ended up being the same story, so i don’t know. i just found it sort of difficult to relate to june sometimes.
4. Do you think Greta's character was wasted potential or could have been explored better?
the fact that the ‘root’ of a lot of greta’s problems came down to june ‘abandoning’ her for finn was sort of a lazy simplification, i thought….. i guess it just didn’t seem very realistic to me that june’s relationship with her uncle would cause greta THAT MUCH distress...? but i did think that the author did a good job of creating this secondary character who felt very real. ultimately i did really like greta.
5. Can June's mother be held responsible for most of what happens in the story?
i think she definitely played a huge role in it all. if she hadn’t told toby to stay away from june, june would have grown up with a very different perception of her role in her uncle’s life, among other things. i didn’t like how at the end she apologized to toby - it just felt so out of the blue, like, what exactly caused her to have this revelation that toby deserved an apology…? it was hard to get into danni’s head since she was such a minor character, so i just wish we had more of an insight into her thoughts when she found out about june and toby’s friendship.
6. Do you think this book's depiction of the AIDS crisis was accurate?
i did love that this was a book that tackled the stigma against AIDS, something that we don’t really see a lot of in contemporary literature. seeing as i wasn’t alive in the 80s i can’t attest to the accuracy of it, but it certainly did feel very real, right down to the details like june washing her hair three times after finn kissed her because people weren’t sure how AIDS was transmitted.
7. What do you think the wolves are meant to symbolize?
i’m not sure there’s a ‘right’ answer here…… i guess what i took away from it was the wolves symbolizing this ~feral part of the human soul that we try to ~domesticate because our instincts feel unnatural (e.g., june’s romantic love for her uncle, homosexuality in a time when there was even more of a stigma than there is now, a relationship between an adult male and a teenage girl, etc).
8. Would you consider the book as a coming-of-age novel or as a novel that just happened to be narrated by a teenager? Would you classify this book as YA or adult fiction?
i would definitely classify it as a coming of age novel. which, it’s true, not every book narrated by a teenager is. but with this one i felt like the heart of the story was june’s development in terms of being able to see the world with more complexity.
as for the YA/adult fiction question - does anyone know what this book was marketed as? because it’s one of those where i feel like it could easily go either way. for a lot of it i felt like i was reading an adult fiction book, but toward the end it started to feel more like YA, but i can’t really put my finger on it.
idk, reading this over some of it sounds a bit harsh, so i'll reiterate that i didn't really like this book! there were just some details that i didn't care for and some things that i would have changed if i were the author, i guess.
Mod
1. Do you think June's narration was realistic for a fourteen year old girl, or did she sound too young/too old at any point?
I also thought the narrative voice sounded younger than June was supposed to be. I would have put her at more of a pre-teen age, 11-12.
2. What did you think about the dynamic between June and Toby? Was it a healthy relationship? Was it right for June to keep it from her parents?
I really liked the dynamic between June and Toby and I think the discovery of different aspects of this man they both loved is what makes the novel so interesting, especially since on June's end there's that jealousy and the feeling that there were so many parts of Finn's life that she never knew about. I agree that on the surface the relationship between a girl and an adult man who isn't related to her definitely comes off as creepy, but I think the individual circumstances of their relationship have to be taken into account here. I don't think it's a totally healthy relationship because of June's emotional lack of maturity, and the added element that she had a crush on her uncle so she views Toby as a rival, but watching her slowly try to overcome this and grasp their relationship is what was so interesting. Normally I'd say hiding something this large and ongoing from parents isn't a good idea, but in this specific set of circumstances I think June was right to keep it from them. Her mother made it very clear that she was forbidding Toby and wouldn't even hear his side of things, so she would certainly have stopped any meetings. There's also that added level that the meetings between Toby and June are what Finn wanted to happen.
3. Which characters did you sympathize with the most and least?
I wasn't a fan of June either, and found again her lack of emotional maturity in the way she dealt with everything from her sister to Toby a bit tiresome. I think I would have been able to sympathize more if she had been that little bit younger in age. I also really didn't sympathize with the mother since I thought banning Toby like that was incredibly petty and childish, even considering the fact that AIDS was misunderstood. I liked Finn the most in the depictions we had of him. Naturally these are biased since we mainly see him through the eyes of the people who loved him the most, but he still seemed like an interesting person. I also felt badly for Greta. She does make some poor choices, but I think there's a lot of pressure on Greta with being the youngest in her grade, and academic pressure, and then her parents basically giving her no choice in the matter of what she's ready for and what she wants to do, just assuming that Annie is an opportunity so she'll do it. I thought all of those factors plus feeling like you're growing apart from your sister must be difficult.
4. Do you think Greta's character was wasted potential or could have been explored better?
I do, kind of stated this above but I think she faces a lot of relatable and otherwise pressures in her life and it would have been interesting to learn more about her.
5. Can June's mother be held responsible for most of what happens in the story?
I think a lot of it falls on her shoulders yes. However comfortable the basement room is, there's something so sad about Toby having to leave the apartment he shares and to hide in the storage room if he comes back early to avoid ever meeting his partner's nieces. I think that's a lot to answer for. I found the mother's ending apology a little too neat as well considering the size of the grudge she had to be holding to completely cut off contact like that.
6. Do you think this book's depiction of the AIDS crisis was accurate?
It's not a topic that I know much about, so I can't say, but I thought it felt accurate and I agree with Rachel that the fear over the kiss and not knowing how AIDS is transmitted seemed authentic.
7. What do you think the wolves are meant to symbolize? I was thinking about this while reading and I still don't feel like I have a good answer. I have no idea what the wolves are meant to symbolize. In the painting the wolf seems to be a secret message for June that he knew she would find, and considering the relationship they have in this book, perhaps is meant to symbolize the relationship between Greta and June? I'm completely at a loss to be honest.
8. Would you consider the book as a coming-of-age novel or as a novel that just happened to be narrated by a teenager? Would you classify this book as YA or adult fiction?
I think it counts as a coming-of-age novel since it is very much about June growing up and gaining maturity. It's really hard to classify though! I could honestly see it being shelved in either section of a store or library. The fact that the writing style isn't overly complex perhaps puts it more in the YA genre, but it could really go either way for me.
Overall I really enjoyed this book though.
1. Do you think June's narration was realistic for a fourteen year old girl, or did she sound too young/too old at any point?i'll be honest and say i don't really pay attention to childrena dn teens enough to have a proper answer to this. her pov didn't bother me at all, though i did question how a 14 year old could commute to the city multiple days a week without getting a few stares. unless her hometown is nearer to new york than i thought. i wouldn't know...
2. What did you think about the dynamic between June and Toby? Was it a healthy relationship? Was it right for June to keep it from her parents?
i don't think it was healthy at all, but june and toby needed each other, so it's difficult for me to judge them though i know very much how society would judge them. no other pair could have understood each other better.
as for keeping it a secret, i don't think june would have found it easy to keep it a secret for had there not been parental neglect on her parents' part. yes, they had good reason to, but had this all ended in disaster, i doubt any reason would be a good enough reason to leave your children to themselves.
3. Which characters did you sympathize with the most and least?
oh man, toby. toby did his best ok. sometimes he came across as the child to me more than june. he's just so vulnerable, physically and emotionally, that it was hard to not sympathize with him. in the beginning of his friendship with june, i was still hollering "stranger danger!" at the back of my mind, but when we got to know him, all i wanted was for him to be happy. nehal and i were calling him "my son" on tumblr. that says enough about it.
4. Do you think Greta's character was wasted potential or could have been explored better?
very much so. i wish we got a peek into her head or something. it's obvious that she's out of place in school. she feels the age gap with her schoolmates, she misses her sister, she needs a break from her parent's (read: mum's) high expectations, so now she's turned to alcohol for some relief. also, sometimes she came across as really mean to june, which, i understand, is her way to gain attention, and i would really love to know she felt about everything--about finn, their mum, toby, everything.
5. Can June's mother be held responsible for most of what happens in the story?
she holds most of the responsibility for it. yes, finn and toby would still have died, but they would have been happier. june would've gottent to know toby, and as you guys have said, would have a clear understanding of what she is to finn. one could say that anyone would've done it, would've done it as an act of selfishness and bitterness, but that doesn't make it ok.
6. Do you think this book's depiction of the AIDS crisis was accurate?
i really have no idea, but i do feel like the book handled it all very respectfully and didn't try to glamourize it.
7. What do you think the wolves are meant to symbolize?
i don't know if there's a correct answer to this. it could be about secrets and finally facing those secrets and being okay with them and accepting them as part of you. like, the wolf in the painting is well-hidden, june's tree in the forest (with wolves) is a secret, toby with a wolf-like coat was a secret. really, the author didn't make it very clear, but in the end, it's not very impportant.
8. Would you consider the book as a coming-of-age novel or as a novel that just happened to be narrated by a teenager? Would you classify this book as YA or adult fiction?
it is definitely a coming-of-age for june, but unlike coming of ages, i don't really get the feeling that the characters have all changed for the better. it doesn't even end bitterweet, it's all just very sad.
as for category, while language could easily be YA, the subject matter can fall easily into adult fiction as well. i think it could go for both.
Hi all, sorry for the belated responses again! This book really made me think, though, so I definitely wanted to do what I could with the questions. :) 1. Do you think June’s narration was realistic for a fourteen year old girl, or did she sound too young/too old at any point?
June did come across as a bit younger than her chronological age. Although, as an aside, one issue I’ve had with some YA is that the teenage protagonists often come across as a bit old for their ages. This was interesting – seeing the opposite. For June, I think her lack of emotional maturity is what makes her sound so young, as the rest of you have been saying. However, I wouldn’t say this is unrealistic. You can easily see how it would come about. Greta was forced to grow up too fast, but in her isolation and limited interactions (especially with few her own age), June would not readily develop socially. However, as we see later, Greta’s relationships, though more conventional, turn out to be superficial. Whereas June develops significant, real relationships (healthy or not, which will be discussed later).
2. What did you think about the dynamic between June and Toby? Was it a healthy relationship? Was it right for June to keep it from her parents?
What’s healthy and what’s comforting are so often not the same thing. This relationship is so nuanced, as Rachel said. I would not say that the relationship dynamic was a healthy one, but it was important and something that both needed in the wake of Finn’s death. I would also say that June’s relationship with Finn was not the healthiest either, despite there being so much positive there. I would actually speculate that had June been able to have known the two of them together, her relationships with both Finn and Toby would have been much healthier, allowing her to understand more clearly who they were to her and who she was to them. However, there were aspects of the June and Toby dynamic that were so moving, especially their discoveries of each other through elements they thought came from Finn directly. The fact that the relationship had to be kept hidden definitely connected to the unhealthy aspect. However, clearly it wouldn’t have existed at all had June’s mother known, because she was so adamant about keeping Toby away from her daughters’ lives in the first place.
3. Which characters did you sympathize with most and least?
Toby and Greta were definitely the characters I sympathized with the most. A couple of you brought up Toby’s vulnerability, which was absolutely heartbreaking. I just felt an overwhelming sadness when confronted with his isolation and the fact that he had to be denied as a part of his lover’s life. I loved Greta’s character and her situation resonates with me a lot. I felt for her, being the child who excels to the point at which she’s expected to be perfect and take full advantage of every opportunity that comes to her. She’s so good at acting like everything’s fine that no one but June sees her crumbling under the pressure. I hate that Greta’s forced to live out a dream of her mother’s that she didn’t take advantage of, even though it may not be her own dream. She’s not allowed to let go and take her own risks, so she cracks under the pressure. That is one upside to her being a bit younger – she’s had to grow up so fast, but in the end, she does have time to step back and reevaluate her life. The character I sympathized with the least was June’s mother. I get where she’s coming from; I can see it, and I know how heartbreaking lost dreams and failed expectations can be. Even so, I don’t think I could forgive her for taking out her feelings of loss and regret on Finn and Toby, as well as negatively affecting her daughters’ lives.
4. Do you think Greta’s character was wasted potential or could have been explored better?
I liked Greta’s character a lot. I think the heart of the story was June and Toby’s relationship, so I get why Greta was not in the foreground. However, her relationship with June was another misunderstood one that stood as an echo of the primary one, and I think that was really powerful. I would have enjoyed getting to see what’s going on in Greta’s head too, and get a sense of her story in her own voice.
5. Can June’s mother be held responsible for most of what happens in the story?
Yes, I think she can. She’s not solely responsible, of course. Things are far too complicated to say that. However, as I said before, I have a hard time sympathizing with her. Her jealousy and prejudice distanced Finn from his family, held Toby away and isolated him, led to the unhealthy aspects of June’s relationship with both men, and affected Greta’s life by making choices for her. She’s dealing with a lot of internalized guilt and self-judgment, but it has intensely affected the lives of the people she loves.
6. Do you think this book’s depiction of the AIDS crisis was accurate?
I don’t know a lot of the details, so it’s hard for me to say if it was accurate or not, but I would say it was done respectfully. It was neither romanticized nor condemned.
7. What do you think the wolves are meant to symbolize?
I don’t have a direct answer for this question, but here’s where I ended up down the rabbit hole: The wolf was comprised of the negative space in the portrait. It was not really there as a wolf initially, but was made up of everything in the background. I think June and Toby’s relationship was like that. The wolf was not the focal point of the painting, but had to be important, because it was the titular element. The “wolves” in the woods were not really wolves either, but they were to June. They were a story that she helped keep alive by telling the others, the same way Finn was to June and Toby. “Tell the Wolves I’m Home” could be like Finn’s acknowledgment that he has joined them in that element now that he is gone physically, but he’s still very much present if you know what to look for. Finn’s not there, literally, for most of the book, but he can be seen in the negative space left between Toby and June.
8. Would you consider the book as a coming of age novel, or as a novel that happened to be narrated by a teenager? Would you classify this book as YA or adult fiction?
I would definitely consider this a coming of age novel for the transformation in both June and Greta. I was reading a little bit about the publication of the book and it seems like the author struggled with what to classify the book as, too. She eventually marketed it as adult fiction, but I could definitely see it being pitched as YA as well.
1. Do you think June's narration was realistic for a fourteen year old girl, or did she sound too young/too old at any point?
2. What did you think about the dynamic between June and Toby? Was it a healthy relationship? Was it right for June to keep it from her parents?
3. Which characters did you sympathize with the most and least?
4. Do you think Greta's character was wasted potential or could have been explored better?
5. Can June's mother be held responsible for most of what happens in the story?
6. Do you think this book's depiction of the AIDS crisis was accurate?
7. What do you think the wolves are meant to symbolize?
8. Would you consider the book as a coming-of-age novel or as a novel that just happened to be narrated by a teenager? Would you classify this book as YA or adult fiction?