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hayleybeale's review against another edition
3.0
A dystopia set in a post-apocalyptic world when all that's left is two small groups of people and packs of wild dogs. Jeet is one of a handful of humans raised by dogs and later "re-humanized" and is thrust into the middle of the war between the two clans. Some interesting ideas but the whole thing is just too long. See my full review here.
Thanks to Candlewick for the ARC.
Thanks to Candlewick for the ARC.
ikvindlezenleuk_mathilde's review against another edition
3.0
Lees mijn recensie op Ikvindlezenleuk: https://ikvindlezenleuk.nl/2019/11/brooks-hondenjong/
rkiladitis's review against another edition
3.0
This is a stark, often unsettling post-apocalyptic story. Jeet, a child raised by the wild dogs that killed his human family, lives in a settlement where there are few other "dogchildren" - most dogchildren don't rehabilitate back to being human well; they run away, back to their dog families or die in the process of rehumanizing. Jeet lives with his uncle, Starry, after the settlement kills his pack of Deathland dogs on a raid, and eventually, becomes trusted enough that town head Marshal Gun Sur first asks him to write a history of their people, and then, to be part of a spying mission as the group gets ready to go to war against their enemy settlement, the Dau. Chola Se, another dogchild, and the closest thing Jeet has to a friend, has been kidnapped in a raid on the settlement; Jeet rescues her and learns that she has been sexually assaulted mutiple times - including by their own settlement's second in command, Deputy Pilgrim. Jeet and Chola Se believe that Deputy is a traitor, but before they can enact their own plans, Pilgrim puts actions in motion that will turn the entire encampment against the two. While they want to flee, go back to their dog family and forget about the settlers entirely, but Chola also wants revenge against Pilgrim.
This is a gritty, rough story that includes sexual assault, graphic violence, and cannibalism. Definitely not for the younger set. The story is harrowing, with desperation that reaches out and grabs readers with every turn of the page. Kevin Brooks has created a stark, desolate landscape and characters that will stay with you after you finish the book. The love between Jeet and his dog mother makes for emotional, moving writing; Chola's rage, always simmering, ready to explode, will leave readers gritting their teeth. He gets to readers on a visceral level. The book is written as if it were Jeet's chronicle, so you won't see punctuation; there aren't traditional paragraphs, sentence structures, or spelling; there are no real chapter breaks, either; more like pauses between entries. If you have teen post-apocalypse fans that can handle rougher subject matter, give them this book.
Dogchild has a starred review from Booklist.
This is a gritty, rough story that includes sexual assault, graphic violence, and cannibalism. Definitely not for the younger set. The story is harrowing, with desperation that reaches out and grabs readers with every turn of the page. Kevin Brooks has created a stark, desolate landscape and characters that will stay with you after you finish the book. The love between Jeet and his dog mother makes for emotional, moving writing; Chola's rage, always simmering, ready to explode, will leave readers gritting their teeth. He gets to readers on a visceral level. The book is written as if it were Jeet's chronicle, so you won't see punctuation; there aren't traditional paragraphs, sentence structures, or spelling; there are no real chapter breaks, either; more like pauses between entries. If you have teen post-apocalypse fans that can handle rougher subject matter, give them this book.
Dogchild has a starred review from Booklist.
pbanditp's review against another edition
3.0
This book started off great. The world was interesting and the there was nice character development. I was really looking forward to where this would go.
Summary- Jeet was taken as a child by a pack of Deathland dogs and raised as one of them. He was then recaptured by men and “rehumanized” when he was six. At 12 the leader whams Jeet to write the history of his people because Jeet has an objective pout of view and there will soon be a war with the much larger Dau tribe and their history needs to be written.
From that point there should have been some major editing and cuts. Probably 200 pages could have been sheered off and it would have only improved things. It went from being very compelling to slow by the time I got 20% in. It never really got better. It became predictable. Tense and bloody scenes of 25 foot long eels attacking out from the ocean mud became mundane trailer plots.
The best thing from the book was the line “Reasons don’t change reality. We are here. This is what we have. This is our world.” I found this quite profound.
There were just too many unbelievable decisions and too much dragged out.
Summary- Jeet was taken as a child by a pack of Deathland dogs and raised as one of them. He was then recaptured by men and “rehumanized” when he was six. At 12 the leader whams Jeet to write the history of his people because Jeet has an objective pout of view and there will soon be a war with the much larger Dau tribe and their history needs to be written.
From that point there should have been some major editing and cuts. Probably 200 pages could have been sheered off and it would have only improved things. It went from being very compelling to slow by the time I got 20% in. It never really got better. It became predictable. Tense and bloody scenes of 25 foot long eels attacking out from the ocean mud became mundane trailer plots.
The best thing from the book was the line “Reasons don’t change reality. We are here. This is what we have. This is our world.” I found this quite profound.
There were just too many unbelievable decisions and too much dragged out.
bookishkayla's review against another edition
4.0
*I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and Candlewick in return for an honest review*
Jeet is a dogchild, a human raised by dogs who was captured and rehumanized. He now has the task of writing down the events leading up to the war between his town and the Dau, an enemy settlement.
When I first started reading this book, I was very wary because with Jeet telling the story, there are deliberate spelling and grammar errors with no quotation marks when people are talking. It makes sense, but it was hard to read at first. Once you get used to it, the book pulls you right in.
I enjoyed Jeet as a character. He’s honest and writes everything he sees and feels. The writing actually fits Jeet well and I’m glad that it’s written the way it was. It feels as though you are discovering the world as Jeet is.
This book is violent and raw with themes of sexual assault, but it drives the book in a way that makes you want more. I would not be opposed to sequel! I want to know more about Jeet, Chola Se, the Dau and everything that makes up the history of this story. I want to know what happens after the end, too.
I would recommend this to young adult readers who are able to handle the harder subject matter and who enjoy dystopian novels.
Jeet is a dogchild, a human raised by dogs who was captured and rehumanized. He now has the task of writing down the events leading up to the war between his town and the Dau, an enemy settlement.
When I first started reading this book, I was very wary because with Jeet telling the story, there are deliberate spelling and grammar errors with no quotation marks when people are talking. It makes sense, but it was hard to read at first. Once you get used to it, the book pulls you right in.
I enjoyed Jeet as a character. He’s honest and writes everything he sees and feels. The writing actually fits Jeet well and I’m glad that it’s written the way it was. It feels as though you are discovering the world as Jeet is.
This book is violent and raw with themes of sexual assault, but it drives the book in a way that makes you want more. I would not be opposed to sequel! I want to know more about Jeet, Chola Se, the Dau and everything that makes up the history of this story. I want to know what happens after the end, too.
I would recommend this to young adult readers who are able to handle the harder subject matter and who enjoy dystopian novels.
rebecca_hedger's review
4.0
More 3.5 stars but I rounded up. Full review here: https://wp.me/p4RWv5-Qh
snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition
Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.
DNFed.
It took me a long, long time to read this and although I tried hard to push through, I couldn't bring myself to finish this book.
There's a combination of things that had me ultimately giving up on reading this:
1. The pacing is steady but also incredibly slow. The action scenes could've been breaths of fresh air (used to keep readers on their toes), but lengthy explanations of those moments just kept everything slow.
2. Although I'm intrigue by the way the story is written, it also made it harder to read. This could be formatting errors in the e-galley provided, or it could be on purpose. Either way, the "hede", em dashes and the general lack of quotation marks to mark which phrase is a dialogue required so much energy for me to decipher what is what, that I was just too exhausted to read more than a few pages each time.
3. I was also expecting the narrative to sound more young adult than middle grade so this kind of threw me off.
4. The romance also feels out of place and there's a number of decisions made that had me going ???
Despite the above, I really love the premise. I honestly would've read this book till the end—even with the slow pacing, the questionable moments, out-of-place romance and the middle grade tone still in place. It's just the way the story was executed bogged me down the most.
Thank you to both Netgalley and Candlewick Press for providing me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!
DNFed.
It took me a long, long time to read this and although I tried hard to push through, I couldn't bring myself to finish this book.
There's a combination of things that had me ultimately giving up on reading this:
1. The pacing is steady but also incredibly slow. The action scenes could've been breaths of fresh air (used to keep readers on their toes), but lengthy explanations of those moments just kept everything slow.
2. Although I'm intrigue by the way the story is written, it also made it harder to read. This could be formatting errors in the e-galley provided, or it could be on purpose. Either way, the "hede", em dashes and the general lack of quotation marks to mark which phrase is a dialogue required so much energy for me to decipher what is what, that I was just too exhausted to read more than a few pages each time.
3. I was also expecting the narrative to sound more young adult than middle grade so this kind of threw me off.
4. The romance also feels out of place and there's a number of decisions made that had me going ???
Despite the above, I really love the premise. I honestly would've read this book till the end—even with the slow pacing, the questionable moments, out-of-place romance and the middle grade tone still in place. It's just the way the story was executed bogged me down the most.
Thank you to both Netgalley and Candlewick Press for providing me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!