And the Kid Chronicles Book 1) - and the Kid (Bear

I have read this book multiple times and each time I love it more. The characters are lovely and their interaction is engaging. I could probably just read a whole book just of them talking to each other. Love the characters love the story

Such a beautiful story of family and love with wonderful characters. So engrossing that I read in one sitting until the very early hours of the morning. I shed tears and laughed out loud through the emotional journey of Bear, Otter and the Kid. Loved it!

Quite an engrossing fairy tale. Well written, however, and the author's humor shines! It's nice to be able to read a story about gay people that doesn't end in suicide, murder or eternal damnation. Keep them coming Mr. Klune!

I loved this book...I laughed and cried and laughed and cried. Getting ready to ready # 3 though I don't know if my heart can take it. Sure it can since I love these guys. I didn't know about TJ Klune before, but he's a favorite now.

I read several reviews for this book (good & bad) before purchasing. I went in thinking with my luck I probably would hate it. Wow was I wrong. Great book with the best characters! There may have been times when I wanted to pop Bear upside his head but being a worrier myself I also connected with this character. I laughed out loud so much that I know my neighbors probably thought I was nuts. The sequel is wonderful as well. Loved it!!!!!!!!

I read several reviews for this book (good & bad) before purchasing. I went in thinking with my luck I probably would hate it. Wow was I wrong. Great book with the best characters! There may have been times when I wanted to pop Bear upside his head but being a worrier myself I also connected with this character. I laughed out loud so much that I know my neighbors probably thought I was nuts. The sequel is wonderful as well. Loved it!!!!!!!!

Delightful, poignant, and at times utterly hilarious. Bear's endless arguments with his inner voice are riveting. Some minor formatting and punctuation issues can distract at times as well as occasional grammatical misconstructions that do not seem to be based on any particular character.

Some people gave this book a low rating because they thought bear and otter were too immature and kid too mature, or that the book rambled. I totally disagree! I think bears behavior was similar to that of a boy with no stable parent to shape or impact his emotional growth positivly. The author clearly has either researched or experienced being left to raise a child and the emotional neglect and abuse of the mother. The rambling i think fits into how a person's thoughts work sometimes, at least my brain works likes that, its a little ADD. As for the kid, there are children out there that are exeptionally bright and unaturally wise and the kid fits right into that category. A normal child's brain is capable of spontanious leaps and bound, and obviously ty is no ordinary kid he skips grades for crying out loud! Children with abandonment issues have to mature fast, some exell more than others. LOVED THIS BOOK!!! If i had a complaint it would be it needs to explain the blackmail and the mother and what her motive was..... Maybe a sequel!?

I definitely would recommend this book--good characters, good story line. Just when you think everything is going to be fine with the characters--TJ Klune throws in another wrench. I love his writing

I just spent the day reading this story, couldn't put it down! Derrick, Ty, and Oliver (or Bear, the Kid, and Otter) were charming -- but "The Kid" stole the story. What a great read. I found myself cheering for Bear and Otter throughout this very long, satisfying book. I didn't want the story to end. Anna, Creed, and Mrs. Pacquin were all great characters as well. What can I say other than read this book!

Although I avoided this for some time as the story line seemed too saccharine, I finally succumbed to the store's recommendation and ordered it. Apart from an overdose of angst and a suspiciously strong resemblance to one of my favorite movies, Shelter, the store was right. I liked the story. And I especially liked the characters. I hope to be reading more works by the author in the near future.

I loved this book. The characters are great and I found myself laughing out loud so many times I had to go out to the living room because my husband was trying to sleep. Once I started I couldn't put it down until I was done.

Klune's simplistic diegesis and mastery of expansion, dilation, and stretching of story time is simply outstanding. He makes a brave move choosing first-person present tense narration. The effect keeps the reader in the moment, whenever in time that moment may be. The writing style is fantastic. The plot and story, though sometimes predictable, are excellent. Read this novel.

If I had anything critical to say about this book, it would be that Klune struggles with authenticity in dialog. Characters behave differently than one another (for the most part), but they speak with the same patterns and language. This combats a reader's suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, over the course of the novel I felt myself not buying into the dialog itself. You'll find moments where characters don't behave or speak as they would in reality. Sometimes the narrator uses vocabulary words well above his level of education. Others use words that wouldn't fit their personalities or age (I'm referring more to the elderly neighbor, but Tyson isn't completely free from this critique). In the case Bear's heated discussion with <the one who makes the dramatic guest appearance, to avoid a spoiler>, the dialog is completely non-believable, and the actions that ensue seem invented from a place heavily rooted in fantasy rather than anything real. Klune compensates for this shortfall by padding sections of dialog with internal thought and analepsis. This compensation first appears as a clever side-commentary, as the narrator battles his own conscience as he speaks to others, but as the book progresses this is simply frustrating. Eventually, we've heard all of the internal conflict there is to hear, and we're simply left reading the same copy and pasted passages (this time, brought to you in italics!) two or more times. Exchanges in points of high action sag despite a reader's feeling that they should move more quickly. The result is a lack of emotional investment in the narrator by the final few chapters of the novel. At least we have Otter!

I'll add that the use of weather on the ocean as a metaphor for the narrator's struggle with his feelings and conflicts is overused. It was cute and clever the first couple of times, but then practically every emotional exchange onward in the text referenced this metaphor. Suddenly, the metaphor began dominating chapter titles. Enough is enough! The same is true to a lesser degree with the "earthquakes."

I would also hire a real editor, or find a friend who's skillful with grammar- anyone who wouldn't miss simple mistakes like forgetting a full stop at the end of a sentence (at the end of a paragraph, no less) and the misuse of "to" and "too" or "its" and "it's" (this issue arises several times). This isn't to demerit the quality of the novel or the skill of the author, but held against the high standard this text sets within the genre, little issues like this are distracting and easily remedied.

Bear, Otter, and the Kid is an amazing love story. The characters are believable and the humor is amazing. I couldn't stop reading until the story was finished and cannot want to start the next of the series. Bear, Otter, and the Kid is a remarkable addition to any M/M lover's collection.

This story started out strong and then got lost in uneven writing. The characters were uneven and the lead character, Bear, made such bizarre decisions that you would think that he was schizophrenic. The voice of the "kid", Ty, is the most misplaced, however. It varies between a shy, fearful, eight year old boy and that of a grumpy, wizened, old, drag queen! The writer mistakenly confuses "intelligence" in an eight year old as "worldly knowledge", and the effect is jarring. But the worst part is that by about three fourths of the way through the book, you begin to hate the lead character's actions so intensely that the story line gets lost. Page after page of twisted motivation becomes monotonous and abusive to the reader. At one point I was so irritated with the writing that I wanted to put the book down and not finish it. But I forced myself to muddle through to the predictable and and childish ending. Now, having written such a negative review, why did I give this book three stars? Because, this author does show promise. When his characterization is not off, he creates situations and characters that the reader wants to like. And his style is generally very readable and well-defined. In other words, I believe that this writer has a voice, I am just not sure that he has found his voice in this novel.

This was a beautifully written story. Each character was strong and you wanted to root for them all. Bear, Otter and the Kid were some of my favorite characters ever written. It showed the true and confusing emotions that go along with falling in love and becoming a family. I love this author's writing!

I've never been so conflicted about such a beautifully written book in my life, but it's a solid 3 1/2 star book that I would probably recommend.

THINGS I LIKED
- The Writing: As I stated above, this book is exceptionally written. The visuals and emotions conveyed by the author are rich, layered and vivid.

- The Humor: There are sections of the story that had me laughing out loud.

- The Kid: Even though there may have been one or two instances I thought he acted out of character for someone his age, he was by far the best written character in the book.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
- Bear's Inner Monologue/Dialogue: They were just too much...and too repetitive...and too exhausting...and too conflicted...and too long!

- The Secondary Characters' Relationship to Bear: I can understand them being proud of Bear for stepping up to the challenge of raising The Kid, but at times it seemed they bent over backwards for him without any justification (or Bear earning such treatment)

- The Conflict With the Julie: I find it hard to believe that since Anna's parents, Otter & Creed's parents, Mrs. Paquinn and (presumably) The Kid's teachers all know of Bear and The Kid's circumstances that none of these adults would have brought up making Bear's guardianship legal much sooner. The whole conflict with Julie seemed contrived and over-dramatized

- Bear & Otter's "Romance": In some respects, their romance is a story told in reverse. The reader is told very early in the book that these characters have intensely strong feelings for one another. The author the attempts to justify those feelings via a series of flashbacks throughout the book. Overall the approach fell flat for a couple of reasons: (1) we never get Otter's perspective, except during one rambly monologue about why he left Jonah, and are never given justification for why he loves Bear so much (i.e. is he a good person, is he caring, does he just like the way Bear looks, etc.) - he's just in love with Bear and the reader has to accept it; (2) the age difference between Bear and Otter makes some of the flashbacks to when they were kids seem kind of creepy (i.e. college-student Otter obsessed/in love with junior-high-school-student Bear is wrong on so many levels)

The following are personal gripes, so feel free to stop reading now if you like :)
- The "Emotional Volume": From the onset, the author cranks the "emotional volume" knob up to 10 and never turns it down. I believe this is why, for some reviewers, the story felt so "angsty". The reader is never given a chance to breath...one emotional meltdown bleeds into the next. It's a bit much.

- Bear as a Character: His mood swings and contradictory behavior made me want to punch him. Don't get me wrong, I love conflicted and flawed character...I really liked Rhet in JF Smith's "Last Day of Summer." However, where Smith has Rhet grow and mature emotionally as a character, Klune has Bear being forced to do the mature thing by those around him and immediate revert back to moody-loser guy without having learned anything from the situation

- The Physical Description of Otter & Creed: I'm very much a visual reader. I can't help but picture, in detail, what the people I'm reading about look like. Klune does an excellent job of this. However, I'm just curious what the rationale behind making Otter and Creed so muscular was. There's no mention of sports or interests in fitness in either brother's background. And given Creed and Bear's closeness, it seems to me if Creed was beefing up during high school (for whatever unknown reason) he'd be dragging Bear along as well (in the interest of fairness, Bear does mention that he's gained some size since he was a kid). Every time Otter is described in the book it just made me scratch my head. Again, I'm not knocking the author or book for this, I'm just curious as to why it was done.

I really liked this book. The movie Shelter which the story is based on was excellent, the book however was filled with too much angst and repeated reflection. Still, if you overlook it's short comings, the characters are well developed and it is well worth the effort. I will read the next one.

I could have easily given this five stars, if the book had been fifty or sixty pages shorter. I loved the unique story line of the plot, but the author made Bear, who seemed pretty smart most of the time, do some of the most idiotic stupid things. I've already bought the sequel, so I'm hoping the author's writing awhile skills have improved.

I really loved this story! It had everything I love in a story, great characters, good plot, and hot sex!

I love how we got to see the struggles Bear and Otter went through and the love of Ty's "family" (for him and Bear) just left me with a big smile when I finished the book.

I'm surprised to learn this was a first novel and look forward to more from TJ Klune.

I have never thought a about writing a review before but this story had me completely engrossed. I could not put it down. I read a lot and haven't come across a story that had me so absorbed in awhile. I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Its really good except... the unanswered questions? How his mom know and why come back. There are little things in the book to add value and drama that just never get put to rest. Maybe the editors took too much out of the story thinking it non-essential but even love stories need to be complete and all the little ends tied up.