"Tell The Wolves I'm Home" - is one of the most important books I have ever read.
This book, told from the point of view of fourteen year old June Elbus, changed my life. I read this book for the first time when I was seventeen years old and a senior in high school. I have reread this book 3 times since then, and now, at nineteen years old, it has only gotten better. I've read a lot of important books in my lifetime, as an aspiring author and poet, literature is my first love. Sometimes I feel like I lose myself a little in whatever book I'm currently reading, but I think the thing that sets this book apart is that I found myself a lot in it.
This book strikes me as important for three reasons.
1. It encourages young people to challenge what they know.
In this book, June is struggling a lot with her difficult and fragile family dynamic. Her pain and confusion after her uncle, who was her world, dies too young of disease, is tangible throughout the entire novel. The thing is, she doesn't let the pain of losing him stop her. She goes against what she's been taught to find clarity, peace, and understanding within herself. I think this is really important, because now a days, it feels like everyone is so willing to just accept what's told them to as the truth. We don't question people anymore, especially not our family. Children idolize their parents. It would be hard not too, our parents are our whole world for a long time, so finding out that they're human and make mistakes and their words cannot be taken as gospel is a scary, and perspective-shattering experience. I love that June seeks answers herself, she doesn't just accept what is told to her. She works hard for the truth.
For a really long time we are taught that those older than us inherently know better, but this book challenges that. June is the youngest child in her family, yet she seems so much wiser in some aspects that most of the adults portrayed in this book. That speaks volumes to me. Young adults and children need to know that what they have to say, and what they think, matters. Age is not correlated to knowledge. You can be any age and know pain, love, confusion, and desperation. There should not be a set age for when our opinions and ideas become valid.
2. It destroys the idea that our families have to be perfect.
The symbolism throughout this entire book is incredibly powerful. I don't want to spoil the book for those of you who haven't read it yet (YOU SHOULD READ IT RIGHT NOW.) but one of the most important aspects of this book is the wolf. Throughout literature, wolves have represented as different things. They are hunters, they single out the weak, those fallen from their packs. They single out girls like June, who feel like they just don't quite belong in their own family, or in their own skin.
The family dynamic in this book is so flawed, and I think that's important. For a long time, the only kind of family I ever saw represented in books and movies and TV shows were the "wholesome American family" kind. The kind with no violence, no secrets, no hardships that couldn't be overcame easily with prayer and a family dinner. Junes family is struggling and her parents don't have all the answers. June doesn't fit in with her sister, she actually feels like her sister hates her, and she can't figure out why she has to be so different.
June's family isn't perfect- like most peoples families. Seeing a dysfunctional family being accurately and honestly portrayed so rawly in this novel felt groundbreaking to me. I've seen "broken" and "dysfunctional" families represented in literature before, but not like this. In this book, June is figuring out that there are some things she can't share with her family, and that's okay. In this book, June learns that it's okay to keep some things for yourself. In this book, June learns that sometimes your family are people you aren't blood-related to at all.
3. It reinforces that good things can happen even in the midst of painful, tragic things.
In this book June is facing something hard, scary, and devastating. Something most of us don't face at fourteen years at all, if ever. I won't go into the details of what she's facing and just how serious I think it is for two reasons. One, because I think you should read this book and interpret the hardships and jealousy tinted relationships yourself. Two, because, while I don't want to invalidate the weight and seriousness of what June is facing, I think the lessons she learns are applicable to a lot of situations we face, even the less serious ones.
This book has so many important aspects: love, loss, jealousy, family relationships, secrets, escaping, but I think overall, the aspect of the book I loved most was that June was learning how to deal with what she was feeling, and having to process new, shocking and difficult to swallow information.
A lot of times, my understanding of how people deal with difficult things reflects a lot about who they are as people. I've seen people unable to cope. I've seen people go through things that shouldn't have ever happened and come out of it fine, but then fall apart over something seemingly minor. I've seen people ignore the bad things. I've seen parents lie to their kids about the tough stuff, the messy things, the things that don't have simple answers. What I liked about this novel was that in the face of all this pain and grief and confusion and loneliness, June continues to grow.
People tend to stop growing after something bad happens to them. It's like they just freeze in time, trying to preserve how life was before it happened. Before they lost who they lost. Before thing that hurt them so badly happened. June however, acknowledges the pain, and lets something good grow while she copes with it. She doesn't stop. Sure, it's hard, and she's struggling, but something good came out of a situation she thought she might not even survive.
The point is, I think that's important. Right now you might be in a situation that seems impossible to get through. Maybe it feels like nothing good can come from this. Maybe it feels like the end of the world. Maybe you feel like giving up. Don't.
This book really does reflect that good and beautiful things can come from tragic, and painful situations. You can find clarity in the confusion. You can let something good happen to you without feeling guilty. You are not a bad person for the ways you tried to kill your sadness.
To sum it all up, "Tell The Wolves I'm Home" is a coming of age story, but it it so much more. It tackles so much. It is important, and it is beautifully well written (thank you to Carol Rifka Brunt for that, your writing is beautiful, inspiring, and powerful) and overall stunning. Everyone should read it. I leave you with a quote from it, and the hope that you will please read this book, and learn from it. Tell others about it.
"Maybe I was destined to forever fall in love with people I couldn’t have. Maybe there’s a whole assortment of impossible people waiting for me to find them. Waiting to make me feel the same impossibility over and over again."
