Book Review: Bear, Otter, and the Kid by T.J. Klune

Title: Bear, Otter, and the Kid
Series: Bear, Otter, and the Kid, book 1
Author: T.J. Klune
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: August 2011 by Dreamspinner Press

Three years ago, Bear McKenna’s mother took off for parts unknown with her new boyfriend, leaving Bear to raise his six-year-old brother Tyson, aka the Kid. Somehow they’ve muddled through, but since he’s totally devoted to the Kid, Bear isn’t actually doing much living—with a few exceptions, he’s retreated from the world, and he’s mostly okay with that. Until Otter comes home.

Otter is Bear’s best friend’s older brother, and as they’ve done for their whole lives, Bear and Otter crash and collide in ways neither expect. This time, though, there’s nowhere to run from the depth of emotion between them. Bear still believes his place is as the Kid’s guardian, but he can’t help thinking there could be something more for him in the world... something or someone.

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: I devoured Bear, Otter and the Kid and HIGHLY recommend it to MM fans who love character-driven romance with outstanding secondary characters and a truly humorous narration.

The Set Up: Bear’s mother left him three years ago to raise his precocious younger brother, the Kid. Bear stumbled upon a village to help raise the Kid which consists of his best friend Creed, long-time girlfriend, Anna, and his elderly next door neighbor. Otter is Creed’s older brother and he and Bear have always had a symbiotic relationship Bear never understood—until Otter left then suddenly returns to turn Bear and the Kid’s lives upside down.

Why I Read this Book: This book is on nearly every Best of List for MM fiction. People universally adore this book, which is precisely the reason I didn’t read it for so long since a book rarely lives up to its hype. Except in this case…

What I Liked: This is an amazing story of love, friendship and the ties that bind humans to each other. Bear’s relationship with the Kid is outstanding in its love, commitment and acceptance for who they each are and what they mean to each other. Kid is an amazingly fun, precocious child and I loved his important role in Bear’s life and this book. They have a pseudo-father-son relationship but it’s more playful given that Bear is only twelve years older than Kid and that they’re both muddling through growing up together while taking care of each other. Bear and the Kid’s relationships with Creed, Anna and the next door neighbor are all wonderful relationships full of love, understanding and hurts that make up our relationships with each other. I loved this cast of characters because they’re flawed but continue to love and support each other. It is impossible for me not to feel invested in all of these characters who are trying to live meaningful lives, do good things and keep their heads above water. Yes, they’re all young (except the elderly neighbor) but this didn’t feel like a New Adult book because they face adult challenges with a maturity and understanding of long term consequences that I find missing in New Adult characters I’ve read.

I have to also mention the extremely humorous narration of this book. Bear is the narrator and his spastic way of telling this story had me laughing out loud more than once, usually where the Kid is involved in his quest to be a “vegetarian eco-terrorist.” For instance, Kid writes a love poem for Bear to read to Otter and I couldn’t stop giggling since the first time it was mentioned.

What I Also Liked: And now onto the romance…I’m not sure where to start it’s so delicious. Bear doesn’t know why he feels the way he does about Otter and when Otter returns home after his time in San Diego, Bear has to make a decision on what his feelings mean. This is the crux of romantic tension—what does Bear feel and what does it mean? Bear is a free-association thinker who overthinks everything and while this was hard to read sometimes, I could see why Otter was so in love with Bear. And Otter’s vulnerability to Bear was absolutely astounding in its raw honesty. I sometimes cringed at how vulnerable Otter made himself to Bear, especially given Bear’s indecision, but this made the novel an emotional rollercoaster. The sexual intimacy wasn’t quite as explicit or as frequent as in my favorite MM romances but it was enough to be satisfying and fit the tone of the book well.

What I Didn’t Like: I was reluctant to read this book in part because of the first person narration which I often find lopsided. The only time I felt cheated was when Bear was telling readers about Otter’s time in San Diego. It lacked the punch that I was wanting, especially since it answered the mystery of why Otter went away and what happened to bring him home. Instead of hearing from Otter, it’s filtered through Bear. Other than this one time I loved the narration since Bear is such a humorous, though perhaps not always honest, narrator.

IMO: This book more than lived up to its hype and made me a believer in the author and his unique way of storytelling.

J9’s Rating: