The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff

[lightreads]

The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


More cheerfully queer poly incestuous Canadian capers, this time with bonus seal people.

So this book helped me identify a squick I didn't know I had. See, the prequel freaked me out. Which was weird, because I also quite enjoyed it. It wasn't the mind control that got me, and it wasn't the deer semi-beastiality (though, for the record, ….??????), and it wasn't the incest. Actually, it was all the family. Which is weird, because I love stories about intense, close-knit groups of people, and that's exactly what this series is about.

Except this book follows one of the family's oddball misfits who enjoys life on her own, so there was way less family by volume. And I realized that if I just pretended all the background family stuff was an extensive network of interlocking polyamorous and friend arrangements, I was cool. But the minute I started processing the way this book defines family, how they all knew everything about each other, and would always know everything about each other, and everybody was everybody else's business by definition, and all the important things about you were determined by the fact you belong to the family, and no one would ever leave, and no one would ever want to – I'm kinda freaking myself out just talking about it.

Basically, I'm okay with intense claustrophobic relationships as long as there's no family involved. My issues. They are not subtle.

Um. It's a fun lightweight adventure about seals and music and going your own way?




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Comments

[cyprinella]

yeah, I think that gels a lot with why I liked this one better than the first.

Also, Nova Scotia, which I really like to visit.

[malka]

Based on that squick, I recommend that you be careful around Nina Kiriki Hoffman's books. Several of her works have to do with suffocatingly close family and the people who negotiate various forms of peace with it. _The Enchantment Emporium_ to me read as Huff channeling Hoffman through a Huff-ish filter.

(To be clear, I adore Hoffman's writing. This is a specific warning based on the context you gave above, not a general dis-recommendation.)

((I'm also now thinking about the deer semi-bestiality, because I've read both books multiple times and I never thought about it that way. I think the horns (and occasional were-deer effects) slotted into my brain as something closer to a trick knee or a long beard than as an actual animal feature. I have no good explanation for why I thought that, though.))

[lightreads]

Yeah, it's really subtle semi deer semi beastiality! I didn't even process it until about 3/4 of the way through the first book, and then I was like, "wait . . . does she mean . . .? whoa. Hokay."

[malka]

I wonder if it caused the men problems in non-family contexts? It would be very socially awkward to grow antlers every time you felt jealous. The "it's just that time of year" stuff can at least be planned around.