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Bear, Otter, and the Kid

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Bear, Otter, and the Kid

By: TJ Klune
Narrated by: Sean Crisden
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About this listen

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.

©2011 TJ Klune (P)2012 TJ Klune Contemporary Contemporary Romance Literature & Fiction Romance
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As leading characters go, Bear has to be one of the most frustrating in modern literature. Insecure, myopic, cowardly and a stranger to the truth. Traits his immediate circle of friends seem to blithely accept these glaring flaws as does his little brother. If Bear sits in the shallow end of the intellectual gene pool, Ty has clearly claimed the lions share. Perceptive, endearing and bright, he provides a welcome counter balance to the problem solving bungling of his older brother. Overall, it’s a nice tale that possessed all the raw ingredients of a truely great read.

Bear necessity

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I didn't like it. The author kept using the word 'retard' as an insult. There were also some plot holes (e.h. how did their mum know; Otter random timing to get hallucinations).

Bear was a character that was hard to like with his inconsistent and nonsensical choices.
Otter was creepy... The obsessiveness and ignoring of boundaries is very stalkerish and entitled.

Tyson the kid was my favourite part of the story. He was cute, funny, precocious and plausible (if not probable) for his age. The relationship between Ty and Bear was more believable and more sweet than Bear and Otter.

The options for gay audiobooks is very limited so I get the impression this is a very popular book and author but it honestly wasn't that great. I would download fanfiction podfics instead of replaying this.

The voice actor clearly tried his best but the different voices he gave the different characters seemed confusing at times. Again, Tyson was the best part.

Not a fan

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loved it, brings back so many memories, best narration ever, sending Sean a big hug

a real tear jerker

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I read this as an ebook the first time and was blown away by the breadth and depth of the story and storytelling. T. J. Klune takes us inside the chaotic mind of the characters and shares their inner most thoughts as they try to make sense of the events taking over their lives. I loved it from the first page right through to the end, and beyond to the other volumes.
This audiobook version was equally enjoyable, but slightly different. I really enjoyed hearing the story read to me by the inimitable Sean Crisden. He embodied these characters from the start and gave them an even greater life than my mind did when I read the book the first time. This is one of my favourites and will no doubt be visited again, like an old friend, in the future.

A masterpiece of storytelling

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Being inside Bear’s head was grating. He was whiny, self pitying and engaged in endless, repetitive monologues that had me skipping ahead. He was so consistently rude to his friends I had no idea what any of them saw in him. Having listened to the end, I got to hear him being breathtakingly hypocritical too. Apparently I’m in the minority, but this was not enjoyable at all. Far too much unnecessary, immature angst.

Disliked the MC Bear

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