System of a Wolf Astara

I’m giving this story 5 stars but on one condition - it can’t be the first story about werewolves of @Yeoldebard anyone reads. 

It’s a captivating story showing struggles of two characters with their mental health and trauma - although for me actually more about Erith than Blake as we see him diving really deep head on much more than the other guy. 

It’s not a light read by any means and I honestly had to put it down a few times and take a break to read something lighter to be able to deal with it. Here I want to mention that suicide probably should be also mentioned in the description of this story somewhere. 

But pushing through and finishing it was worth it in the end even if my mind doesn’t agree with some of the things and doesn’t exactly like all the characters. 

Some of the chapters had me biting my nails and wanting to skip ahead to see what happened. 
 

We have two narrators, both very unreliable, surrounded by equally unreliable and fallible background characters. I could probably say it’s a story about people messing up for various reasons. 

However, the important point in my eyes is that the story kind of assumes we are already familiar with some world building background and I feel without this background that story would read very differently. I read other stories dealing with werewolves as portrayed by @Yeoldebard before and it was very important for my understanding of this story. 

One more important thing I want to say is that this story ends in a way Japanese literary fiction often ends. There is no definite solution, no closure, we are still at a point where I want to know “and then what?” and that was one of my favourite things in this narrative as well. ❤️

The first half is a 4.5 out of 5, but I cant in good faith recommend this to anyone. Any praise about its characters and the exploration, of their disorders and trauma is dropped in the second half to focus on a love story between a child rapist and his victim, with everyone except one of the dual protagonists being totally ok with it. Oh and said protag is treated as an asshole for it by the narrative. All characterization from the first half? Trashed. Same names, barely connected. Plot points? Dropped. Graceful and careful handling of the subject in a respectful and realistic way? Blakes autistic traits disappear and Erith's system is a plot device for drama. The first half is so good it gets 2 stars, but it falls apart. I left a spoiler filled review about how the child rapist character who the second half revolves around ruins the story on the final chapter.