With thanks to Netgalley and Orca book publishers.

Munro vs.the Coyote is a book that details with the issues of mental health and how it can affect those people who have it and those who know these people.  A hard hitting book, that I enjoyed

I loved how this book was written. All the characters were properly developed, we got to learn a bit about each resident, the emotions shown were so raw and real... The character development we see in Munro is amazing, too. He grew so much during those six months of exchange; and his parents grew too, and I really liked that.
This book is a solid 5/5. I recommend it to absolutely everyone. You'll learn a lot from reading it.

Munro vs. the Coyote was a very honest view of grief and disability. While I didn't connect with Munro as much as I wanted to, I thought the coyote metaphor was intriguing.

A book set in Australia! This was a really hard-hitting book but a great one. I really enjoyed my time reading it.

I fell in love with this novel. Plain and simple. 
This book has so many amazing aspects: great characters, great blend of cultures, supportive relationships (in regards to mental health) not only that but between boys something that needs to be seen more of. 
Highly, highly recommend!!!

Fiction often gives grief and guilt form, as in A.S. King's Everybody Sees the Ants. I was sort of on board with the Coyote. While I've never thought of coyotes as a beast that hounds a person, I could accept that metaphor. As a whole entity, I was ambivalent about this book. I just didn't engage with Munro, the only character given much depth.

When I was a child, my mother had a friend whose daughter was mentally retarded, as they used to say.  She was a single mom, and had no idea how to deal with having a daughter whose mental age wasn’t above 10 years old.  In those days, the bad old 50s and 60s, they would just stick her into a mental institution, or a home, or something.  I met Lucy, the daughter, several times, as a kid, and thought she was nice.  When her mother died, I lost track of her.  She would be an old woman by now.  

It is sad how society didn’t want to deal with mentally disabled people, back then, shoving them off, out of the way.

In this book, Munro is a student exchange student, trying to run away from the death of his sister who had Downs Syndrome.  He feels responsible for her death, though he had nothing to do with it, and is trying to escape the voice in his head, his Coyote, which is driving him crazy.

And he can’t hear his sister in his head, though he longs to.

What I enjoyed about this book was that Munro hocks up with a living system set up for the mentally challenged, that teaches them life skills, and he sees, as it progresses, that this would be the kind of charity that he needs back in Canada.  In face “Fair Go” the facility, is the most interesting part of the book, which is good, because after a while, that is the only place that Munro wants to be.

It makes sense, since the author is a former special education teacher.

Since this is YA, be warned that there are a lot of Fbombs and swearing in here.  Not gratuitous, just the way that teenagers talk these days.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Munro is a very special type of book character. He isn't as he appears and has such a warmth and rawness in him that just remains with you even after you've read the book. I like the idea behind the coyote. So many of us have our own coyotes and we hardly even realize and recognize it. 
Munro goes to Australia to distance himself from the reality of his sister's death. Instead he realizes that his grief still haunts him and that he needs to change for the better. At first 'The coyote' is an ever present force in Munros life, but as he comes to terms with his own grief, its presence slowly dwindles. Honestly, I loved this book. The only negative thing, was that I felt like towards the end the story was a bit rushed. But overall this was a very promising book.

Munro vs. the Coyote by Darren Groth is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in early October.

Still mourning the death of his younger sister, Evie, curmudgeony Canadian teen Munro goes on an exchange student trip to Australia in order to avoid grief and the negative messages of The Coyote, his PTSD flashbacks that speak at him negatively in a bold font. His new host family and friends are radly kitschy and persistently punny in comparison to his not ungrateful, but not altogether with-it attitude. Nevertheless, his Australian classmates take him on fun, supportive field trips and encourage him to volunteer. The Coyote is confounded by this and questions his happiness and lack of guilt, so Munro struggles to put him at bay.

A heart-warming read about a boy named Munro Maddux who lost his sister and goes to Australia to recover. I'll have to admit I didn't expect to love this book, the beginning was a little slow and there is some profanity throughout this book, but as I read on I began to warm up to Munro and the rest of the characters and I can honestly say I love this book. I especially loved his big brother spirit and how the coyote appears and attacks him throughout the book. 
I didn't expect to cry and I definitely didn't expect the ending but this book is heart-wrenching and beautiful and you need to read it.
My absolute favorite thing about the book is the cover, I could stare at it all day! I highly recommend anyone ages 14 and up give this book a try. 4.5 Stars

Not for me as I DNF, but I see potential in this book

Interesting book about a boy who transfers to Australia to try to get over the death of his sister and defeat his coyote

5-Munro-stars
Thank you to Orca Book Publishers for the ARC, provided via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the most profound and beautifully written books that I have ever read.

The story was heart-breaking and awe-inspiring. I loved how Munro’s grief was realistically portrayed. It was never sugar-coated or glossed over. Sometimes it felt so real that I started crying for his part.

While the book mostly deals with the depression and acceptance phases in the 5 stages of grief, there were still so many great and hilarious moments in the book, especially with Munro’s adventures with the residents of Fair Go. 

The residents of Fair Go were really special and very interesting. Each one of them was stunningly integrated into the plot and into Munro’s life. They were funny and had so many great life lessons to impart onto any reader. 

I loved Munro as a character very much. I loved how he was patient and kind to people with special needs. I loved the fact that he loved his sister so much. I loved how he was portrayed as a character that had grief in a raw and very realistic detail. I loved the portrayal of the Coyote because of the significance of the inner voice that one has especially when dealing with grief. 

I cannot sufficiently express just how much I enjoyed this book. It is a real gem in the YA genre as it wasn’t an easy journey to enlightenment and problems weren’t solved within a few chapters, as it tends to be in the YA genre, especially when the main focus shifts to romance. This book is packed with great character development and a realistic portrayal of grief. 

I recommend this book to any and all readers, whether YA readers or not, as anyone can appreciate Munro’s journey and the difficulties that he faced.

I really loved reading Munro vs. the Coyote. I got thru it in less than a week, and that's impressive with a 4-month-old baby.  The book grabbed me from the first page, and kept my attention through the final scene.  Flawed as he was, Munro, the main character, was easy to love. As a young man dealing with great loss in a new place, I wanted to root for him. And I think that is important for the protagonist of any story.

It was also very nice to read a book featuring characters with disabilities, who were more than just those disabilities.  They were real people who had personalities and stories of their own.  The book didn't feel "ableist" to me at all. (Note: Ableism is defining a person or character by their disabilities and as inferior to the non-disabled.) Though I will leave the final judgement on that to someone who has an actual right to make that decision.

I should also tell you that part of this book made me cry. I'm going to blame "new mom hormones" on the actual crying, but I'm sure this book will give you the feels, too.

Munro vs. the Coyote felt like more than your basic YA novel.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys good fiction. So don't let the main character's age, or the section in the book store stop you from picking this one up.

A heart-warming story that explores both the struggle of being a consistent giver, and the healing that can come from expressing compassion for others. It also explores trauma, its impacts, and the process of learning to heal from the grief of losing one loved deeply. It's a short, quick read, but nonetheless one worth reading, particularly as it contains a cast of relateable, likeable characters that embrace disability not as a hindrance, but as an accepted characteristic of who they are as unique, worthy individuals. The novel overall offers an empowering, refreshing lens of healing, life, and acceptance.

This is one of the best contemporary novels I've read in a considerable amount of time. I'm usually not one for contemporary, but coming of age stories have a special place in my heart. 
Munro, our main character was a witty teen dealing with a lot of shit. Watching his growth throughout the story made my heart so warm, and it was honestly done so well. Not only the pacing and reasoning behind the path his journey was taking, but the writing style was incredibly interesting! Munro is facing an inner demon we learn little about throughout the novel and the way it is presented in the text and how Munro's voice changes during their conversations hold a fair amount of meaning in the long run. I highly suggest giving this one a go! We meet a good handful of characters throughout the novel that all have distinct personalities even if their appearances were few and far in between. Most importantly, the portrayal of the Fair Go team was diverse and did a really good job at showing an example of the spectrum. Once again each character has a distinct voice and were so lovable and unique. 
So much of this story was just...realistic and that's the best way to describe it! The lessons are hard hitting and important and the dialogue is both fun and real. I felt sucked into the story and transported to Australia, and I felt like I was learning about Canada as well. 
This story is going to stick with me for a plethora of reasons, but Munro will always be a little reminder of how much best-er I can be.

I have to admit I'm not sure about the coyote. Why a coyote? Dunno. Don't care. (Well, I do, but ...) Regardless, I LOVE this book! Kept me interested the whole time. I loved going on Munro’s journey of wellness, of  er . I enjoyed the characterizations of the main characters and the supporting characters; they all felt real and purposeful and relevant to the story. Darren Groth’s backstories and dialogue gave real dimension to each character’s role. Even Munro’s Canadian parents took the journey with him, and I rooted for them all to succeed. The storytelling provided real tenderness and conflict, doubts and supports, humor and fear. I highly recommend this book for high school libraries and public library YA collections.