Since this book was archived and pulled from publication because of its setting, I will not be posting a review on my blog

I'm sorry but at this time I don't feel comfortable reading and reviewing this title. If it should be revised and put back up for publication then I would be more than happy to give it a try.

I enjoyed the letter juxtaposition of this book with the present time aspect of the writing. I was severely thrown by the historical label of the book considering it's set in the 90s, I didn't know that it would take that soon. I also was thrown by the labeling as villain of the Muslim characters with the white characters as the good ones.

As I've seen the communication of the author that A Place For Wolves will be pulled from publication, it will be impossible to post my review of this title.

Per Sourcebooks and the author, this book has been pulled from publication thus it is not possible to give a review to a book that will not be published.

I will no longer be reading and reviewing this book as it's being pulled for a problematic premise. But I'll be looking forward to whatever the author comes out with next. :)

Unfortunately, this book was difficult for me to read. I found the depictions of the villain to be incredibly racist and could not get past that.

I will no longer be reviewing this book due to the author asking the publisher to withdraw the book. The early reviews regarding the insensitivity to Muslim readers was very worrying and this is not a place where I am able to lend a voice, as a white American reviewer. Thank you for the opportunity nonetheless, and I look forward to reading more from Mr. Jackson and Sourcebooks Fire in the future.

I don't feel I can adequately review this book. By 30%, there were many aspects that bothered me. I was thrilled at the representation (LGBT, POC), but found some of the conversations implausible, and the fact that anyone could be more concerned with their partner's kisses while bombs are going off and people are screaming and being killed around them is very disturbing and inconceivable. And then I saw other reviews on Goodreads. Admittedly, I'm very ignorant in regards to the war in Kosovo, but it seems as if the horrors of that war were dealt with very trivially in this story. Not having finished the book, I don't feel it's fair to post a review on Goodreads or Amazon.

Thank you for the opportunity to read A Place For Wolves.

I was very excited to read this, even have an e-arc and a regular arc, but in light of recent discussions surrounding the historical events in the book, I don't think I can or should. I hear the LGBTQ rep is wonderful... but it's not going to happen.

Thank you to netgalley for e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Update 26/02/19: After the recent reviews that have come to my attention, I will be doing more research into the Kosovo War and rereading sections from the book to draw my own conclusions. I did state in my previous review that I knew absolutely nothing of the war before this book (and I literally mean nothing, I had never even heard of the war) so I want to make absolutely sure I know enough to properly rate and review this book before the pub date.

My original review (in bullet points)

Things I liked:

-The LGBTQ+ characters (own voices) I loved the two main characters.
-This novel is told in 1st person perspective of our main character, James. James is adopted and has an extremely strong bond with his family, especially his sister, Anna. The story is told alternately through James's perspective in the present, and letters he sent to his sister in the past.
-In regards to the relationship between James and Tomas, I thought it was amazing and so heart-warming. What I really loved was that we had the pleasure of seeing a fully formed and emotionally invested relationship, while also seeing how their relationship grew through James's letters to his sister.

Things I didn't really like:
-I felt like the author threw us in at the deep end in terms of explaining the history of the war, I knew nothing so this aspect did confuse me.
-The abrupt ending, I am not a massive fan of ambiguous endings.

Full, revised review to come. Once I have researched.


Update 27/02/19: My revised review for this book:

First off, I want to start by saying that I literally had absolutely no clue about the Kosovo War before this book. I had never even heard of it, and while it’s a part of very recent history, it’s definitely a piece of forgotten history.

So, I did some research. I really wanted to do right the second time with my review.

The thing is, I am so passionate about reviewing diverse books. I do my best to pick up on any problematic things I find, I leave trigger warnings in all my reviews because I would hate the feeling that someone could potentially be hurt when going into a book without knowing. My main aim on this platform is to draw attention to diverse books and hype them up, I felt awful at the thought of inadvertently hurting someone with my review because I didn’t catch the bad things in the book.

But we all make mistakes. My mistake was not researching something that I didn’t really understand.

After researching all day about the Kosovo war, I went back and read some key moments in the book.

I stick by what I said in my previous review, I do feel like the writing style was amazing and entirely engrossing, the characters of Tomas and James were brilliant and the relationship and the queer rep in this book were done very well. The format of the novel, being in the present and letters in the past, worked brilliantly for our main characters development.

After researching and knowing the history, I now see the problem of portraying a Muslim man as the bad person in this story. I 100% agree with those who have stated that to have a Muslim man as the villain in this story and setting is extremely problematic.

If you do still decide to read this book, just be mindful and read some of the reviews by Own Voices reviewers. I am not an own voices reviewer for any of the rep in this book. Yes, I am in the LGBTQ+ community and the only reason I even picked this book up was because it featured two queer protags.

I really hope this is another large stepping stone for publishers to see the absolute importance that own voices reviewers and sensitivity readers have.

I had just finished reading the book when I stumbled across Own Voices reviews on Twitter. Instead of inserting my own voice into this, I am going to amplify theirs:
"Listen, Americans. I get it. There's a whole world out there with varied histories that you want to explore for your book. Thank you for being interested in our backgrounds.

But unless you're willing to center OUR voices, you don't get to tell that story.

Can you imagine having a book set in your country, set during a very real tragedy that happened to you or to people you care about, and it's not even about you?

It's one of the most insulting and demeaning things I can think of.

The author of A Place for Wolves essentially reduced the Kosovo War and the thousands of civilians who were murdered or displaced into a backdrop. A setting. A background for his two characters who are not Muslim, not Roma, not Albanian, not anything related to this tragedy.

And this isn't even distant history, mind you!!! Children from that time would be teenagers and adults in their twenties now. That's how recent it was.

Authors, do better."

-@yourtitakate

Edited 2/26: I have removed my rating and review in light of the book’s harmfulness, which I previously did not understand out of context.

I was very eager to read this book for its own-voice queer rep, but am willing to admit I knew very little about the actual Kosovo genocides that play as a backdrop for this historical fiction. After doing more research, it didn't take much time reading this book to recognize that it's been written in a very insensitive light. Despite the raging Islamophobia that surrounds us constantly, and despite the fact that Muslims were probably the single largest group of victims in the actual events this book is inspired by, this author chose to paint a Muslim man as a terrorist and the villain in this story, and that is something I cannot accept in good conscience. So, sadly, I will not be recommending this title.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But it just didn't sit with me right.

Now, the gay rep in this book was own voices and was done fantastically.
However, I have and issue with the plot and the history behind it. Now, I know nothing of this war so I can't speak on the accuracy of it, but I had an issue with the MCs both being non-Muslim Americans and sort of "on the outside looking in". It just rubbed me the wrong way. It focused more on their pain and fear than on the actual citizens who had to go through it and couldn't just "run to the embassy".

I'm glad there is more POC LGBTQIAP+ rep coming out, and this book was cute in that way, but I just felt like the plot used in this book just wasn't done well, it came off a little disrespectful.

The romance in this book was great, but, I don't feel like it makes up for the disrespectful plot.

Okay. Wow.

Truly this story is unlike anything I've ever read and I actually am having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words since I have so little to compare it to. This book felt like something completely new to me and is definitely worth picking up for that fact alone. It's not a flawless story, but sometimes the best ones aren't.

Things I loved:
- Queer POC characters being utilized in a story that doesn't just revolve around being queer or POC. While those stories are obviously incredibly important as well, we also need to show the versatility of these characters in the same way we've treated cishet white kids forever. As the reader, while you're never able to forget the identities of these boys, they're never expressed in a way that feels unnatural or exploitative. They're boys who happen to be POC and queer, which are only elements of their characters, rather than the entire driving force of the story.
- Piggybacking off of that last point, an established, healthy queer relationship is so fantastic to see in YA. It wasn't picture-perfect, but it also wasn't ridiculously angsty. James and Tomas have a believable bond that feels real, and oh my god it's so refreshing.
- The fact that this book is set in a moment in history that I've never even learned about! Literature can be such a powerful gateway for people to experience moments in history, and even modern society, that they otherwise would've never even had heard about. Plus, this book felt very fresh since I've never experienced anything revolving around the Kosovo war.
- I'm a sucker for multi-format stories, so the use of letters to give backstory about James and his relationships was a major plus for me.


Things I didn't love:
- It felt very much like we were thrown into this story without being able to get to know the characters or the setting, making it a bit harder to connect with them, though the flashbacks through the letters did help with this!
- Seeing as I know so little about the Kosovo War, it would've been nice to have a bit more context about the conflict itself. I get that it isn't necessarily the job of the author to educate, but I worry some may be confused and turned off from how great this book is if they don't understand where they are and why.
- Clara?? I don't feel like there was ever enough development of her character to get me to care about her. Of course, her situation was terrible and I felt bad, but she seemed to come and go quite suddenly with fairly little impact.
- The ending. It's hopeful, but a little too open for my taste. I'm not completely mad at it, but I would've loved to see a bit into the future to see how one returns to "normal" life after undergoing so much trauma in such a short period of time.

All in all, this was a great story and I'm very excited to see what comes next from Kosoko Jackson. This feels like the beginning of something much bigger, after all.

Stunning! It is not often that I enjoy historical YA fiction but this is the exception. Great character development and compelling storyline. A must read.

4.5 stars!

For the past two days I have been engrossed in this book. You know how I know it’s good? Because my 15 minute pumping (and reading) sessions started stretching to 20 minutes - even at 3 am!!!

This book is Aristotle and Dante meets How I Live Now. Two of my favorite books!! I loved James. I loved the way his story unfolded. I loved the letters and relationship he had with his sister.

Aw heck, I loved this book - everyone should read this!!

The setting could almost seem post apocalyptic except for it isn’t. It’s set in 1998 during the Kosovo war.

It’s a book about bravery and love and survival.

The authors note says it all ”in war, there are multiple sides to every story. All Albanians were not good. All Serbians were not bad, and as one can see, characters and people, can (and usually do) hold both alignments within them. Good people make bad choices. Bad people make good ones. And most people are somewhere in the middle…”

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS fire for an advanced copy of this book!!!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy.

This was well-written YA debut. I will be checking out more from this author in the future. It was a intense read with a beautiful romance. My full length review will be posted closer to the release date.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. This book is a totally unexpected gem about a gay, black teen who gets caught up with his aid worker parents and his boyfriend in the Kosovo War. The format, shifting back and forth in time between the letters James has been writing to his sister back in the U.S. since he and his family first arrived and eventually converging with the present timeline, added an extra element of mystery and suspense that I really appreciated. A dark and stressful read for sure, but I could barely put it down. It explores the duality inherent in all people (and all conflicts).

A great debut. I’m excited to see what Kosoko Jackson writes next.