I have a confession: I’ve never read a W. Bruce Cameron book before.

I KNOW.

But it gets worse!

I did watch the movie. I absolutely loved A Dog’s Purpose, even though I ugly cried through pretty much all of it. So when I stumbled on this, I had to read it, because it combines my two guilty pleasures: doggos and heartwarming reads.

A big thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an eARC of this book.

I was totally sustained by self-righteous rage and the hope for sweet revenge.

Which, you know, never came, but that’s okay, because I cried ugly tears, and that’s sort of the same, I guess?

❧ If the fact that these things happen in real life doesn’t make your blood boil, I don’t know what will.

Except maybe popping you in a cauldron and putting you over a flame? Let’s run through all the blatant animal abuse, shall we?

• Abandoned cats and kittens.
• Which the landowner “gets rid of.” Humanely, says he, but he’s a jerkface, and I’m not an idiot, so I’m not buying it.
• Labeling an obvious not-Pitbull as a Pitbull just to get back at the owner.
• Deciding to put down said not-Pitbull to teach the owner a lesson.
• How does this grudge last for two years?! Good Lord, I can’t even sustain things I like for that long. Someone needs a hobby.

❧ Not to worry, though, because it’s not all depressing. There’s enough warm feels to melt that shriveled black thing you call a heart.*

* No actual melting takes place. I don’t think. If it does, consult your doctor.

Not gonna lie, this is why I picked the book up in the first place.

If there’s anything that W. Bruce Cameron does right, it’s hitting you right in your feels.

Because Bella is a good dog, okay? She deserves all the treats.

For her person, Lucas, Bella is a companion.

For his mother, she’s a focal point in her struggle against PTSD.

For the other veterans, she’s an emotional support dog.

Which makes everything that follows all the more heartwrenching, because it’s not her fault.

I really can’t get into any of the warm feels moments, because that would be spoilers, but I promise they’re there.

❧ Let’s talk about the voice, shall we?

I bring this up, because I’ve actually seen people polarized by this, so I’ll just start by saying: I think it works beautifully. 

A Dog’s Way Home is told from the point of view of a dog.

Which is obviously distinctly different from a human’s. The writing is a bit more simplistic, so if you’re into long, flowing descriptions, this probably isn’t for you. Because you know what? Dogs ain’t got time for that.

Bella describes the world as a dog would: by scents and sounds and sometimes confusing relations as she tries to figure out what new things mean.

For me, this all added to the charm of the book. For the majority of the book, Bella is focused on doing Go Home, a trick she was taught from a young age, and you know what? I want her to succeed.

Human emotions and actions are messy and hard to understand, even for the humaniest human among us, okay?

I actually found it fascinating to see the same things from the point of view of a dog and juxtapose that with how it made me feel, as a human. As it turns out, dogs are much more forgiving and less likely to set people on fire. Who knew?

❧ I put this book down, multiple times, and I really didn’t feel the desire to pick it back up again.

Not that it’s a bad book, because it isn’t, but it didn’t have that oomph that made me want to keep reading. The beginning? Fantastic. The ending? Brilliant. But the middle? Eh.

I actually could have done without the majority of the middle sections.

But then the story wouldn’t be much of a story, I suppose. It felt like the conflicts were minor and contrived, and the book strayed quite far from the original conflict and issue. I felt like it sort of meandered at this point without a clear direction of where it was going.

❧ The resolution felt so dang easy.

It took two years to get to this point? Really? I mean, I get it. Corrupt humans, bad guys, bureaucracy, yada, yada. But two years for someone to sweep in and fix it in two seconds?!

Now, the ending was satisfying. I’m not going to lie. But it left me wondering, why didn’t you do that sooner?

Have you read any of the W. Bruce Cameron Dog books? Or watch the movie (it totally counts)? Did you cry ugly tears? It’s okay, you can tell me. I won’t judge.