Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Why We Fight
SERIES: At First Sight #4
AUTHOR: TJ Klune
NARRATOR: Sean Crisden
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
LENGTH: 12 hours, 18 minutes
RELEASE DATE: January 21, 2020
BLURB:
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Corey Ellis sure doesn’t. Oh, everyone around him seems to have found their happy ending, but he’s far too busy to worry about such things. He’ll have plenty of time for romance after he survives his last summer before graduation. So what if he can’t get his former professor, Jeremy Olsen, out of his head? It’s nothing more than hero worship. And that’s the way it should stay.
Except bi-gender Corey – aka Kori – is interning at Phoenix House for the summer, an LGBTQI youth center. A center that recently hired an interim director until someone can be found to fill the position permanently.
Because life is extraordinarily unfair, the director just so happens to be a certain former professor, now turned current boss.
Desperate to keep things professional as he and Jeremy grow closer, Corey makes a major mistake: He turns to his friends, Paul Auster and Sanford Stewart, for help.
But Paul and Sandy have some ideas of their own….
REVIEW:
I don’t think that anything in this review that will do the book justice. I’m not exactly coherent right now. I’ve been waiting years for Corey/Kori’s story and now it’s here! Well in audio, the print version has been out for a while. I fell for them the first time they appeared as Ty’s friend in the Bear, Otter, and the Kid series and I couldn’t wait for their story. But wait I did, and wait… And now I can say that the wait was worth it.
This book and these characters are insane. It’s been a while since I’ve read the previous books in the series, and I’d kind of forgotten just how insane they are. They are a lot of fun, but wow are they intense and quirky and exuberant and loud in every way possible, the best possible way. And I love every single person of the bunch. They make you smile and laugh, they make you slap your forehead exclaiming “what the hell were they thinking”. They make you have a great time – and what else can you expect from a great book?
Trust me on this one; do not listen to this book in public. I mean the looks I got from strangers when I just burst out laughing from apparently no reason…well… I could just see everyone write me off as a crazy person and to keep far, far away. Still, it was worth every look.
Why We Fight wasn’t only all over the top and ridiculousness. There were many serious undertones that we didn’t really get with the previous books. We had the Phoenix House and the troubled LGBTQ teens at the center. And as this book takes place 2016 there were a lot of references to the election from hell and the potential consequences if a certain orange someone would actually become president. I think it all fit very well with the story that unfolded (orange not included) and added some more depth to it. Not that there wasn’t any before, but you know, layers.
I was a bit hesitant when I saw that Sean Crisden was narrating this story and not Michael Lesley who did the others. But you know what, I think this might just be Crisden’s best performance yet, top three at the very least. I loved everything about it, he truly lived every single moment of this book and made each character so vivid and real for the listener that it felt like we were backstage watching Helena Handbasket getting ready for her show or talking with the kids at the Phoenix House, and I most definitely saw the war with the leather pants, or the banana making a splat on Sandy’s face. Not sure that the latter was an image I really needed, but what can you do?
Crisden made all the characters so real that you started to interact with them. Wanting to give them a hug when they were feeling down. Trying to persuade them that giving up control over the egg app in public might not be the best idea ever and a million other little things. Crisden captured the essence and feel of the characters and really nailed everything about them. It was pure bliss listening to this book and I would have gladly listened to many hours more.
Why We Fight is a celebration of diversity, of living and loving no matter what colour your skin is, your gender or sexuality. It celebrates individuality and everyone’s right to be who they truly are and being loved for it. It was beautiful.
Now that I’ve finished this book I feel torn. I’m so happy to have finally gotten Corey/Kori’s happily ever after, to know them and their story better. At the same time I’m also sad, because the ending of this book is an ending of an era of sorts, there won’t be more books about these characters in the future… And since I don’t like goodbyes, I think I have to settle for a “see you again later”.
RATING: 
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