There's some recycling of other Applegate books in this sequel to The One and Only Ivan. The novel is told in an almost verse-like structure, sometimes with just a few short sentences on a titled page, as with Applegate's Home of the Brave. Bob, the narrator and central character, is very reminiscent of Endling in her Endling trilogy. As with Endling's bare repetition of common fantasy quest tropes, I found Bob's faux bravado and cynicism, and his frequent acts of altruism covered with "what kind of idiot am I for doing this", annoyingly cliched. But the story is saved at the halfway point when a hurricane literally tears everything apart. Though the events are seteups for a potential movie, this is when Applegate's skill at mixing action with emotions and deeper themes -- in this case human-animal relationships -- comes to the fore. Sharp edges to characters appear that were missing in the first half, both with someone very important to Bob, and Kimu, a captive wolf. Kimu appears briefly in only a few scenes but very effectively so. ( )

i like her so much. i think she manages to put so much in just a few words, while making a point and with a story and characters the reader cares about. this wasn't as powerful as ivan was for me, but i really liked this. ( )

AR: 3.9

Although there were touching moments, I didn’t enjoy this as much as The One and Only Ivan. ( )

Time has passed since "The One and Only Ivan" and Bob is now a pampered pooch. While this book was okay, I thought it lacked the charm and heart that the first book had. For one thing, Bob was too opinionated and all the talk about dogs at the start was frustrating. I felt the author was too preachy and the hurricane event was unnecessarily prolonged.

I was so glad when Ivan and Ruby finally made an appearance, they are still my favourite characters but neither of them had a big enough role, in my opinion. After "The One and Only Ivan", this was a disappointing read and an unnecessary sequel. ( )