Book Review: Journey Home by Sara Pennypacker (Pax #2)

 

 

Lucky find at the Amsterdam Waterstones. It doesn't seem the sequel has been translated into Dutch (yet). So I'll read the English version instead. Spoilers ahead.

Peter is trying to cope with the loss of his parents and his former pet fox, Pax, leading him to shut out the world. He is determined to get back out there and look for his childhood home now that the war is over. He joins a group called the Water Warriors in order to make this happen. Meanwhile, Pax has a family and goes to look for a safe place for his skulk to stay. The duo seem destined to meet again, but will this meeting go over well?

Just like the first this was quite the good and emotional read. The author really knows how to make you feel for these characters. It's true that I wasn't totally into the first book and had a few gripes with it, but that has mostly been solved by this book. 

The bond between Peter and Pax, once they meet again, feels more fleshed out and tangible than in the first book. There'll always be that distance between them now that Pax is wild, but this time Peter grows to accept it more and he still gets to maintain some connection to his fox rather than none at all. He also ends up adopting Pax's disabled daughter who will never be able to live in the wild, so he still has a connection to Pax always close by even if Pax himself is now a wild animal.

The messaging also felt like it was handled better and I just gotta say I really like how effectively Pax and Peter's characters were used in this. Pax goes on an interesting journey with his daughter, and it kept me consistently engaged. Meanwhile Peter goes through his own arc of learning to love and hope again after he keeps shutting out people. This being caused by all the loss he experience before. It's lovely when we get to see him make friends again and especially him finally accepting Vola as family was just fantastically written.

This book definitely has some emotional points, but the author handles them all very well and overall it's a great second installment that, in my opinion, surpasses the first by quite a bit.

Rating: 4/5