New Wings Press, $0.99, ISBN 78-91-987442-8-6
Fantasy, 2022

Astrid VJ’s It’s a Bear’s Life: That’s No Picnic is an interesting origin story of sorts. It’s still the start of a planned much longer series, however, so the usual caveat applies: don’t expect a grand closure at this early stage of the series.

Middle-school kid Bashir and his family are Somalians that managed to get into Sweden through, let’s just say, not entirely official means. His efforts to stop some drug dealers from selling his younger brother some happiness results in the teen getting shot, but fortunately, Bashir is rescued by a clan of bears.

No, not that kind of bear, as this is a wholesome teen story, so we won’t be seeing hairy daddies in bondage gear anytime soon.

Now, this one is an interesting read, mostly because of the unusual setting and the author’s style that makes this setting intriguing.

While this is a familiar “newbie learns about the woo-woo” story, the author avoids the trap of unloading all the info on me via explosions of exposition diarrhea—I’m allowed to infer or learn of things through following the characters’ actions and thoughts, for example, and this is a far more interesting way, if you ask me, to let me catch up on things when compared to characters just explaining things non-stop to one another.

However, the length of the story, or the lack of it, is also its biggest shortcoming. Things come to an end with so many things still feel half baked and underdeveloped. While this can very well by design to compel me to get the next stories in the series, it can also create the opposite reaction: I could very well just shrug and say, “Whatever! Moving on!”

Some things need to fleshed out especially well, to get me hooked into finding out more about the rest, and I don’t see that here.

Also, while I find this story readable, I don’t find it “real” in the sense that some parts of the story feel artificial.

One example is that Bashir is a practicing Muslim. Now, this should mean that he should have some reconciliation to do between him learning that woo-woo exists and the teachings in the Quran, which frowns on any woo-woo that is not related to Allah. Instead, Bashir is like, oh, okay, there are magical shifters now, nice. That’s not very believable.

Another example is how the obligatory racist is the sole sore thumb in a clan of universally accepting Care Bears. This is never realistic, because it makes that racist look like a prop for the author to scold racists and people that are mean to vegans instead of a character in their own right.

I know, I know, every story with a teen protagonist needs to contain screes about whatever-isms and whatever-phobia these days as these authors are parked onto this world to hold hand with librarians and drag queens to help humanity transcend to a higher level, but come on, can’t this be done in a more believable manner? Wokeness tastes better and goes down better when it’s served by believable and relatable characters instead of agitprop.

Anyway, It’s a Bear’s Life: That’s No Picnic is interesting and I’m intrigued at various times and places, but the entire package still lacks the punch that would floor me and make me want to read the rest of the series right away.

In other words, it is a typical three-oogie package—a mixed bag of sorts through and through.