The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

Genre: paranormal
Pages: 404 (hardcover)
Published: February 2012 by Knopf

My Take:

Reuben Golding is a twenty-something reporter for a San Francisco newspaper-- he's a talented writer who has landed a great job, has a long-time girlfriend, and a family filled with success stories: his mother's a surgeon, his brother a priest, and his father a professor.  When researching for a story along the California coast, he falls in love with the beautiful Nideck manor-- an elegant house surrounded by redwood forest and furnished with antiquities, books, and treasures from all around the world.  He falls just as deeply in love with the woman who introduces him to the old house, the beautiful and lively Marchent.  She tells him the story of how her uncle Felix, a brilliant intellectual and wealthy eccentric, the previous owner of Nideck house, disappeared years ago while on an archeological dig.  

But Reuben's love affair with Marchent and with the Nideck house is doomed to end too quickly, when Marchent is attacked suddenly in the night and Reuben himself is bitten by an unknown beast during the struggle.  Days later, he wakes up in the hospital to discover that his friends and family, who surround him with their worries, are convinced that he is no longer himself, that he has changed in some elusive, yet vital way.  Their suspicions are confirmed, when Reuben discovers that through the mysterious bite he has inherited a condition which both empowers and disturbs him, an ability to transform into a wolf-like creature-- a power he calls the "Wolf Gift".  Summoned by the scents and sounds of terror, he begins a superhero-like spree of killing criminals and rescuing their would-be victims, causing the newspapers and the wide world to call him "The Man Wolf".

Compared to Anne Rice's earlier "supernatural transformation"-type books-- meaning, primarily her Vampire Chronicles-- The Wolf Gift was an enjoyable jaunt of a book.  Sure, there is some internal conflict within Reuben where he wonders if he could lose control of himself in his wolfen form or gradually become more of an animal than a man.  ("The Man Wolf", by the way, is not a very scary moniker for a werewolf.  And "the Boy Wolf" is even worse-- that's like calling the two characters Batman and Robin. There's a reason people tend to say "Wolfman", and not the inverse.)

Reading this newest book by Anne Rice, who I consider one of my all-time favorite horror and paranormal writers from childhood and pre-teenhood, I found myself missing the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt and his "savage garden" of a world.  I missed the extravagant evil plans of the Egyptian vampire queen Akasha, the emotional angst ("I wished for death...") of Louis from Interview as he poured out his soul to a hopeful mortal boy in a dinghy hotel room.  The things I enjoyed most seemed like elements of her earlier writing: the descriptions of the ornate elegance of the Nideck house, the mystery of the nature of Reuben's transformation, and the appearance of some decidedly sinister Russian scientists who seem far to eager to get their hands on Reuben for some "tests".

I enjoyed, for the most part, the prose and writing style-- even her ramblings, I love a good Anne Rice ramble-- but not so much some of the new plot elements she seems to have imported from the current paranormal romance genre.  Such as Insta-love, for example-- you know, the oft-seen paranormal romance phenomenon in which the protagonist falls instantly in love with a person they have barely laid eyes on, much less spoken to.  Reuben's love interest was like that and, though I mostly liked this Laura, I thought it happened wayy too quickly, especially with Reuben having a girlfriend and all.  And then there just doesn't seem to be enough conflict, and when there is, it is over far too quickly.  Parts of Reuben's background seemed irrelevant or even a little boring at times, and Reuben himself wasn't what I would call an enthralling protagonist.  He lacked the eccentricities or the intrigue, even the deep sadness and emotional depth, of the protagonists of Rice's earlier paranormal books.  *Cough, cough-- Lestat* 

There was the spark of a good subplot with Reuben's brother Jim, a priest and his closest confidante.  This could have been really interesting, I thought: how would such a religious man deal with his baby brother's suddenly confessing to him that he is an inhumane monster, a sin against nature and responsible for terrorizing the city and the world?  The potential there was not fulfilled, for reasons I won't go into because of spoilers.  The subplot of Felix Nideck and his disappearance and apparent death was never really fleshed out either, until nearly the very end of the book.  And the Wolf Gift's ending... a real disappointment, for me, at least.  Maybe I was hoping for too much "paranormal" and got too much "romance".  Overall, I enjoyed the story-- it kept me turning the pages pretty quickly-- and a lot of the different elements: Anne Rice's familiarly evocative writing style and the way she kinda put her own spin on werewolves (not my favorite spin on werewolves either, though).  But in the end, give me Interview or The Vampire Lestat (especially!-- that's still one of my favorite books) over this any day.  The Wolf Gift is new and exciting, but altogether it is probably not destined to become an Anne Rice classic.

Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

 (Wolves of Mercy Falls #3)
Genre: YA paranormal romance
Pages: 390 (hardcover)
Published: July 2011 by Scholastic
Recommended for: anyone who enjoyed the previous books, or anyone who thought Shiver was just okay and wondered whether the series was worth finishing
Thanks to: Liz for letting me borrow her copy  :)
Warning: very mild spoilers follow

My Take:

Forever picks up soon after Linger left off: Grace has finally become a wolf and is now running through Boundary Woods along with the rest of the pack, most of whom will never again get to spend their summers as humans.  Meanwhile Sam longs for the days when his Summer Girl will get to stay with him.  As the weather warms up and Grace occasionally changes back to her human form, he finds that losing her so soon and suddenly is perhaps as painful as never having had her at all.  Cole St Clair, jaded-with-the-world young rockstar, is experiencing the sudden changes from wolf to human, too.  But for once he finds himself struggling to remain himself.  He sets out to control the scientific circumstances which force the change from human to wolf, using himself as a test subject.  The standoffish and lovably haughty Isabel Culpeper is still uncertain about her feelings for Cole-- and indeed everything else.  But as her father, who loathes the Boundary Woods wolves for causing the death of her brother Jack, gears the small town of Mercy Falls up for one last extermination of the pack, Isabel knows one thing for certain-- she must stop him at any cost.

Forever is a fantastic conclusion to the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy.  Since Shiver, the characters have grown so much, and yet they are at heart the same people we fell in love with.  Isabel is still the smart-ass; Cole is still eccentric and jaded; Sam is still the slightly melancholy, ultimately lovable teenage boy.  Of all the characters, Grace has changed the most, having defied her negligent parents and given up all aspects of her old life.  Yet, for me, it was Cole and Isabel who stole the show.  I'm not personally a fan of love-at-first-sight sorts of stories, though Sam and Grace's relationship is more real than that.  But Cole and Isabel's is a very different, darker brand of love-- a practically unrealized love, at that.

The lyrical prose and slower pacing of the last two books is familiar here, yet the pace is slightly faster, since the most immediate major plotline of the series-- that of the wolves being hunted by the town and Isabel's father-- is finally coming to a shattering realization.  Yep, it's finally happening.  I would like to take this opportunity to say, while my random brain is replaying the awesomeness that was that final climax scene, that I hate Shelby.  So, so much.  Anyway, I would say that if, like me, you enjoyed Shiver but didn't love it enough to read the next book, that it's a fair bet you will end up loving the rest of the trilogy.  Shiver is good; Linger is great; Forever is even better. 

Cover: 5/5
Premise: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Overall Rating:

Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA paranormal romance
Pages: 360 (paperback)
Published: 2010 by Scholastic
Recommended for: everyone who enjoyed Shiver
Warning: mild spoilers follow...

My Take:

After the events of Shiver, Sam feels hesitantly hopeful about his future, but more concerned than ever for Grace.  The werewolf bite she received ten years ago as a child seems to finally be taking its toll on her. As spring approaches, Sam tries to come to terms with the wolf he was and the human he is now, even as Grace struggles to deny the signs of her seemingly inevitable transformation.  Meanwhile the newest member of the Mercy Falls pack, a wolf called Cole, fights to remain a wolf as Minnesota warms up.  Eccentric and dangerously impulsive, the last thing Cole wants to do is face his human past, even if being human means he gets to see the equally standoffish Isabel Culpeper.


The Wolves of Mercy Falls series is one of the few paranormal romances I've really enjoyed.  As a reader, I tend to lean more towards complex magic systems and sci-fi worlds, lots of action and less romance.  But in Linger's case, the beautiful simplicity and bittersweet lyrical tone of Maggie Stiefvater's story made for the perfect beach read this past week.  This series is simply a fantastically-crafted and intensely addictive love story.  I remember Shiver fairly well considering it has been a year since I read it, and overall I think I liked Linger, still fresh in my mind, just as much.  The slower yet captivating pace of this book nevertheless kept me hooked, and the four first-person perspectives from which the story is told was much less disorienting than I feared it might be at first.


We have two new narrators in Linger: Cole, aforementioned mysterious and impulsive new werewolf, and Isabel, Grace's friend who previously had been a more minor character.  Cole's voice surprisingly became the most distinctive, and I really grew to love him.  He's blunt, possibly suicidal, and on the run from the reality of his life-- so what does the fact that I felt I could relate to him more than any of the other characters say about me???  Cole's more like a mish-mash of personalities and qualities: sarcasm and anguish paired with egomania, regret, flaws, and unexpected genius.  In a way, he's more like a real teenager than any of the others who are more predictable-- not flat characters, exactly, but they're nowhere near as absolutely spherical as Cole.  I've always liked Sam more than Grace, but Isabel grew on me, too.  There are quite a few funny one-liners in her conversations with Cole; they were so enjoyable to read.


I always appreciate how different the werewolves in these books are from your average Werewolf John Does... or Jacob Blacks, as the case may be.  ;)  My one major complaint is the barest hint of Middle-Book Syndrome which became evident towards the end... important things happened and the story progressed, yes, but not nearly as much as in Shiver and Forever, which I've already read thanks to a friend who let me borrow her copy.  (Thanks, Liz!)  Overall, Linger is a strong sequel and has definitely proved to be the ideal beach read.

Cover: 5/5
Premise: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Overall Rating:

Cover VS Cover: Wolves of Mercy Falls Series

Cover VS Cover is a semi-weekly meme at A Myriad of Books that I started because I've long been fascinated with the differences between international covers.  Today we're looking at the different covers for the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater (aka Shiver and its sequels).  Seriously, this series has so many gorgeous covers in so many different countries, it was almost impossible to pick which one I liked best.  As always, let me know what you think!

US                   UK                 French

 These three are the only countries to have a complete set of covers thus far. (Linger hasn't been released in many countries, and Forever, of course, hasn't come out anywhere.)  The US and UK sets have similar themes, and though I like the more eerie feel of the UK covers, the series doesn't have that sinister feel at all, despite the fact that it's about werewolves.  I think the US cover of Shiver remains one of my very favorite covers-- it's just simple enough, just intriguing enough to work.  The French set are very interesting as well, though for me personally, they don't quite compare.  Fusion is my favorite of those three.

 German

 The titles translate to After the Summer and Rest of the Light, respectively.  Interesting.  These covers are very cute-- I like the silhouette-like figures of the girl and the wolf, and the intricate vines... they're definitely a different take than the US and UK covers, though the elements themselves are quite similar. 

 Italian

 These are neat.  The design is simple but unlike any other I've seen, despite the fact that hearts are wayy popular when it comes to YA book covers. 

 Bulgarian

 Smallish Bulgaria boasts some interesting covers, many of which contain strong influences from other covers, as we saw a few weeks ago in the Cover VS Cover for the Mortal Instruments series.  The first cover is a combination of Fallen and The Sight (check out their covers and you'll see what I'm babbling about).

 Indonesian

 Shiver is the only book of the series to be released so far in Indonesia, but what a beautiful cover it has been gifted with there!  I love the sweet sketchiness of this cover, even though the girl seems a bit too young to scream 'Grace', exactly.

In summary, that's 16 covers from 7 different countries.  I hope you guys enjoyed checking all of them out!

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

Genre: YA paranormal romance/ movie novelization
Pages: 329 (paperback)
Published: January 2011 by Poppy
Recommended for: fans of retold fairy tales; anyone considering whether or not to see the new Red Riding Hood movie, or anyone who'd rather read it than see it

Synopsis:
The blacksmith would marry her.
The woodcutter would run away with her.
The werewolf would turn her into one of its own.

Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind, and sweet. Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.
After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them--it could be anyone in town.
It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die. 

 My Take: 


Red Riding Hood is closely based on a new movie coming to theaters March 11th, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) and starring Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Mean Girls).  In the past, I haven't exactly loved most of the movie novelizations and movie tie-ins I've read. That's because the book is generally around first, and generally better than the movie ('cept in the case of the Princess Bride), and if the movie comes first, how much hope can there be for the book, right?  That's sad, glass-half-empty logic, yeah, but Red Riding Hood proves me wrong.  Sorta-kinda.  

This book is not the Red Riding Hood story you heard as a kid.  It's part horror movie, along the lines of The Village, part mystery, and part romance.  Valerie lives a quiet life in her medieval village, which is notable only for the monthly tribute the villagers must pay to the Wolf, an age-old beast as terrifying as he is mysterious.  When Valerie's sister is killed by the Wolf during the Blood Moon, the villagers seek a way to destroy him once and for all.  They hire the services of a veteran werewolf hunter, who informs the naive villagers that the Wolf is not a beast-- he is one of their own, a cursed werewolf forced to change every month beneath the full moon.  Suspicion falls on nearly everyone, most of all Valerie, who has always been a 'strange' girl: deep, thoughtful, and unladylike.  Meanwhile Valerie is caught up in her own conflict: her parents have arranged for her to marry Henry, the wealthy blacksmith's son and the most coveted bachelor in the whole village.  But when the woodcutters arrive in town, Valerie is reunited with her childhood friend Peter-- and soon finds that he has become far more than a friend.  Caught between the two young men, Valerie does not expect that the Wolf-- whoever he or she may be-- desires her, too.  For under the Blood Moon, those bitten by a werewolf are doomed to become werewolves themselves.  


Retold faerie tales are best when the similarities between the book and the original tale are subtle, I think, and there were a few places where I thought this book was far from subtle. (ie Valerie tells her grandmother, quite randomly, 'What big eyes you have...')  I liked the way the mystery of the Wolf and the action unfolded, even though the story started out fairly slow and superficial.  There's a lot of death, and a lot of gory death at that, which really can only be expected of this kind of werewolf story.  In the end, I'm still not exactly sure about the holy terror that is the Wolf of Daggerhorn village, but one thing is clear: he's no Jacob Black.  My biggest peeve with the book is the inconsistent and often shallow characterization-- Valerie was alright, but her two love interests held little or no interest, really.  Father Solomon-- the Wolf Hunter-- was nearly awesome enough to make up for all that-- he's such a brooding, vengeful character, and best of all, he's going to be played in the movie by Gary Oldman (!!)  Can't wait to see that...  Anyway, in the end, I enjoyed the read, but do wonder if maybe it wouldn't be a better idea to simply go and see the movie.  That way you get the cool-looking cinematics and the plot, without having to trudge through all of the extensive backstory or (hopefully) bad characterization.  

Cover: 4/5 (white covers are the new thing, it seems) 

Premise: 4/5 

Characters: 2/5 

Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Review: Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson

Genre: YA fantasy     Published: May 2010 by Simon Pulse
Page Count: 336 (hardcover)
Recommended for Fans of: Blood and Chocolate, die-hard werewolf fans only

Synopsis: Torn between two destinies?

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever.

Claire de Lune has a promising premise: an ordinary girl discovers on her sixteenth birthday that she is in fact part of a legacy of female werewolves and will soon make the transformation herself.  The cover is beautiful and the synopsis intriguing, except...except everything.  This is one of those YA books which was surrounded by lots of hub-bub when it was released, but after reading the book I'm forced to diagnosis it as: soulless.  Past the marketing appeal, we have a very typical coming-of-age story with a plot somewhat reminiscent of the werewolf classic Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause.  Claire de Lune is a sort of younger, empty-headed cousin of Blood and Chocolate, actually.

The main character Claire is a very typical sort of girl whose life seems consumed with crushing on Matthew, a very typical, soccer-playing heart-throb from her school.  The actual moment when Claire's mother tells her that the two of them are, 'in fact, werewolves, by the way', doesn't occur until perhaps 100 pages into the book.  This is a somewhat slow read, though that wasn't what made the book mediocre in my eyes.  Claire's reaction to this revelation that she and her mother are actually werewolves, hunted by society and part of a secret tribe, is exactly what you would expect: she freaks out.  Big-time.  And who wouldn't?  But I felt like I knew exactly what her next disbelieving exclamation would be.  And another thing-- how many times does the girl say 'freaking' over the course of the book?  Claire is sixteen-- I really think it is realistic to expect her to drop the f-bomb or at least a few minor curses during a moment of crisis.  I'm not saying she should have sworn like a sailor, only that it felt like the author was trying to hard to avoid cursing.
 
  I really dislike book-bashing, and I'm certainly not going to post twenty paragraphs about every little thing that was wrong with this book, so I'll just sum it up in a few words: predictable; mediocre at best.  I hear there is a sequel--Nocturne-- soon to be released, and already I can tell you this is one YA series I will not be continuing. I recommend reading Claire de Lune only if you feel you simply must, or if you're having a slow day at the library.
Overall Rating: 2/5

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

SISTERS RED, BY JACKSON PEARCE  published June 2010, by Little, Brown Books  (Hardcover 328 pages)
OVERALL RATING: 5/5

Synopsis (from the book jacket):   SCARLETT March lives to hunt the Fenris--the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.
    ROSIE March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts ferociously alongside her. But even as more girls' bodies pile up in the city and the Fenris seem to be gaining power, Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax and Scarlett's only friend--but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they've worked for? 

Sisters Red is a dark twist on the fairy tale we've all known since we were children.  Jackson Pearce takes the old story and makes it unrecognizable, swathing the wolf into a race of deadly werewolves called the Fenris, transporting the setting to Atlanta, and transforming the ignorant girl in red into two sisters with tragic pasts and some very bad-ass fighting skills.  

It's been a while since I've read a paranormal book as amazing as this one!  First off, I love the March sisters-- so much that I couldn't even say which one I loved more, Rosie or Scarlett.  Scarlett is a fearless bad-ass with major direction-- she wants nothing more than to destroy all the Fenris in the world in order to keep girls like she and her sister safe.  Sound a little familiar? Yes, she's a bit like Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but plus an eye patch and minus the occasionally annoying tendency to fall in love with her prey (or predators, as the case may be :) ).  More than that, I loved her strong bond with Rosie and how the sisters are half-convinced they 'share the same heart'.  Rosie is similar to Scarlett in some ways, and very different in others.  Scarlett is obsessed with the hunting of Fenris-- it's her passion, her life.  But Rosie has within her the desire for a normal life, the capacity to fall in love-- with Silas, a young woodsman, the sisters' oldest friend, and their only companion when they leave their small town behind in order to face the bulk of the Fenris who are gathering en masse in the city.  

The romance between Rosie and Silas progresses beautifully-- with great intensity and much sweetness.  Silas is awesome, because he's just so more realistic than the guys I often read about in YA paranormal.  There wasn't any point in the book when I sort of snorted to myself and said, 'No guy would say that!'   I confess I found myself flipping forward through the pages, eager to see when Rosie's next chapter started and if Silas was in it.  Yes, Sisters Red has dual narrators, so we can easily get into both the sisters' heads.  As for the Fenris (aka werewolves), they're baad.  No cuddly wolves or Jacob Blacks here-- these wolves congregate in packs and their sole desire in... eternity-- they're immortal unless slayed by a certain pair of sisters-- is to lure away and devour young girls.  As a mythology/folklore nerd, I can say that I love the cleverness of the Fenris mythology nearly as much as I loved the way the story unfolded. 

And... once again, I have an upcoming sequel to mention.  Sweetly, Jackson Pearce's companion to Sisters Red will be released in June of 2011.  It's a retelling of another Grimm tale: Hansel and Gretel.  Check out Jackson Pearce's latest blog post to get the full scoop on Sweetly.