Wilding

Rating:
Summary: Some nice atmosphere, but....
Review: Melanie Tem's WILDING has 1 moment of pure poetry -- in 1 chapter about 1/2way thru the novel, Tem Dscribes her female-werewolf heroine running thru the streets of Denver, & the sights, sounds & feelings she Xperiences during those dozen pages R almost worth reading the novel 4 all by themselves. The rest is a standard, not-very-involving werewolf novel with a noticeable, distracting pro-feminine bias -- male werewoves R considered sneaky, untrustworthy, basically worthless. This view reaches its high (or low) point in Tem's later DESMODUS, in which male vampires R considered helpless & worthless, & Tem goes out of her way 2 insult men 4 chapters at a time; this forced me 2 stop reading after 150 pgs, tho I agree most men R slime (& I am one). Tem's later REVENANT has a GORGEOUS 1st- & last-chapter framing device that is as beautifully written as the above-cited chapter in WILDING, but the rest of the book is almost 2 painful 2 read. I'd like to Njoy & respect Tem's writing, but her biases & the pain in her writing put me off....

Rating:
Summary: Some nice atmosphere, but....
Review: Melanie Tem's WILDING has 1 moment of pure poetry -- in 1 chapter about 1/2way thru the novel, Tem Dscribes her female-werewolf heroine running thru the streets of Denver, & the sights, sounds & feelings she Xperiences during those dozen pages R almost worth reading the novel 4 all by themselves. The rest is a standard, not-very-involving werewolf novel with a noticeable, distracting pro-feminine bias -- male werewoves R considered sneaky, untrustworthy, basically worthless. This view reaches its high (or low) point in Tem's later DESMODUS, in which male vampires R considered helpless & worthless, & Tem goes out of her way 2 insult men 4 chapters at a time; this forced me 2 stop reading after 150 pgs, tho I agree most men R slime (& I am one). Tem's later REVENANT has a GORGEOUS 1st- & last-chapter framing device that is as beautifully written as the above-cited chapter in WILDING, but the rest of the book is almost 2 painful 2 read. I'd like to Njoy & respect Tem's writing, but her biases & the pain in her writing put me off....

Rating:
Summary: Aoooooo...werewolves of Denver.
Review: The story of an ancient line of female werewolves in an urban setting. Deborah, fifteen, filled with self-loathing and already pregnant, unwilling to be initiated into the family, runs away to make it on her own. Her adventure is juxtaposed with scenes of life within the werewolf society as they deal with events that may signal the end of their line.

As in her first novel, PRODIGAL, Tem shows her mastery at getting inside her characters' heads - all the more impressive considering these aren't even human. She believably portrays how the werewolves might observe the human world, the confusion of the city streets, through all their senses. Yet this novel seems to be too much a simple character study, and I couldn't help but feel there was a lot more story waiting to be told. There is an ending, but I was left wondering exactly how I got there. The characters don't change much, and the final events strike the reader as inevitable from the start.

A near miss from a writer whom I will nonetheless still be keeping an eye on.

Rating:
Summary: Aoooooo...werewolves of Denver.
Review: The story of an ancient line of female werewolves in an urban setting. Deborah, fifteen, filled with self-loathing and already pregnant, unwilling to be initiated into the family, runs away to make it on her own. Her adventure is juxtaposed with scenes of life within the werewolf society as they deal with events that may signal the end of their line.

As in her first novel, PRODIGAL, Tem shows her mastery at getting inside her characters' heads - all the more impressive considering these aren't even human. She believably portrays how the werewolves might observe the human world, the confusion of the city streets, through all their senses. Yet this novel seems to be too much a simple character study, and I couldn't help but feel there was a lot more story waiting to be told. There is an ending, but I was left wondering exactly how I got there. The characters don't change much, and the final events strike the reader as inevitable from the start.

A near miss from a writer whom I will nonetheless still be keeping an eye on.