Reviews – Page 21 – Werewolf News

A Werewolf Nerd’s Reaction to the First Episode of Teen Wolf

There comes a point a little more than halfway through the first episode of MTV’s Teen Wolf where I was certain the show (or at least my interest in it) was slipping into a death spiral. Charming everyhunk Scott and mysterious new girl Allison, both drenched in rain and hormones, exchange uncomfortable “I got a crush on you” bon mots over an injured dog that Scott’s rescued with his capable hands and nascent wolf powers. Scott manages to arrange a date with Allison, then goes home to lay in bed and gaze dreamily out the window at a nearly-full moon. The show had built up a lot of goodwill over the first 20 minutes, balancing wry humour, earnest performances and a few genuine scares, but for me, these two connected scenes threatened to undo it all with its textbook puppy-love schmaltz.

Then Scott rolls over and his clean white sheets become the leaf-strewn floor of a forest that may or may not be a dream, and I’m hooked for the rest of the episode. From that point on I couldn’t say I was watching it just so I could say I’d seen it – I was watching because I wanted to know what would happen next. I made a few guesses, most of which turned out to be correct, but that didn’t take away from my genuine enjoyment of the episode’s second half. There was a lot to like in Teen Wolf, and a lot of the things I was afraid of were either tempered by positive elements, or were entirely absent. Let me break it down for you, list-style.

The Good

No dancing around the word “werewolf” or the reality of same. There’s some requisite incredulity at first, but the episode doesn’t torture the audience by making us wait ages for the main characters to catch up with what we already know: there really are werewolves in the area, and Scott’s now one of them.
Tyler Posey‘s Scott is way more likable than I was expecting, but I was particularly entertained by Scott’s friend Stiles, played with twitchy, wide-eyed energy by Dylan O’Brien. He’s not the life-of-the-party goofball from the film, but he’s got a manic enthusiasm that’s complimented by genuine sincerity and concern for his friend.
Scott’s werewolf transformation. Solid, well-executed effects that all look like they were done via practical methods (other than the yellow eye-glow, which wasn’t as cheesy as I feared), and the way the change is shot is efficient, effective and striking. I liked Scott’s werewolf form better than I thought I would.
Jeff Davis’s screenplay had some genuinely funny lines in it – Scott’s comment about where he gets his juice made me laugh out loud. The show is definitely a drama, not a comedy, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the moments of humour are effective.
Allison’s dad is a werewolf hunter is played by JR Bourne. He’s got almost no dialog so far but that guy is scary.
The soundtrack. What can I say? I like Deadmau5.

The Bad

This is supposed to be a show about high school kids, but the main players all look like college juniors. That’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s a little weird seeing all these decidedly adult-looking “young adults” worrying about who’s getting invited to the party this weekend.
The jocks/bullies. I know this is just the first episode so there’s not a lot of space to develop the lacrosse field antagonists into rounded characters, but they still seemed especially two-dimensional. We see enough of Scott’s physique to know that he’s got no real reason to fear bullies, so it’s hard to feel worried when he’s threatened.
Derek Hale and his leather jacket cut a very imposing figure, but his role so far seems like a borderline caricature of the Mysterious And Aloof Mentor. He even says “The bite is a gift.” Hopefully this (clearly integral) character gets a bit more nuance in later episodes.

The Ugly

I’m just going to come right out and say it: the romance between Scott and Allison bores me to nerdy tears. I understand why it’s part of the story, but my Lord, that scene at the animal clinic nearly did me in. This is obviously a part of the show geared towards a demographic other than my own, and that’s fine, but that scene and the (mercifully short) scene at the party both dragged the energy of the episode down like buckets of lead.

What does this all mean? Well, I liked it. It’s fair to say that I liked it a lot. I didn’t see anything revolutionary, but it’s early times yet, and I know enough about some of the later episodes to be keenly interested in how the story’s going to unfold. I’ll definitely be watching the next few episodes, and if they provide me with more of the same, I’ll be well-satisfied.

So that’s what I thought. What’d you think?

Angela Quinton Jun. 7th 2011

Kindle & Shitty Werewolf Book Covers Get Equipped With: A New Asshole, Ripped Into Place By Roukas

One of the worst English papers I’ve ever graded stated that “technoligy makes people smarter.” I shit you not: That same paper went on to become a letter to President Obama, asking him to invent a device that would revolutionize the recycling process of cardboard and plastic. I know that Obama can MacGyverize anything, but this retardedness alone is a great argument to smash your laptop and become Robinson Caruso. However, even if Bill Gates himself had the self-analysis to blow up his HAL computer and churn Amish butter for the rest of his life, not even that would be enough to stop the inevitable tide of collective stupidity brought about by convenience-based technology. Sure, people don’t need technology to be stupid, but when shit like Kindle comes on the scene, I’d be naïve to think that people would use it to become less stupid and less pinky-raising pseudo-European. I don’t look at the Kindle phenomenon and think that it’ll cause a revival in reading. That would be like looking at a giant cucumber with cooking oil on the float of a gay pride parade, but saying “huh, I wonder what vegetarian recipe they’re advertising?” But what does this mean for shitty werewolf book covers? It means that Kindle is a technological Pandora’s Box that has ushered in a new era of shittiness for literary lycanthropy. That is because Kindle, not being dependent on traditional manufacturing demands, allows more stuff to be published, thus allowing more idiots to shit all over the English language. Lycanthropic literature has therefore become more Michael Bay than ever before.

The following are the most prominent pinnacles of lycanthropic literary retardedness that Kindle has unleashed on the world. And while Obama’s Macgyverness can’t alchemize these turds into gold, mine can.

Mated to a Wolf by Marisa Chernery

If by mated to a “wolf” you mean mated to a Facebook asshole, then yeah, Chernery, you nailed it. Let’s say that I was a conflicted and misunderstood Rastafarian with a propeller growing out of my head, and that I was in competition with a regular Rastafarian to win the heart of a beautiful woman. How the hell would I be more complex, mysterious and sexy than this other guy? If I was an emo asshole who could turn into a wolf, how would that sexify me more than being a regular old amaretto-sipping blogger who plays bass guitar and gets perfect grades while being 2 cool 4 school?

I’m not sure how to solve such mysteries, but I do know that contemporary readers of romances that involve supernatural creatures don’t even ask them. I’m also not sure why contemporary monster-makers have to make their monsters conform to everything that makes contemporary humanity worth yawning at. After all, I thought one of the reasons you’d have your heroine bang a monster to begin with would be to escape the suck-ass reality that readers ironically revel in. Hell, we’ve already seen this happen in Twilight (at least those of us who actually read some of the book or sat through the movie). I was able to make it through the book’s first fifty or so pages, and I regard that as more of an accomplishment than beating The Legend of Zelda without whoring myself out to the Nintendo Power strategy guide.

Janna’s Werewolf by Fawn Lowery

I think that one of my deepest character flaws is my inability to resist arousal when the thing that’s trying to turn me on is hot yet unintentionally retarded. I mean, the hot foreground characters here are basically lifted from a Victoria’s Secret catalog, but what’s up with the mummy with Warcraft-nerd hair? I can’t help but giggle while feeling a bit uncomfortable in my pants, especially after my third glass of sake. However, I doubt that was what Lowery intended my reaction to be as a reader.

And then there’s another problem. The book’s synopsis from amazon.com runs thus: “Janna Marlow doesn’t know anything about tennis-but she knows about men. And werewolves. She’s one. And tennis great Rick Sawyer has scented her. He’s a werewolf too. She wants an interview. He wants sex. They trade.”

I’ve never met an actual werewolf, but I think that if a werewolf ever became a tennis pro, then he would be a cross between Hannibal Lechter and John MacInroe. Not a computer-generated image of a dehydrated Rob Zombie lost in Ethiopia. Not a jacked Calvin Klein model that’s a cross between Timothy Dalton and Vanilla Ice. To prove this, I’ll re-write some of the book myself.

Janna’s Werewolf by Mike Roukas

“Through the mesh of the court’s net, Rick Sawyer eyed his opponent with feral concentration. The dark hair on his calf bristled as he tensed, and time slowed as his opponent (prey?) launched the shimmering green orb skyward and blasted it with a powerful serve. Fight or flight? No, Rick had never run from anything in his life, and damned if he would now.

“Like the tide dancing its war dance against its ancient Lunar master, Sawyer growled. He and his opponent smashed the ball back and forth across the net, Sawyer eyeing the verdant sphere like he eyed a far more important ball: the moon, every month when it waxed full . . . when he became his true self, when the beast within became the beast without, and then . . . . Rick could not contain himself any longer. With a feral cry he backhanded the green orb, smashing it over the net.

“The human on the other side, the pitiful human had lost touch with its primal roots; its reflexes could not catch the ball in time, and Sawyer joined the crowd’s roar with his own howl of victory that drowned out the announcer’s ‘15-0!’ that resounded throughout the stadium like the cry of an eagle.”

There. If you were able to actually read through that without cringing, then you have my congratulations, Jerry Bruckheimer.

Moonburn by Alisa Sheckley

“Hey Irwin, do you have any sunblock?”

“Why’s that, Simon?”

“I have to go outside for a while. My interwebs are running low, and I need to run to RadioShack to recharge them so I can get back on Warcraft.”

“Ok, but it’s nighttime out. Sunblock?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to get moonburn!”

Moon Illusion by Amy O’Connor

Taking a break from his busy schedule of building killer bike ramps in the woods and playing apple-baseball (basically, where you play baseball using apples instead of a baseball), 16 year-old Trevor Greco of Highland Lakes, New Jersey has agreed to write this book-cover review.

Lol you see how the guy’s pec looks like a mini-boob? LOL!!! Lol nice I realy want to be a werewolf more then a vampire now because werewolves look like plastic dolls and the guy has a boob. People say I look like Edward a bit at least in some light, like an Italian Edward maybe (my familys Italian). At least Twilight vampire didn’t have that (the Boob Illusion I mean, lol), and its like you couldn’t hire actors to do this and had to use your computer? Lol yeah Ive seen turds with more life, like im so turned on. I mean I jacked it to Mistique in XMen and she’s animated by computer but that dosent count. Take THAT if you thought I was gay from the pic’s pink background. So if you thought I was gay cuz the pink background than FUCK YOU, I had that pic taken for my gf. She wanted it taken so she could see me when I rang on her iPhone so I had it done for her. Anyway these people on the cover SUCK, and like oh the author just slapped a wolf in the corner, it’s like when everything fails just google images search for national geographic wolfs and oh I’ll swoon like that girl YEAH RIGHT. And theres a lot more celtic-gay wrong with this pic, but the microwave went off and my Salisbury steak is rdy so i’ll write more about it in a bit.

Black Werewolf by Doctor T

Well my name be Dr. T, I’m not a licensed practitioner
But I’ll write lycanthropic hotness like shampoo vs. conditioner;
One cleans the hair, one makes it silky and smooth,
And like Young MC and Billy Madison I’m gonna bust a move so CHECK IT:

Werewolves always getting’ bit, howlin’ and talkin’ shit,
But this brotha’s silver lyrics always get my shorty WORKIN’ IT WORKIN’ IT,
Oh snap son, looks like it’s ova fo da full moon,
And yo shaggy-ass hair need some Vidal Sassoon,

So come get served on tha mic, you ain’t no Peter Stumpp,
You just an east-side relic and a flea-bitten chump,
No more European east son, yo’ ass be in Detroit,
And when I cap yo furry ass, like Steve Irwin I say “roit!”

I said a Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn,
If yo’ werewolf’s actin’, up, then you bring his friends!

Mike Roukas Feb. 11th 2011

“Werewolf Haiku” Book Review

Hello everyone! My name is Macabri, and you’re reading this because I have been given the great honor of being added as a contributing writer to this site! I thought I would kick things off with a review of “Werewolf Haiku” by Ryan Mecum.

There is no really good way to sum up what this book is like. It’s funny, it’s wild, it’s gross, it’s disturbing and much more. I read this little beauty on a plane trip to Florida, and it was one of those books where you try to make sure no one is peeking over your shoulder. It’s pretty hard to explain why you’re reading a book whose contents are splattered with images of blood, matted hair and pig heads.

“Werewolf Haiku” follows the life of a mailman who has been bitten by a werewolf and has now become a werewolf himself. It is essentially a personal journal of his life after his lupine encounter, but told entirely in haikus. (That’s the five-seven-five syllable format you likely learned in school.) As you may have surmised, this is no sissy werewolf type of story. We’re talking puking, moonlight hunts and gallons of blood.

I’m still not sure how this book really makes me feel. At times I was positively nauseated (and I have a REALLY strong stomach). At other times I found myself giggling. How can you not laugh at a haiku that says:

If you think tacos
are hard for you to digest,
try passing chipmunks.

Pretty funny, right? At the same time, there is something so disturbingly honest about the descriptions in the book. Things are said that make sense, but that also make you wonder about the author and where some of the ideas came from. For example, there was this haiku:

When people eat corn
and spot them in their feces-
teeth are that way, too.

I get that, it makes sense, but it also goes over a line that rarely gets crossed even in horror literature. There are quite a number of squirm-worthy comments throughout the book.

If you have a weak stomach, this is not the book for you. I have a strong stomach, and I’m still not sure it was the book for me, either. Maybe I’ll give it another read sometime…but definitely not after I’ve just eaten.

I’ll give this book 3 out of 5 dead squirrels.

Macabri Jan. 23rd 2011

Comic Review: Harbor Moon

When my copy of Harbor Moon arrived I just held it and looked at the cover for a few minutes. This was out of character for me. When some new and interesting werewolf item arrives on my desk I normally handle it the way a raccoon approaches a closed bin: there are things inside I want, delicious, intriguing things, and the outside is merely an impediment to the sating of my hunger. This book, though, wouldn’t let itself be torn open. I simply had to hold it, enjoying its satisfying matte cover stock, its oversized dimensions and the vivid red splatter on the front. Later, after reading it, one of my first thoughts was that if Harbor Moon’s contents had been as confident and vivid as its covers, it would have been a great book instead of a good one.

When condensed down to a synopsis, Harbor Moon’s premise doesn’t sound like it’s breaking much new ground. Timothy Vance is drawn to an isolated Maine town after receiving a phone call from a man claiming to be his long-lost father, but upon arriving in Harbor Moon, the man is nowhere to be found and Timothy gets tangled in the town’s dangerous secrets– secrets that involve him more than he knows. At first I felt like I’d heard similar stories before, and in fact I got Harbor Moon confused with the Syfy show Haven, which is also about an orphaned protagonist who visits a mysterious Maine town and becomes entangled in its secrets. (In my defense, I heard about both of them on the same day.) What I learned is that it’s foolish to judge a book by its back cover teaser copy.

Writers Ryan Colucci and Dikran Ornekian tell a story that’s comfortably familiar rather than derivative, and so self-contained and well-paced that it reads like a tightened-up film adaptation of a longer, less focused work. I was reminded several times of The Wrong Night in Texas, which has a similarly confrontational “you think you can predict things but you’re WRONG” vibe, although Texas‘s twists were delivered via manic episodes of hyper-violence and Harbor Moon’s surprises are instead revealed in tense, nightmarish languor. This dream-like atmosphere is expertly balanced by the dialog’s bright jabs of lucidity – there are longish sections of exposition that never get tiresome or tedious, and multi-page passages where a single sentence is successfully employed to keep the narrative thread intact. Characters that seem flat when they’re introduced become fully-realized and carefully, confidently articulated. In the hands of lesser writers this material could have been predictable, or worse, boring, but Colucci and Ornekian keep the reader on their toes until the end.

Artist Pawel Sambor (and supporting artist Nikodem Cabala) worried me at first. In places the artwork’s lines are frustratingly inconsistent– many of the male characters suffer from the same square-jaw & crew-cut look, perspectives are a little wonky at times, and in panels where there’s a lot of inking to be done, things look unbalanced. The drawing style changes every few pages, cycling through hard-edged lines with stark shadows, softer and richer lines with gradated shadows, and even a few pages where the lines are merely implied through contrast. If Harbor Moon was a black and white publication, these issues would be problematic, but Harbor Moon is in full colour, and the colouring work might be the best I’ve ever seen in a graphic novel.

Every page feels like it should be wet with something: water, sweat, blood, animal saliva, clinging mist. The dreamlike quality of the story is enhanced tenfold by super-saturated washes, texture overlays both diaphanous and grimy, pools of the deepest, subtlest blacks and gradients whose boundaries seem to shift as the eye moves across the page. There are panels and even entire pages where the hard black inks are traded for what looks like coloured pencil or conté, and when combined with the vivid colours, the results are simply gorgeous. And when the werewolves appear (they’re scarce at first but by the end there’s no shortage), the inconsistency disappears entirely: the lines are as confident, savage and graceful as the the creatures they render; the colour as graphic and brutal as the violence it depicts. It’s almost as though the scenes involving werewolves are reality, and everything else is a feverish hallucination.

Harbor Moon seems like a depiction of someone’s dream– a dream constantly on the brink of becoming a nightmare. There are a lot of factors at play, and not all of them are strictly under control– the originality of the story doesn’t make itself clear right away, and the artwork, though beautifully coloured, suffers from bouts of schizophrenia. In the end, though, I believe these imperfections add character, rather than detracting from the whole. There’s a lot to like here; the writing is sharp, and when the visuals work, they work beautifully. Harbor Moon is a good graphic novel, and when its creators exercise their confidence, it’s great.

Buy, borrow or skip?

Buy if you’re all about horror comics or werewolves, and if you like the idea of a lush-looking oversized graphic novel on your coffee table. Borrow if you’re a comics fan first and a werewolf fan second; you’ll want to see if the elements mix in a way that grabs you.

Available now, direct from Harbor-Moon.com for $19.95 + $2.75 shipping. Available for pre-order from Amazon for $13.64.

Angela Quinton Oct. 29th 2010

Book Review: The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849

I’ve been a fan of werewolves since I was old enough to pronounce the word, and I’ve been bored with the “classic” werewolf stories of old for nearly as long. My elementary school library had two books about werewolves, both of them mainly concerned with Peter Stumpp and La Bête du Gévaudan. Those were not interesting subjects for a young werewolf fan who had just watched “An American Werewolf in London”. I learned to associate werewolf legends and tales from before 1930 with tedious history lessons, crazy guys with beards and religious persecution, and only recently have I unlearned that narrow point of view, thanks largely to the classic werewolf anthology The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849, edited and introduced by Andrew Barger.

I think this is a great little book, and you’ll probably feel the same way if you agree that reading and knowledge are awesome. The five stories in this anthology contain the seeds of werewolf myths we accept (and in some cases defend) as canon today, so I’m not in a position to review their contents as I would modern fiction. That would be like a gaming site reviewing the original Pacman or Donkey Kong according to today’s standards, and like Tycho, I’m more inclined to take off my hat in reverence than scrutinize the seemingly rudimentary nature of the work. It comes as a relief, though, that these five tales are entertaining and interesting on the merits of the storytelling alone.

My favourite story of the lot is also the first: “Hugues the Wer-Wolf” by Sutherland Menzies. According to Barger’s introduction, this is the first known werewolf story in which the now-classic “cut off a werewolf’s paw and look for a human missing a hand the next day” gambit is used, although the titular werewolf fakes his way through the limb-counting in a way that I’d never heard of before. “The Man-Wolf” by Leitch Ritchie is the toughest read of the book if you’re not wearing your 19-century glasses, but it was also the most fun, with some truly likable characters and subtle deadpan humour. Catherine Crowe’s “A Story of a Weir-Wolf” is a beautifully-described tale about love, jealousy, treachery and a young woman who performs a redemptive act so hardcore she makes San look like a trembling waif. The last two stories, “The Wehr-Wolf: A Legend of the Limousin” and “The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains”, were also good, although the former was a bit chaotic and tended to spin its wheels a bit, while the latter concerned an antagonist whose lycanthropy wasn’t strictly integral to the tale. Still, there’s virtually no filler, which makes “Short Stories” a short but satisfyingly dense and rewarding read.

Each story is introduced with a summary of Barger’s research concerning the tale’s history and literary background. These intros serve as bumpers and set the proper context for each story– without them, the varied styles and tones of the stories would make for a disjointed reading experience. Barger’s enthusiasm for the material is evident on every page: the commentary and the depth of the research which informs it makes it clear that he isn’t publishing this anthology simply to cash in on the current werewolf / monster craze. He posits that these stories have value, both as examples of writing from a nascent period of horror fiction and as the genesis of the ideas that form our modern vision of the werewolf. I agree with him. The lesson here? Don’t let your seven-year-old self dictate your reading list.

Buy, borrow or skip?

Buy if you’re a literary scholar, a student or a book geek like me and you have an interest in the history of werewolves. This is required reading.

Borrow if you found this web site while Googling “Warcraft Cataclysm worgen” or “werewolf costume” and you read all the way to the end of this review– we’ll make a book nerd of you yet.

Available from Amazon. Visit Andrew’s web site for more info.

Angela Quinton Sep. 13th 2010

Comic Review: The Wrong Night in Texas

The more popular a dangerous thing becomes, the more rounded its corners get and the safer it becomes for public consumption. Just look at what happened to punk music: from Sex Pistols to Green Day in just 12 years! It’s plausible that the recent glut of mom-and-teen-friendly horror/fantasy entertainment is in danger of having the same effect on werewolves. Until recently, I was actually concerned about this. A Google News search for “werewolves” would result in a dizzying hall-of-mirrors effect involving Taylor Lautner and Joe Manganiello and I would have to go lay down until the shakes went away. But no more! I’m confident that the werewolf will always remain a creature of horror and gleeful, animalistic mayhem. What changed, you ask? Simple: I read Joshua Boulet’s graphic novel “The Wrong Night in Texas“. This book contains a story that you already know if you’re even remotely familiar with horror comics and movies. There’s a young couple, an isolated cabin and a werewolf whose human appearance identifies him as the antagonist the instant he appears. If this were a song we’d all know the words after hearing the opening four notes. But what makes “Texas” special is the masterful way Joshua plays it– this is no cover. This isn’t even a tribute. He simply owns the story in a way that’s so confident, vicious and downright fun that it feels new and fresh, and as a result it’s impossible not to pay attention. And just when you’re having a good time, confident that you know what’s coming next, Joshua steps right over the werewolf horror tropes and punches you in the stomach. More than one panel had me pulling wide-eyed double-takes. The effectiveness of these storytelling maneuvers is due in part to pacing and composition. William Strunk told writers to omit needless words; here, Joshua omits needless panels. He has a cinematographer’s eye for angles and blocking, and combined with his knack for illustrating just the right beats of the action, the story progresses in a way that’s relentless without ever feeling rushed. The reader learns just enough about each character to believe in them, and to form opinions about them. That most of those opinions will probably be negative matters not a bit; once the werewolf arrives and the blood starts splattering the walls, it’s impossible not to root for these people, even the asshole redneck brother. I wanted everyone to survive because I was genuinely scared for them, which made the shock of the grisly deaths (and there are a lot of them, believe me) all the more effective. The book’s carefully tailored economy isn’t confined to the storytelling. The artwork is spare but packed with details and flourishes in all the right places. Joshua’s faces, for instance, tend to contain fewer lines than one usually sees in comic-style art, but the lines he does draw tell you everything you need to know about the character’s emotions. The plentiful gore is rendered in busy clumps and blobs that imply visceral nastiness without ever getting too detailed– you know when you’re looking at a gouged-out eye or spilled intestines, but Joshua smartly avoids going for the cheap thrills of gore porn. Where Joshua’s art truly excels is exterior environments. When introducing an exterior he often takes a quarter panel or even half the page and fills it with lush, organic fields of colour and stark pools of black shadow. His use of gradients and transparency do wonders for setting up an atmosphere, whether it’s the torrential rain and wind of the eponymous night or the cruel sunlight of the morning after. Even the black and white still life compositions that bracket the story vibrate with the suggestion that they are real places. “A horror story that stays true to the genre”, reads the epigraph on the back cover, and while “Texas” isn’t the first piece of horror media to assert its value by claiming to be authentic horror, it’s the first thing I’ve experienced in a long time that genuinely horrified me. It also thrilled me with its energy, charmed me with its lovingly-crafted aesthetic and, above all, satisfied that primal part of my brain that just wants to see a vicious, monstrous werewolf tearing shit up.

Buy, borrow or skip?

Buy. Joshua Boulet has captured and unapologetically celebrated everything that makes the werewolf wild, dangerous and fun. Available from Joshua’s web site for $10 US + $5 shipping,

Angela Quinton Aug. 26th 2010

Book Review: Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies: Compendium Monstrum

Imagine a beautifully frosted, perfectly decorated cake. Lovely to look at, but under all that carefully-sculpted sugar lay three slabs of Betty Crocker Cherry Chip that should have been mixed better and baked half an hour longer. That, in a nutshell, is Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies: Compendium Monstrum by Suzanne Schwalb and Margaret Rubiano: it looks delicious, but the insides are a little lumpy and uneven.

I pulled this book out to read while at a beach party (yeah, I’m boring) and I had to pass it around to four or five people before cracking the cover myself. Everyone who saw it was immediately intrigued and wanted to see it for themselves: a tiny matte black book with an ornate gold and red design on the cover and a bright red ribbon for marking your place. The pages are yellowed and printed to look textured without looking cheesy, and the interior page layouts are moody yet crisp. And the maps! Each of the major sections begins with a fold-out map marking locations of interest. The overall design work is excellent. All credit to Rubiano, who laid the pages out– the book looks good.
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Angela Quinton Jul. 29th 2010

Book Review: “The Werewolf’s Guide To Life” by Ritch Duncan & Bob Powers

The Werewolf’s Guide to Life belongs right next to the Bible in every werewolf’s (or werewolf’s spouse’s) nightstand. Its subtitle “A Manual for the Newly Bitten” accurately represents what lies between its covers: not a tepid modernization of werewolf myths peppered with pseudo-scientific explanations, but rather a no-nonsense (yet oddly humorous) instructional guide for newly-initiated werewolves.

At 236 illustrated pages, it’s clear that authors Ritch Duncan and Bob Powers were thinking hard about the daily challenges of being a werewolf long before the publishing world hitched its wagon to the recent monster fad. The book begins with a stark command instructing those who have just been bitten to skip ahead to the chapters that are most immediately relevant to their situation: namely, those that identify the signs of an impending transformation and how to avoid killing others (or being killed yourself) during your first Moon.

Most of the book adheres to this thoughtful textbook-like structure. It’s organized into three parts comprised of chapters that build on previously-discussed topics, but the text and sidebars encourage a lot of skipping ahead to areas where a topic of particular interest (or immediate relevance) is covered in greater detail. If you’re reading about the supplies you’ll need to have available in your enclosure during a Moon, you’ll learn you’d better have “lots of raw, red meat” available to slake your wolf-self’s hunger. But wait, the conscientious werewolf-to-be might wonder, how much meat is enough? You can take the potentially fatal guesswork out of the equation by skipping ahead to Chapter 11 (“Diet and Livestock”), which contains an elaborate table describing a point system for finding the right balance of live meat, dead meat and vegetable-based filler to keep you satisfied during your bestial evenings.

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Angela Quinton Jul. 18th 2010