The Wolf Gift

by Anne Rice
2 out of 5 stars

I might give this 2.5 stars, because it did hold my interest OK, but overall, it was a bit...meh. I had a lot higher hopes for an Anne Rice werewolf; this was a letdown.

The whole book lacked conflict, and the characters felt pretty contrived. Definitely the physical prowess and Batman-like traits of of her “man-wolf” were fun to behold, but the whole situation of being a werewolf conflicted so little with his former/real life, that it was almost anticlimactic when the transformation unfolded.

Reuben is a golden boy with a cool job (and a trust fund) from a rich and relatively perfect family, and the events that led to his “infection” handily resulted in him being willed a spectacular (and staffed) secluded mansion that’s a stone’s throw from the moody cliffs of California’s coast and surrounded by redwood forest. Really? Also, what 23 year old uses the word "splendid"?

While I'm not a big fan of the drawn out, agonizing Being-Human*-style werewolf transformation (because that's just gross and about as appealing as menstruation every month), the rippling, orgasmic version Rice presents is kind of lame. And then the wolf-human sex? Um...ick. Seriously, his lover gets off on kissing his dog lips? Do dogs even have lips?

As with a lot of Rice’s stories, there’s a lot of supernatural fog floating about, and, in some ways, it’s almost an excuse to not have to explain things more fully, so it feels like more of a cop out than an element of the story. I could go on about the individual characters, but I’ll just say there was a lot of potential that went unrealized.

As always, Rice’s detailed and lush descriptions are enjoyable – whether she’s describing a dinner party or the gory end to a bad guy, and I’ve always liked that about her work. If you like Anne Rice’s style in general, I’d say give it a whirl if you like this kind of lore – it’s a fairly fast read and much less dark and cumbersome than some of her other books that wander (at times exhaustively) through history and have several story lines going at once.

*i.e., the BBC series