crockpotcauldron (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crockpotcauldron) wrote2018-12-10 11:31 am
crockpotcauldron) wrote2018-12-10 11:31 am
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What I Like About Werewolves
Alright, looks like this is a good platform to do werewolf book reviews.
I read a lot of werewolf books, and most of them are terrible, but I still love werewolves. I'm not sure what it is about them - I'm trying to narrow down what I do and don't like, to hopefully help me target better stories. Let's reverse engineer the stories I do like.
For starters, I don't really like vampires. I don't really like it when werewolves have to play second fiddle to vampires, or when people recommend a "werewolf book" that is just a cameo in book three of a vampire series. Fie on you, deceptive library catalogue that made me read Twilight. That being said, the werewolves in Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall are pretty great in their limited pagetime.
I don't mind werewolves who are monsters - it can make for a thrilling horror story. Thor by Wayne Smith was pretty great, though of course I consider Thor to kinda be a secondary werewolf protagonist, since he is a dog. The werewolf in Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin is the same sort of monstrous werewolf as a foil to a dog protagonist. Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand was also a great read, with bumbling mobster protagonists versus the evil werewolf they kidnapped. Gabriel-Ernest by Saki (which I just read - thanks, chickadee_sun!) is a fascinating short story about an encounter with an affable, opportunistic young werewolf with an interest in human flesh. So I guess the rule here is that if the werewolf is the bad guy, there needs to be an emotional draw - the tragedy of losing a beloved person to lycanthropy, or the fear of it eating characters who care about each other. I do like old wolf strap stories with their hilarious sheep-stealing antics, but I don't like pointless, gory slasher stories about the Beast of Gevaudan, and I don't watch most werewolf movies due to the buckets of blood.
I do like tragic or accidentally transformed werewolves. Weiland in The Changeling Prince by Vivian Vande Velde is a top notch woobie werewolf. Frank in Surviving Frank by David Page is accidentally stuck between forms, and just keeps grimly doing his job as a cop despite being a giant furry monster. Talbot Uskevren in Black Wolf by Dave Gross is a theater nerd who does his best to keep his friends and family safe despite being infected with lycanthropy. Bisclavret in The Lai of Bisclavret is such a good werewolf who tries very hard.
I also like adorable werewolves, especially ones with packs. That werewolf puppy in The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica is amazing, as is the community of lesbians who rallied around it. The werewolves in Lia Silver's Werewolf Marines series are family-oriented and friendly, and I love them. Weregirl by C.D. Bell also has some great werewolves who like cross country running, and are dedicated to protecting an actual wolf pack. Kel McDonald always has good werewolves, from the family in Sorcery 101 to the one that ends up in the pound in The Better To Find You With (I love a good werewolf-in-the-pound story). Cliff from Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas is a great grumpy teenager. The Alphas in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher were great, up until they weren't. Though I do like packs, I generally prefer found family dynamics, not werewolves as closed ethnic groups and lineages - I don't really like fantasy-racism stories or the weird emphasis on breeding and bloodlines and babies that happens sometimes. On the whole, I prefer people who can turn into wolves, not entire species of animal-people.
I definitely don't like shifter stories. I have nothing against furries, but I don't really think we're looking for the same things in a werewolf story, and one of the signs that it's not the right kind of story for me is if the werewolves aren't called werewolves, and are just one of a variety of animal people like wolf shifters, bear shifters, etc. and each species has defined character traits. The half-wolf anthro form also isn't really my thing - I prefer werewolves who look like actual wolves. I'm not a stickler about dogs, though - I will happily include dog protagonists, or people turned into dogs.
I don't like dogfucking. I don't really care for things like knotting, marking, or heat, and I strongly prefer if all sex scenes are between two people who are currently human, and nobody mentions being attracted to dogs/wolves, or considers wolfish traits in a human to be sexy, or has sexual thoughts while turned into a wolf. If that's what floats your boat, enjoy, just give me a warning before recommending a story with it.
Other dealbreakers include designated mates, and alpha, beta, and omega roles in werewolf society. I can accept a pack leader, but a highly authoritarian society, or constant jockeying for status is likely to put me off. I'm especially uninterested in "wolf instincts" that boil down to "acting like an abusive boyfriend" or "being extra homophobic," and have unfortunately encountered a lot of it in werewolf books. Let's just name names already - please don't recommend me any of the Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs, or the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn, and while we're at it, please don't recommend Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver or Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate either. Been there, done that, had a lot to say about it.
I read a lot of werewolf books, and most of them are terrible, but I still love werewolves. I'm not sure what it is about them - I'm trying to narrow down what I do and don't like, to hopefully help me target better stories. Let's reverse engineer the stories I do like.
For starters, I don't really like vampires. I don't really like it when werewolves have to play second fiddle to vampires, or when people recommend a "werewolf book" that is just a cameo in book three of a vampire series. Fie on you, deceptive library catalogue that made me read Twilight. That being said, the werewolves in Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall are pretty great in their limited pagetime.
I don't mind werewolves who are monsters - it can make for a thrilling horror story. Thor by Wayne Smith was pretty great, though of course I consider Thor to kinda be a secondary werewolf protagonist, since he is a dog. The werewolf in Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin is the same sort of monstrous werewolf as a foil to a dog protagonist. Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand was also a great read, with bumbling mobster protagonists versus the evil werewolf they kidnapped. Gabriel-Ernest by Saki (which I just read - thanks, chickadee_sun!) is a fascinating short story about an encounter with an affable, opportunistic young werewolf with an interest in human flesh. So I guess the rule here is that if the werewolf is the bad guy, there needs to be an emotional draw - the tragedy of losing a beloved person to lycanthropy, or the fear of it eating characters who care about each other. I do like old wolf strap stories with their hilarious sheep-stealing antics, but I don't like pointless, gory slasher stories about the Beast of Gevaudan, and I don't watch most werewolf movies due to the buckets of blood.
I do like tragic or accidentally transformed werewolves. Weiland in The Changeling Prince by Vivian Vande Velde is a top notch woobie werewolf. Frank in Surviving Frank by David Page is accidentally stuck between forms, and just keeps grimly doing his job as a cop despite being a giant furry monster. Talbot Uskevren in Black Wolf by Dave Gross is a theater nerd who does his best to keep his friends and family safe despite being infected with lycanthropy. Bisclavret in The Lai of Bisclavret is such a good werewolf who tries very hard.
I also like adorable werewolves, especially ones with packs. That werewolf puppy in The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica is amazing, as is the community of lesbians who rallied around it. The werewolves in Lia Silver's Werewolf Marines series are family-oriented and friendly, and I love them. Weregirl by C.D. Bell also has some great werewolves who like cross country running, and are dedicated to protecting an actual wolf pack. Kel McDonald always has good werewolves, from the family in Sorcery 101 to the one that ends up in the pound in The Better To Find You With (I love a good werewolf-in-the-pound story). Cliff from Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas is a great grumpy teenager. The Alphas in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher were great, up until they weren't. Though I do like packs, I generally prefer found family dynamics, not werewolves as closed ethnic groups and lineages - I don't really like fantasy-racism stories or the weird emphasis on breeding and bloodlines and babies that happens sometimes. On the whole, I prefer people who can turn into wolves, not entire species of animal-people.
I definitely don't like shifter stories. I have nothing against furries, but I don't really think we're looking for the same things in a werewolf story, and one of the signs that it's not the right kind of story for me is if the werewolves aren't called werewolves, and are just one of a variety of animal people like wolf shifters, bear shifters, etc. and each species has defined character traits. The half-wolf anthro form also isn't really my thing - I prefer werewolves who look like actual wolves. I'm not a stickler about dogs, though - I will happily include dog protagonists, or people turned into dogs.
I don't like dogfucking. I don't really care for things like knotting, marking, or heat, and I strongly prefer if all sex scenes are between two people who are currently human, and nobody mentions being attracted to dogs/wolves, or considers wolfish traits in a human to be sexy, or has sexual thoughts while turned into a wolf. If that's what floats your boat, enjoy, just give me a warning before recommending a story with it.
Other dealbreakers include designated mates, and alpha, beta, and omega roles in werewolf society. I can accept a pack leader, but a highly authoritarian society, or constant jockeying for status is likely to put me off. I'm especially uninterested in "wolf instincts" that boil down to "acting like an abusive boyfriend" or "being extra homophobic," and have unfortunately encountered a lot of it in werewolf books. Let's just name names already - please don't recommend me any of the Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs, or the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn, and while we're at it, please don't recommend Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver or Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate either. Been there, done that, had a lot to say about it.