The Wolf Gift

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright". Anne Rice's "man-wolf" doesn't follow the conventional tenets of lycanthropy--there is no moon, no gypsy, no silver bullets. What Rice has done with her new novel is reinvent not only the lore of the heretofore terrifying beast, but the beast itself, with the same flair she used in the greatest make-over of all time...the evil undead vampire into Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

And, those menly men have nothing over gifted Reuben Golding; he's young, handsome, filthy rich, erudite, with a doctor-mother, lawyer-girlfriend, priest-brother, drives a Porsche,--AND, he is bequeathed a sprawling mansion by the ocean, after he makes love to the mysterious older woman (32?!) he just met that owns the place is attacked and killed by her jealous hooligan brothers--the post-coital glow still about her beautiful face. Reuben of course is spared...OR IS HE???

This time around the creature-angst that had Pitt's Louis eating rats to avoid committing murder, has been replaced with a deep existential pondering about good and evil, the sacred and the profane, Zarathustra's favorite salad dressing...you'd think waking up covered in black fur sprouting claws and fangs would cause more deliberation than if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it...

Years ago, Interview With The Vampire was one of my favorite reads. Rice is a distinguished writer, and Wolf Gift has her trademark rich and evocative settings, the lush prose, and an entertaining story (which seems to be begging for a sequel). Though I have to say, even once you have suspended belief and embraced the man-wolf as a vigilante guard dog, there are some issues: there is no real tension, no suspenseful build-up--even the love scenes seem unenthusiastic (what is with the flannel night gowns--some reference to Little Red's grandma!?). Reuben isn't the only one with an identity dilemma--Man or Wolf? Philosophy or Horror? As it is, this book could be placed in either genre. Too often the wolf story got trampled by Rice's philosophical/theological tutorials that reminded me of college days with Kant, Hume, Descartes, deChardin, when I wanted suspense, chills and frights.

Wolf Gift may not be a hair-raiser, a little editting may have helped this new book be on par with Rice's earlier work, but true Rice fans will devour it and be hoping for The Man-Wolf Chronicles.

I usually don't leave reviews, but in this case I had to, just to warn people.

First off, it seems that the author was desperate and hungry when writing this book. Almost 60% of the entire story is made up of descriptions of sex and then food. There is regular sex, animal sex, soft sex, hard sex, loving sex, lusty sex... The list goes on. Then, there are long-winded descriptions of ordering food, eating food, and preparing food, down to salad preparation (usually followed by more sex, see above).

I mean, I don't have a problem with sex and food, I'm a single male, but I'd like a little progression of things. The author sets up a nice werewolf story, and then instead of progressing it AT ALL, it's just sex and food and not much of anything else. Meanwhile, there are all these questions posed, but none answered. I can't believe an editor told her this was a "book" and worthy of publishing.

I listen to books while driving to work, and with this one, I would be sitting there ready to drive the car into a telephone pole while rolling my eyes. The overly descriptive and repetitive sex and food are enough to drive you nuts, especially when the story is moving at a snail's pace. Perhaps she got paid by how many words she used or the overall weight of the book? I want things to happen in the book, but I find myself sitting there through sex scene, food scene, "love you" dialog, sex scene, food scene, fireplace scene (don't even get me started on how much time is spent playing with fireplace).

The dialog also shows that the author perhaps needs to interact with people more, and leave her mansion? She is completely out of the loop. No one talks like that in real life, and she writes the dialog as if the reader is 15 years old and will buy that. The way the character talks to parents is ridiculous, it is sooooo contrived, and also the loving talk with his gf. I mean, it would be nice if guys talked like this, but it isn't the case. Even movies these days know not to make up dialog because the audience calls BS. Not to mention, everyone in the book is "extremely handsome" and "beautiful'. Plus, what is with the very young and handsome main character having sex with several older (but very beautiful!) women? I mean, I'm not a brain surgeon (but I would like to perform some on myself while listening to this book) but I'm not buying this whole "older woman, younger handsome man" idea from an older female author. OK, maybe I would buy it once, but seemingly this ridiculously handsome guy just goes around jumping on amazingly good looking older ladies who throw themselves at him. Seriously, get over yourself and write a believable story, older author lady. All the "good" people are pretty and all the "bad" people aren't, its as if this was written by a five year old.

Finally, we have the fact that all the characters are extremely rich and well off and drive around in Porsches and live in mansions and throw money around. Great, we get it, the author is rich and completely out of touch. But after hearing the word "Porsche" about 400 times it gets old. I don't know, but when I talk about my car I don't call it "the BMW", I just called it "the car", as in "I'm getting in the car." or "they got in the car", not "I loaded up the Porsche" and "as he drove the Porsche". The author must have just purchased a new car or something because it is ridiculous how she can't get over it. I mean, I drive a very nice new car too but I just do not refer to it by the model/make like some stuck up crazy person. I think she also is turned on by the iPhone, or she got crazy money from Apple for product placement, because once again, she throws that word out there like its a raft to the drowning reader. Somehow I don't call my phone "the iPhone", I just call it "cellphone". Once again, this only becomes a barb in your eye when you hear it 400x over and over again.

Anyway, this is a classic example of terrible writing from a talented author. Either she put in zero effort, or she just has gotten too old to write, or she wrote this on her iPhone while driving to a date with a beautiful younger man in her Porsche after purchasing an older mansion in the woods somewhere. Either way, there is nothing of value here, especially when it is easy to see that the author has talent in setting up a plot and making descriptions, but then is completely unable to stay on track or actually keep their out-of-touch views from ruining it all.

Overall, I have to say the book was mediocre. It's like Anne Rice wrote the background for the story (the set of characters, how the creatures come about, how the main character got infected...), but then forgot to write the story itself. So the plot meanders about. Is it about this kidnapping? Is it about the character's love life? Is it about the wolves-who-were-there-before? Is it about religion? The answer is always, "not really." Your interest is never fully engaged. Even the philosophical discussions are boring because they are not attempting to solve any tension. There is no tension. (Even the dumping of a girlfriend is glossed over as if absolutely nothing happened -- why was she even in the story as a girlfriend and not just friend to begin with? Who knows? Who cares?)

This is no Vampire Lestat.

If you want a better reinvented werewolf, read "The Last Werewolf."

I have always been a fan or Anne Rice but this book was a huge let down.
A plot would have helped. It's much like a journal. Just giving the reader different things that happen to the writer. I managed to finish it somehow waiting on the plot or purpose to be reviled.
Maybe she was pushed by her publisher to get something written?

I have enjoyed many of her other books. She has made a good name of herself but that does not condone writing something and taking my hard earned money just because of who she is. She has gotten stale and lazy, riding out the fame of her name.... I am very disappointed.. don't waist a credit ..

This book is about 500% longer than it should be. She rambles and takes 15 pages to say the simplest thing. It's almost painful.

No the genre is excellent, this is an awesome writer, the editor needs to be fired. I know that Anne Rice is a power-house in the industry, but she needs an editor who will stand up to her and tell her that this is crap.

Ron McLarty reads with passion and conviction. Very well done.

Not unless Anne Rice actually creates an outline, a definite plot and then writes the story to follow the structure.

I love Anne Rice. Seriously. I loved the Vampire Chronicles. I loved the Mayfair Witches. But this is not a good example of Anne Rice. I would compare this to a master painter who paints right off the side of the canvas and across the wall. Her talent is undeniable, but it needs to be focused and reigned in. I sincerely hope that she gets help for her next book, someone to help organize and structure her creative thoughts.

Of course! I'm a huge Anne Rice fan! And Ron McLarty did a great job narrating this book.

Not really. It's not quite in line with other Rice novels. It's just okay. Actually, (and I can't believe I'm saying this. Sorry, Mrs. Rice.) sometimes a bit boring.

It was a touching story. I don't regret having listened to it. But I don't think I'll have a second listen.

The only thing this book lacked was a climatic point. A good solid beginning, middle and end. The book while not terrible just kinda flowed to the end. There were definite great action moments but nothing that really felt like a climax. I was overall disappointed at the end.

I don't care for Ron McLarty's narration of his story. Anne Rice chose to write in 3rd person and I have to respect this decision. She is a master of First Person. The choice of third person, and the choice of this narrator who is not incompetent, just not the right person for the job, leads to a distracting problem. Every time a character muses/is thinking/wondering, the audio version makes it sound as if the character were asking me a question. I began shouting "Why Ask ME?" by Part 2. Considering Anne's characters are about the most introspective and navel gazing bunch of monsters there ever were, it really is an issue. If you are choosing a first book of Anne's to read, this isn't it. It is a good book, but it has faults. We all, I think, are happy that she returned to Horror, and I am too biased to comment more on this book. It is worth reading, and is much better then a lot of the deluge of paranormal "novels" out there today.

I was really looking forward to Anne Rice going back to the style and genre that made her a household name, but this one seems to have fallen flat. I was hoping she would make her debut into the world of werewolves as exciting and sexy as her witches and vampires. Maybe it gets better as the series continues but I wasn't sucked in like I was with her other books.

How amazingly bad is this book? i don't even care enough to count the ways. It's enough to say that it is the bloated product of once great author whose command of descriptive language, obsession with theology, and need to make a buck off of paranormal freaks like me, exceeds her decency. read it if you must -- for a class, or if you just like having adjectives poured into your ears indiscriminately, like hemlock.

If you bought in with a desire for gripping weirdness, then the passages that fit that description wouldn't even make for an interesting 10 page illustrated comic. The central character is so freaking self involved and boring that you end up wondering how Rice didn't just chuck her own laptop out a window. Everyone calls him (we are repeatedly told) little boy, or baby boy or some other infantilzing term. This is a 23 year old man. WTF?

At the end, during the "last supper" tableau constructed by Rice right out of the da Vinci Code, "god-like old wolf guy" speechifies ad nauseum while the newbs sit shocked into worshipful gazes, as if hearing a great truth. I could barely keep my buds in my ears. I had only a hour to go to the end, but it was killing me! I had to stop and write this. I had to warn the masses. IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER -- IT'S BAD ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

AND, what a narcissistic move on Rice's part. You don't forget for a single second that all those gradiose words are her words and her philosophy. Even the reader get's into it, slowing each word down with pauses between as if manna was dripping from his lips. (He loses all his points for this. Period.)

It was too much I tell you, way too much. i'm amazed Rice could publish this crap with a straight face. (Can I go back in time and get my money back for everything I've ever bought of her's?)

My only positive comment is the descriptive passages of the Nyak House and property. This is a place I could come to dream about. A better book would have been about the house and spooky things going on it in. The descriptive passages are as luscious and sensuous as dark red wind and antique velvet. Divine. As awful as the rest of this tripe was, that's how amazing this house and it's restoration were done. That was Rice at her best. But she let her theology get in the way of her ability to write, and now we'll never know what this book could have been. And that's the real shame.