Post by Charlynn on Sept 7, 2013 17:10:23 GMT -5
The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
Perhaps the steepest falls are of our own making through anticipation. The Wolf Gift, the first work of fiction from acclaimed supernatural author Anne Rice in many years, was supposed to bring her unique, complicated style to the werewolf story. Already having explored vampires (before it was the in vogue thing to do) and witches (with a ghost or two tossed in for good measure), it was only natural for Rice to delve into werewolves next. But what ensued - The Wolf Gift - was anything but what this fan had come to expect from the author. Everything was just too... easy.
On assignment, cub reporter Reuben Golding travels to a famed Northern California estate to interview its mistress... its soon-to-be former mistress. Marchent Nideck, still heartbroken over her beloved uncle's disappearance and apparently subsequent death and unwilling to continue his legacy by running the historic manor, is prepared to sell her family home, requesting Reuben's presence to pen an article about the property. Reuben is immediately smitten with the house and with its owner, wanting them both for himself, damn the consequences and the complications. After succeeding with seducing Marchent... or allowing her to seduce him, he's awoken in the middle of the night to his worst nightmare: Marchent's dead - murdered, and her attackers hunted down themselves. Reuben's hurt as well, but, for reasons he himself and modern medicine do not understand, he doesn't just survive; he starts to flourish: growing, getting stronger, hearing and seeing the impossible to hear and see... for a mere human, at least.
What follows is Reuben's blundering towards the truth: that he's now part man, part wolf, only, given the depth of this realization, he doesn't blunder enough. Oh, he struggles with adjusting to his new life, but he accepts it readily enough. He grapples more with the morality of his actions - certainly a common Rice writing theme - than he does with the actions themselves. But it's almost as though he reacts this way because he's supposed to, because all of Rice's main characters have in her other works. However, unlike antihero Lestat, Reuben just comes across as a Gary Stu character, and, just as he takes to being a werewolf too easily, he falls "in love" too easily (really, there's not basis for Reuben's supposed love for Laura; he just lusts for her, he needs her, but he certainly doesn't actually know her), he escapes suspicion and detection too easily, and he lives too easily as well. It makes having a secretive, reclusive life much less complicated when one inherits a rambling, secluded estate, when one doesn't need to work because of a wealthy family and a trust fund, when one quickly discovers an entire brethren who are as old as time... and as powerful, influential, and rich as one might suspect such creatures would be. It's also frustrating that Rice makes Reuben a journalist, an occupation she's already, quite famously, used before and, once again, bases her mythology of a supernatural being on an ancient religion. The Wolf Gift was both an echo of the past and an unfavorable comparison. Just as the eyes on the cover do not match the story, the story did not match my expectations, my eyes, apparently, wanting to see more than what Rice was willing to deliver. While Reuben might be thankful for the wolf gift, I am not.
1 out of 5 Stars
Perhaps the steepest falls are of our own making through anticipation. The Wolf Gift, the first work of fiction from acclaimed supernatural author Anne Rice in many years, was supposed to bring her unique, complicated style to the werewolf story. Already having explored vampires (before it was the in vogue thing to do) and witches (with a ghost or two tossed in for good measure), it was only natural for Rice to delve into werewolves next. But what ensued - The Wolf Gift - was anything but what this fan had come to expect from the author. Everything was just too... easy.
On assignment, cub reporter Reuben Golding travels to a famed Northern California estate to interview its mistress... its soon-to-be former mistress. Marchent Nideck, still heartbroken over her beloved uncle's disappearance and apparently subsequent death and unwilling to continue his legacy by running the historic manor, is prepared to sell her family home, requesting Reuben's presence to pen an article about the property. Reuben is immediately smitten with the house and with its owner, wanting them both for himself, damn the consequences and the complications. After succeeding with seducing Marchent... or allowing her to seduce him, he's awoken in the middle of the night to his worst nightmare: Marchent's dead - murdered, and her attackers hunted down themselves. Reuben's hurt as well, but, for reasons he himself and modern medicine do not understand, he doesn't just survive; he starts to flourish: growing, getting stronger, hearing and seeing the impossible to hear and see... for a mere human, at least.
What follows is Reuben's blundering towards the truth: that he's now part man, part wolf, only, given the depth of this realization, he doesn't blunder enough. Oh, he struggles with adjusting to his new life, but he accepts it readily enough. He grapples more with the morality of his actions - certainly a common Rice writing theme - than he does with the actions themselves. But it's almost as though he reacts this way because he's supposed to, because all of Rice's main characters have in her other works. However, unlike antihero Lestat, Reuben just comes across as a Gary Stu character, and, just as he takes to being a werewolf too easily, he falls "in love" too easily (really, there's not basis for Reuben's supposed love for Laura; he just lusts for her, he needs her, but he certainly doesn't actually know her), he escapes suspicion and detection too easily, and he lives too easily as well. It makes having a secretive, reclusive life much less complicated when one inherits a rambling, secluded estate, when one doesn't need to work because of a wealthy family and a trust fund, when one quickly discovers an entire brethren who are as old as time... and as powerful, influential, and rich as one might suspect such creatures would be. It's also frustrating that Rice makes Reuben a journalist, an occupation she's already, quite famously, used before and, once again, bases her mythology of a supernatural being on an ancient religion. The Wolf Gift was both an echo of the past and an unfavorable comparison. Just as the eyes on the cover do not match the story, the story did not match my expectations, my eyes, apparently, wanting to see more than what Rice was willing to deliver. While Reuben might be thankful for the wolf gift, I am not.
1 out of 5 Stars