The Wolf Gift

Unfortunately, The Wolf Gift does not capture the magic of The Vampire Chronicles.
The characters are bland. Even Reuben, who is the main character, hardly has any characterization and personality. He is a really bland character with no real traits other than inexplicably having sex with women who are not his girlfriend and talking like an old philosophy professor. There are some hits of his interests, but they are hardly developed.
Most of the cast is simply defined by their jobs. Reuben's mother is a doctor, his brother is a priest, and aside from this, they hardly have any personality. The Man Wolves are even worse, they are all interchangeable and do not stand out from each other.

I did not love this the way I did the author's other books. The first half is slow and boring, and it really doesn't get going until 3/4 of the way through. The main characters are not the most interesting or likable, and the “romances” are ridiculous and not believable.

Werewolves are my favorite monster, and the language is lovely and lyrical, so I really enjoyed it, and I will continue with the series eventually (looks like there's only a second one). I only scored it three stars out of five because of the bestiality. It was gratuitous and strange. The mani characters only had sex when he was a werewolf; they never consumated their relationship as two humans, only as a human female and a male werewolf. And it was graphic. Graphic and hairy and slobbery. It was so pretty, and frightening, with these amazing ideas about the nature of good and evil, and then that would happen. I'm no prude, but I don't like when my horror makes me uncomfortable around my dogs.

Giving the author another chance to match or exceed her “Vampire Lestat” series, but I was left unsatisfied. I was pulled into the story pretty quick and relished the descriptive flow of action and character that Anne Rice is known for, but about 3/4 of the way through the book, I felt like I was reading a draft of something that could be much better. It felt like I was reading a draft outline of what she was planning on revealing through action and story, but she decided to tell it by having one or two characters discuss their backgrounds. Disappointing to me, but she obviously is setting the reader up for a new series with the man-wolf society.

Probably a good read for those who like paranormal stories in a more literary style, but not someone searching for one of the Lestat novels that you keep thinking about years later.

This book is ... batshit crazy. Sure, she's a great writer but there was a little too much “out there” in this for me.