Review
“Vintage Anne Rice—a lushly written, gothic … metaphysical tale. This time, with werewolves.” —The Wall Street Journal
“I want to howl at the moon over this. . . . Rice’s style [is] as solid and engaging as anything she has written since her early vampire chronicle fiction.” —Alan Cheuse, The Boston Globe
“A fast-paced, heady romp that ranks with [Rice’s] best…. Feisty and terrific fun.” —Joy Tipping, Dallas Morning News
“Intoxicating.” —USA Today
“A delectable cocktail of old-fashioned lost-race adventure, shape-shifting and suspense, brightened by enticing hints of a secret history.” —Elizabeth Hand, The Washington Post
“One part Beauty and the Beast love story, one part meditation on morality and immortality, and one part superman tale…. Rice deepens and gives nuance to classic werewolf lore.” —The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
“An entertaining tale of good vs. evil.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Evolves from a fantastical romp into an engrossing thriller.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Rice’s classic concerns regarding good and evil and shifting views of reality play out wonderfully in what will surely please fans and newcomers alike.” —Publishers Weekly
“The strange history of the Nideck family will jump off the page and enter the readers’ nightmares as Rice has found a new gothic saga to sink her teeth into.” —Bookreporter
“The queen of gothic lit, the maestro of the monstrous and the diva of the devious . . . has returned to her roots.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The best Rice has written since … Interview with the Vampire. . . . Brilliant. . . .Wit-filled, languid and vibrant, brainy and snarling.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“Highly entertaining.” —The Washington Times
“Written with compelling modernity . . . The Wolf Gift is a strong—and welcome—return to the monster mythology that made Anne Rice famous.” —Shelf Awareness
From the Author
Writing this book was a pure joy. It was a return for me to gothic motifs --- the old dark house, a mysterious death, the promise of family secrets, and
the supernatural monster as hero -- that I had used in the Vampire Chronicles, and the Tales of the Mayfair Witches. And once again, I felt compelled to create an origin story and a cosmology --- this time for my protagonist, Reuben Golding, who finds himself periodically turning into the werewolf of legend. Only unlike the doomed werewolves of so many popular films, Reuben retains full awareness during the transformation and a keen enjoyment of his immense wolfen powers. He never becomes a four footed animal, but remains a deeply conflicted, fierce but compassionate beast-man, hungry for power, and for answers as to the mystery of what he has become. Though similar in many ways to my vampires novels, Reuben's story is almost entirely contemporary. And for the first time in my writing career I explored the haunted atmosphere of California's cold, mist shrouded redwood forests, and the romance of the windswept northern California coast. I lived in northern California for over thirty years, and it was a great pleasure to get back to it, to have my hero dining in San Francisco's North Beach, or meeting his lady love in the quaint town of Mill Valley for breakfast, or driving his sports car north on Highway 101 as he pushes deeper into a grim but at times glorious adventure. ------ I've been asked: will this be a series? I don't know. I held nothing back in the writing of
The Wolf Gift, but the characters are alive in my imagination, as vividly as any I've ever created, and I see the grand house of Nideck Point looming against a leaden sky, beckoning me just as it beckoned my hero, Reuben.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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