I read Kelley Armstrong's Bitten and HATED it. I liked the depiction of werewolves - as a group or a race - pack life, the need to Change, but the heroine made my blood boil. Brief outline, and totally, objectively unbiased... naturally...:
Elena - heroine, only female werewolf in existance: the 'gene' is passed down the male line - is in a long term relationship with a human called Philip. So far, she's neglected to mention that teensy bit of information about herself concerning the whole "oh yeah, I'm a werewolf!" thing... Nice. He's in love with her, looking to settle down with her, and later proposes to her. She claims to love him, but does little to back up these repeated claims. An emergency takes her from the 'human world' to the 'pack world' surrounding her with others of her kind, reminding her of the life she chose to leave behind - incidentally without actually TELLING them. Seriously, this girl has no concept of how a wolf pack functions... it's painful. While she's there, she just HAPPENS to have sex with 'Clay' - repeatedly - and openly says that she does not feel guilty, although she wishes she did. Did I mention that Clay was her fiance? And that he turned her into a werewolf in the first place? And that he's in love with her?
I found the sex scenes and the almost unstoppable tide of violence were gratuitous and did little if anything to move the plot along. In the end, she decides to live happily ever after with her pack, showing less than no concern for the effect this ordeal has had on Philip, never actually telling him that she's leaving him. As seems to be her habit, she leaves him to guess it from her absence.
All I've achieved from reading this tripe - apart from some very violent reactions to it - is the knowledge of what exactly I DON'T want to write.
Elena - heroine, only female werewolf in existance: the 'gene' is passed down the male line - is in a long term relationship with a human called Philip. So far, she's neglected to mention that teensy bit of information about herself concerning the whole "oh yeah, I'm a werewolf!" thing... Nice. He's in love with her, looking to settle down with her, and later proposes to her. She claims to love him, but does little to back up these repeated claims. An emergency takes her from the 'human world' to the 'pack world' surrounding her with others of her kind, reminding her of the life she chose to leave behind - incidentally without actually TELLING them. Seriously, this girl has no concept of how a wolf pack functions... it's painful. While she's there, she just HAPPENS to have sex with 'Clay' - repeatedly - and openly says that she does not feel guilty, although she wishes she did. Did I mention that Clay was her fiance? And that he turned her into a werewolf in the first place? And that he's in love with her?
I found the sex scenes and the almost unstoppable tide of violence were gratuitous and did little if anything to move the plot along. In the end, she decides to live happily ever after with her pack, showing less than no concern for the effect this ordeal has had on Philip, never actually telling him that she's leaving him. As seems to be her habit, she leaves him to guess it from her absence.
All I've achieved from reading this tripe - apart from some very violent reactions to it - is the knowledge of what exactly I DON'T want to write.
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