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A review by audreychamaine
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
4.0
When Jake Marlowe learns that he is the last werewolf on earth, he finds that it's a relief. He's the last one to be hunted, so all forces will be concentrated on him, but after a couple of hundred years, he's ready to be done with it. If only things were that easy. For one, it's difficult to surrender oneself to death, and even harder when people around you, both enemies and friends, are trying so hard to keep you alive.
The Last Werewolf is easily the most cerebral and the most raunchy werewolf book I've ever read. It plods along slowly, as we hear the inner turmoil and philosophizing of our narrator, Jake. It feels like there is just as much inner dialog rumination as action in this book, but whenever I felt like I couldn't take it anymore--bam!--something would happen.
There is plenty of literary allusion to earlier works to keep the English majors in the audience entertained. For instance, in a perversion of the Jane Eyre quote, at one point Marlowe addresses his audience with, "Reader, I ate him." Small references such as this were like fun Easter eggs for knowing readers, and did not distract at all from readers who weren't in on it.
Warning: if you have a strong aversion to dirty sex and graphic violence, this is probably not the book for you. I knew about it going in, and decided I'd try it out anyway, but I had a hard time making it through. I'd never want to drop the soap with Jake Marlowe in the shower, let me tell you! I read once that vampires are the absence of life, and werewolves are the overabundance of it. From that regard, Marlowe certainly gets busy enough for a small army of men.
The audiobook is very well done. It's read by Robin Sachs, who played Ethan Rayne in Buffy. He speaks with a dry, British tone that seemed to capture Marlowe perfectly. He was a great choice to narrate the book.
All in all, if you love werewolves, love literary fiction, and don't mind some dirty, dirty sex, this is a book worth picking up. I found it both shocking and compelling.
The Last Werewolf is easily the most cerebral and the most raunchy werewolf book I've ever read. It plods along slowly, as we hear the inner turmoil and philosophizing of our narrator, Jake. It feels like there is just as much inner dialog rumination as action in this book, but whenever I felt like I couldn't take it anymore--bam!--something would happen.
There is plenty of literary allusion to earlier works to keep the English majors in the audience entertained. For instance, in a perversion of the Jane Eyre quote, at one point Marlowe addresses his audience with, "Reader, I ate him." Small references such as this were like fun Easter eggs for knowing readers, and did not distract at all from readers who weren't in on it.
Warning: if you have a strong aversion to dirty sex and graphic violence, this is probably not the book for you. I knew about it going in, and decided I'd try it out anyway, but I had a hard time making it through. I'd never want to drop the soap with Jake Marlowe in the shower, let me tell you! I read once that vampires are the absence of life, and werewolves are the overabundance of it. From that regard, Marlowe certainly gets busy enough for a small army of men.
The audiobook is very well done. It's read by Robin Sachs, who played Ethan Rayne in Buffy. He speaks with a dry, British tone that seemed to capture Marlowe perfectly. He was a great choice to narrate the book.
All in all, if you love werewolves, love literary fiction, and don't mind some dirty, dirty sex, this is a book worth picking up. I found it both shocking and compelling.