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A review by booksthatburn
Blind Man's Wolf by Amelia Faulkner
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
As the first book in the series, BLIND MAN'S WOLF has a self-contained story which revolves around the mystery of why Ellis’s guide dog is misbehaving. It turns out this issue and its resolution are more complicated than anticipated, but what's not (very) complicated is how much Randall and Ellis want to get into each other's pants. It establishes Ellis, Randall, Jay, and Han as characters, and gets Randall and Ellis together in short order.
Ellis is a vampire who was in the process of going blind before he was turned, now he’s stuck with enough vision to be bothered by bright light but not enough to actually use most of the time without much effort and pain. I especially like the worldbuilding as it relates to his vision loss intersecting with vampiric healing powers. The idea that vampire regeneration keeps him in a homeostasis works for avoiding any kind of magical cure narrative. He's trapped in his general physical condition at the moment when he was turned, so he'll heal to reset to that point, but becoming a vampire didn't restore his vision to before RP started affecting him.
I’m very pleased with how Randall's Omega status is handled, since wolves don’t actually do that bullshit, but humans who turn into wolves and have heard that’s what wolves do absolutely would replicate it. Even though Randall doesn’t spend very much time with his pack in the story, the little that shown makes it very clear that some abusive and fucked up things are going on. The pack members justify their bullying by claiming their wolf instincts require it. But, either coincidentally or intentionally, ending up relentlessly bullying Randall, the only Pack member who is Black. Meeting with Pack members twice in such a short narrative made it seem like they were going to play more of a role in this particular book than they actually did.
This is a good start and I'm interested in where it goes next, I like these characters and want to read more about them.
Ellis is a vampire who was in the process of going blind before he was turned, now he’s stuck with enough vision to be bothered by bright light but not enough to actually use most of the time without much effort and pain. I especially like the worldbuilding as it relates to his vision loss intersecting with vampiric healing powers. The idea that vampire regeneration keeps him in a homeostasis works for avoiding any kind of magical cure narrative. He's trapped in his general physical condition at the moment when he was turned, so he'll heal to reset to that point, but becoming a vampire didn't restore his vision to before RP started affecting him.
I’m very pleased with how Randall's Omega status is handled, since wolves don’t actually do that bullshit, but humans who turn into wolves and have heard that’s what wolves do absolutely would replicate it. Even though Randall doesn’t spend very much time with his pack in the story, the little that shown makes it very clear that some abusive and fucked up things are going on. The pack members justify their bullying by claiming their wolf instincts require it. But, either coincidentally or intentionally, ending up relentlessly bullying Randall, the only Pack member who is Black. Meeting with Pack members twice in such a short narrative made it seem like they were going to play more of a role in this particular book than they actually did.
This is a good start and I'm interested in where it goes next, I like these characters and want to read more about them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Ableism, Cannibalism, Murder, Blood, Death, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia