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Monday, June 16, 2014

Review: The Wolves of Midwinter

The Wolves of Midwinter
Author: Anne Rice
Genre: Fantasy/ Horror
Publisher: Random House Audio 
Release Date: October 15, 2013
Audiobook: 15 hours and 54 minutes
Narrator: Ron McLarty 
Source: Free from publisher

http://amzn.to/1qlmb2r

Book Description

The tale of The Wolf Gift continues . . .
In Anne Rice’s surprising and compelling best-selling novel, the first of her strange and mythic imagining of the world of wolfen powers (“I devoured these pages . . . As solid and engaging as anything she has written since her early Vampire Chronicles fiction”—Alan Cheuse, The Boston Globe; “A delectable cocktail of old-fashioned lost-race adventure, shape-shifting, and suspense”—Elizabeth Hand, The Washington Post), readers were spellbound as Rice conjured up a daring new world set against the wild and beckoning California coast.
Now in her new novel, as lush and romantic in detail and atmosphere as it is sleek and steely in storytelling, Anne Rice takes us once again to the rugged coastline of Northern California, to the grand mansion at Nideck Point, and further explores the unearthly education of her transformed Man Wolf.
The novel opens on a cold, gray landscape. It is the beginning of December. Oak fires are burning in the stately flickering hearths of Nideck Point. It is Yuletide.
For Reuben Golding, now infused with the Wolf Gift and under the loving tutelage of the Morphenkinder, this promises to be a Christmas like no other . . .
The Yuletide season, sacred to much of the human race, has been equally sacred to the Man Wolves, and Reuben soon becomes aware that they, too, steeped in their own profound rituals, will celebrate the ancient Midwinter festival deep within the verdant richness of Nideck forest.
From out of the shadows of Nideck comes a ghost—tormented, imploring, unable to speak yet able to embrace and desire with desperate affection . . . As Reuben finds himself caught up with—and drawn to—the passions and yearnings of this spectral presence, and as the swirl of preparations reaches a fever pitch for the Nideck town Christmas festival of music and pageantry, astonishing secrets are revealed; secrets that tell of a strange netherworld, of spirits other than the Morphenkinder, centuries old, who inhabit the dense stretches of redwood and oak that surround the magnificent house at Nideck Point, “ageless ones” who possess their own fantastical ancient histories and who taunt with their dark magical powers . . .

Review

Why? Why? Why?
I have no idea why I made myself finish this book.  It was crazy weird and I didn't enjoy book one.  Why?
Why did you write this Anne Rice?
Why?
Anne come on!!
I got a free copy from the publisher before I read The Wolf Gift (review) and I was over the moon to have the ARC.  Since then I received two more copies for free (one hardcover and one audio).  Needless to say I had high hopes.  Then I read the first book.  And my hopes were smashed.  I gave it 3 stars and I think I was being a bit generous.  Now 6 months later nothing has changed.  I wanted so much to like this book.  I did. I wanted this book to redeem itself and the other book too.  The overall premise was interesting but this didn't live up to any of that at all.
First, the love story between Reuben and his ex, Celeste is more or less on my last nerve.  She calls him her "Sunshine Boy" and now that their relationship is completely different the focus shifts a bit from her.  Thank God but no she causes complete mayhem in his family with her spoiled whining self.  Come on!!!
Why?
Reuben should not be called the "Man Wolf" but the "Man Child".  Most of his dialog is question driven.  Why?
This whole story is centered around a Christmas Party the wolf clan plan and puts together at Nideck Point.  This party is an event were everyone, from book one minor characters to everyone is town comes to.  Why would a wolf clan invite the whole world to their house for Christmas?  No not to  eating them but to celebrate the old and the new meanings and traditions of Christmas. DUH!!
Why Anne?
Do you feel my pain?  If not, here is one more.  Why would Anne build a romantic relationship in book one to not really talk about it in book two?  Why?  Because wandering off topic and pretty paragraphs of imagery matter more.
This book was....

Reviews by Other Bloggers

Recommendations

I recommend this book to adult reads due to the violence and sexual contents

Challenges

This book is number 10 in my Audiobooks Reading Challenge
This book is number 7 in my Books Off My Shelf Reading Challenge
2nd and last in the Series

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