what up gay nerds!
okay well, this ended up extending well past what’s traditionally considered spooky season, but we’re still chugging along with the werewolf movies! and, y’know, i’m not exactly gonna complain about continuing our halloween vibes past halloween. especially considering the way my interest in werewolves has been kindled by what i’ve been watching and, especially, reading.
part 2 of this review series will focus on exactly what it says on the tin. obviously as a super gay monsterfucker, this is a category i was super looking forward to!
the one gaping hole in this is that, aside from a supporting character in allison moon’s lesbian werewolf books, there’s no trans representation. so if anyone has any trans werewolf book recommendations, i would love to hear them!
lunatic fringe (novel 2011)
by allison moon
ever since i found out the author of girl sex 101 (whose writing style i absolutely adore) also wrote fiction about lesbian werewolves, i kind of knew i was going to love this. i mean, come on. how could i not? and then i finally got around to reading it and, whoa hey check it out i totally loved it!
the characters in this feel so real, and the worldbuilding is patient and very driven by the characters & relationships. i won’t pretend i wasn’t pretty bummed out by the ending, but honestly i think probably not running away with your much more experienced immortal werewolf girlfriend when you’re a freshman in college is actually the right choice for the vast majority of people. but, y’know, i’m dumb & gay and want everyone to get to be dumb & gay & happy.
nor is this the only way the book recognizes that the simple answer is often not the right one. there are a lot of complex & multifaceted conflicts in this novel that might look a lot simpler at first blush. when lexie expresses discomfort to archer about the pack’s methods & values, archer agrees that their approach is often troubling but also actually defends them and considers things from their perspective. all of this despite the fact that she’s actually very much in a fight with them. her perspective on things is very grounded and, frankly, very wolf-like. it reminds me of what i love so much about like tamora pierce’s animalistic perspectives because the animals are just like “ugh humans are dumb & bad” but in a way that’s not hateful so much as dismissive, like they just genuinely do not grasp why humans do things the way they do.
idk i could probably babble about this some more but the thing that drew me in was basically just “lesbian werewolves by an author i already knew was great,” and the reason i enjoyed it was “lesbian werewolves by an author i already knew was great.” like there’s lots of other great stuff about it on top of that, but the most important aspects of the experience were just sort of exactly what i expected and wanted them to be. a-rank
hungry ghost (novel 2013)
by allison moon
i didn’t like this quite as much as lunatic fringe, probably mostly because of the lack of archer. but that’s just me being a whiney bitch, this is actually quite good. the pack is subjected to new, bigger outside pressures which causes cracks to form and also does a lot to reveal the underlying character of everyone in the group. their strengths and their weaknesses.
i think what i really like about this is that absolutely no one comes out looking perfect, but they aren’t written off entirely for this. much like sage explains about how lycanthropy works, it’s the interaction, the space between that creates strength & meaning. it’s hella dialectical, and i’m here for it.
one of the cracks that does form in the group relates to mitch’s place as a trans man, and although the book is clearly pretty solidly on his side, i do wish there had been a little bit more of a reckoning for some of the characters who are transphobic towards him? i think it’s perfectly fine to show characters who are trying their best being transphobic and then getting over it, it just never really felt like they definitively got over it? and i know that’s pretty true to life, but i really feel like these girls have it in them to overcome their prejudices here, and it would’ve been nice to see that eventually happen.
i really, really hope she’s planning on doing a third book at some point? but given how long it’s been, that’s probably too much to hope for? but yeah, i just really love lexie & her werewolf polycule/comrades, and i really want everything to work out for them. a-rank
wolfsong (novel 2015)
by tj klune
“some of us are already born with a wolf in our heart. the color of your eyes doesn’t matter. the fact that you are human does not matter.”
i already loved this book and these characters, and then the protagonist was otherkin.
i already loved this book and these characters, and then the protagonist was otherkin.
(quick note here. the word “otherkin” isn’t used, but the experience is totally there. and if the narrator were a real person, or in the extremely unlikely event that the author popped up and was like “hey don’t use that word please” i would totally honor that. even if it’s just an adjacent experience, it still just means so much to me to be able to relate to this on this wholly unexpected level.)
when the revelation comes, it’s actually pretty fucking obvious in retrospect. because there were so many things pointing at it. because i figured out a related plot twist long before this one hit me like a ton of bricks, and i couldn’t make it make sense without this, but i still wasn’t expecting this. like, i literally had the thought “this would make sense if he’s otherkin, but that’s clearly not happening in a very popular/lauded piece of commercial fiction, so what is happening?” and then it wasn’t something else, it was this. it was this, and i still kind of haven’t recovered from breathless, happy shock.
but as i said, i loved this book before that reveal, and that reveal is more than halfway through the book. and i think it was important for me to have already fallen in love with the book for that reveal to have maximum impact. and some of the things i already loved about the book feed directly into that reveal.
which, y’know, is also thematically resonant with how the pack’s alpha & ox’s surrogate father felt about him. “he knew something was different about you. that you were wonderful, and kind, and amazing, but that there was something else. not something more because what you were was already enough.” and this is such a direct rebuke of ox’s father’s abuse that it just filled me with joy. everything about the reveal of ox’s true nature and everything surrounding it fills me with so much joy. and it also ties into another strength of this book, which is that it depicts characters recovering from trauma as an essential element of its story. it shows them protecting each other. it shows them lifting each other up. it shows them fucking up, and it shows them healing from those fuckups.
this book also gets something that i think is so crucial to understand about animal mentality versus human mentality. when people think of “wild” they often think of aggression, of sudden changes. i think most people’s mental picture of wildness is fast & ferocious. and it can absolutely be that, that is absolutely part of it. but in reality, there is also (and more often) a slowness there. a steadiness. wildness isn’t superficial, it’s deep. it’s consistent. it isn’t just lunging at the thing that threatens you, it’s staring it down until it leaves your sight.
wildness is also not dumb. wildness is knowing exactly what’s important to you. wildness is experiencing things fully, honestly. wildness is being willing to see things as they are, only as they are.
wolfsong depicts wildness exactly this way. there’s a certainty to it, a steadfastness. and the narrator of the audible version especially does a great job of bringing that to life. and one of the things that’s so rewarding about finding out that ox is otherkin is that he was already narrating from that perspective, and i related to that so intensely but never really examined why it was happening because it just felt like the most natural thing ever, a thing that was a part of him, because like… of fucking course it was.
wolfsong also made me think about love. something i don’t often think about is that love can, and often should, scare you a little. it should be so intense that your instinct is to hold yourself back from it a little, to avoid losing yourself. letting yourself go, knowing what the consequences could be, is a profound act of trust.
i never would’ve said that i treated love lightly, it’s something i’ve always known was very important to me. but i was so lost without it that i tried to put other things on that pedestal, and it hurt me, and it hurt others.
i felt the universe shift to accommodate us when i met violet in person. i realized everything that had come before was a pale imitation. i tried to hold on to some of those relationships anyway, because i’ve been trained to prize loyalty, but the reality is that this did a disservice to both myself and the people i was in those relationships with. and every relationship i've let get serious since then has been shaped by this same certainty, this same understanding that this person was forever, and that you don't say yes to that unless you're sure.
there are two big complaints that i’ve seen brought up with this book, one which i consider pretty legitimate and one which i do not. i’ll start with the one that i consider pretty legitimate. the age gap between ox & joe. like… i’m more okay with it now that i know ox was a wolf the whole time, because wolves are different than humans, they just are. but idk, it feels a lot like the writer wrote himself into a corner he didn’t have to? like, there was just no reason to go there in the first place? you could’ve easily told the exact same story with ox helping joe through his trauma, and needing to make sure that he was okay to consent before he would even consider a relationship with him, without the age gap?
but like… their love is so beautiful and so healing, that i’m not the kind of person who can write it off just because an aspect of it makes me uncomfy. and given that they are separated for literally years and don’t actually do anything to consummate their relationship until joe is not only a fully realized adult but a leader of men, it’s not like anything actually inappropriate happened here. i just still never really know where to come down on this sort of thing because i don’t want to be overly judgmental but i know age gaps come up a lot in queer fiction and in werewolf stuff whether it’s queer or straight, but again i don’t ever want to be in the position of writing something this beautiful off because that doesn’t feel right either.
so i guess the tl;dr is i think this is a legitimate concern, and it is definitely something that got my hackles up, but not one that ultimately prevented me from enjoying the book or even something that ended up feeling “wrong” when given the benefit of time to let it play out.
on the other side of the spectrum, i’m deeply confused by some of the reviews complaining about wolfsong’s repetitive phrasing. to me, that’s one of the most brilliant things about the book. the way it takes the simplest, most important, most central things and the way every time a word or phrase like “you are pack” or “he is my alpha” or etc is said it means exactly what it always meant, but it also means something different because of how much has shifted around it… it brings a kind of texture, depth… realness to this book that i’m not sure i’ve ever seen before, but it’s just so fucking good. these characters, this story… there is such real life breathed into them. they are so raw and so real. their everyday, mundane life or their best & worst moments are communicated with the same intensity. the same patience. the same care. i ache for them. i rejoice for them. i get protective of them, i get angry at them, i get both at the same time.
i can't be sure, but this might be my favorite book? and that even being a possibility was not something i envisioned when i picked it up. this is just a really, really special book. s-rank
the alpha’s warlock (novel 2020)
by eliot grayson
oh my gosh i love these gay dumbasses so much.
so yeah this is the obligatory gay werewolf smut that i had to put on here, and this is also kind of the first one of these i’ve ever read? like… ever? so i think this is the start of a beautiful new phase in my smut reading.
the narrator in this is this awesome self-described twink human witch (they keep calling him a warlock but this is another example of no one knowing what the fuck that word means, and yes i’m going to be precious about this because i’m tired of boy witches not being called witches) and he opens the book crawling through the mud to escape his werewolf kidnappers into the waiting arms of a rival werewolf pack.
due to some plot convenience he has no choice but to mate with an alpha werewolf. the werewolf boy clearly has a massive crush on the witch boy that he thinks is unrequited because he’s a dumbass, but the witch boy thinks the werewolf boy hates him because he’s an even bigger dumbass, and all of this is pretty obvious on like page 5 and doesn’t get resolved until like the second to last chapter i think and yeah that sounds like something i’d normally find infuriating but it’s actually delightful here?
also like, yeah you’re mostly here for the smut and the smut is quite good if a little too vanilla for my tastes. (while reading it i described it as “kink-aware but not kinky” and i think i stand by that.) but i just love all the characters and there’s some great action and great situational comedy and yeah this just has a lot going for it. and also the protagonist is in acute recovery from being emotionally abused by his father, and his new lover & new friends do a great job of helping with that recovery.
but i think the biggest draw is that i just fucking love this author’s narrative voice, i’m really looking forward to reading the rest of this series because this first book kicked serious ass. a-rank
monster high: the movie (movie 2022)
yes hello hi this was fucking adorable. this is what i imagine high school musical was like for people who liked high school musical, but it’s about awesome monster girls being awesome monster girls and learning how to love themselves.
everyone looks fucking gorgeous and i obviously wish i had gone to this high school. since i first saw monster high dolls when i was stocking the shelves at target, i wished monster high had been a thing when i was a little boy. it’s just so me. i mean, yeah based on how asking for a barbie went i probably wouldn’t have gotten to actually have any, but just them existing being an ambient part of my childhood would’ve been cool i think.
frankie stein is canonically a they/them enby??? and it was nbd they just introduced themself with their pronouns and then the movie just kept going. unsurprisingly there are a bunch of terfs & other reactionaries very mad about it online, which as gross as it is is still just the funniest shit ever. like imagine actually being publicly angry about a cute movie about fucking children’s dolls, these weirdos just physically cannot stop themselves from posting their ls.
the plot is lean, so don’t go in looking for much of one, but hopefully if you intentionally sit down to watch the monster high movie you know what you’re getting into. the songs were great, i loved all the girls, i hated that we’re supposed to believe that at least two of them are heterosexual but at least the boy is nice. and like, obviously i love monster boys as much as monster girls, but fuck’s sake, don’t try to convince me there is a single heterosexual at this school, i mean fucking look at them.
there’s already a sequel announced for next halloween!! i really hope this becomes an enduring halloween tradition, just us getting a new monster high movie every year. that would fucking rule. also this one was primarily focused on clawdeen which worked out really well with us doing werewolf movies for halloween, but it would be really cool if each new movie focused on a different character! if that ends up happening maybe we’ll intentionally synchronize our halloween movie theme to whatever monster high is doing that year, that would be neat! a-rank
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