When I was thirteen, I read a novel that changed the way I thought about the world of story. Inside its pages were characters that tapped into the pain, hunger and hope of humanity. Some of the most human and fallible people resided inside the pages, characters that were both inspiring and reassuring. What was more astounding, was that the story revolved around the natural and supernatural, across the extraordinary and the near mundane. The book was Anne Rice’s Memnoch The Devil.
Soon after discovering the world of Memnoch, I was pulled into the magnetic family sagas of the Mayfair witches, and the war that raged as good battled evil. Mythology, honor, and love wove their way through these books like harmony elevates a song. Whether it was vampires, witches, or angels, Rice had me spooked, spellbound, and bewildered.
Rice delivers an unstoppable, near familiar, and genius story in her latest supernatural, The Wolf Gift. Reuben Golding, observer, thinker, and man-child is bestowed a gift of power. One that he neither asked for, nor desired, but welcomes when his new reality better suits him than his old.
From this change in Reuben’s life a new awareness and dream is born. A noble man, a brilliant reporter, and a werewolf, Reuben’s character – his human nature - redefines what it means to be lycanthrope. Or as Rice coins it, Morphenkind. Reuben and the man-wolves undergo a metamorphosis unlike the lycaons of literature past. Instead of turning to evil, Rueben, much like Louis and his brethren, hunts the evil-doer.
**Spoiler alert**
Evolution and biology play the larger role in his transformation, but The Wolf Gift is not without its nods to mythical power. Like the Taltos before them, there is an alien and otherworldliness to their being. But it’s the gentleness and humanity that make Reuben and his ilk desirable and believable.
The Wolf Gift is full of synchronicity, hard questions examined, and authentic characters that lead the way. Long-time readers of Rice will discover a melting pot of all the amazing qualities that make an Anne Rice novel superior, come together in one divine story told. The Wolf Gift doesn’t disappoint until the very end, when the reader discovers the last page – and that the story indeed must come to a close.
