The Last Werewolf

Another reviewer remarked that this book is marred by 'excessive verbiage and gratuitous sex'. I agree. And yet...I did enjoy it. It took a while to get into because as others have remarked the author does seem determined to metaphorically club his readers over the head with his extensive vocabulary and although it's diverting at first to keep referring to the Kindle dictionary, it gets rather wearisome after a while. Even so, there was enough in the story to keep me reading and once it got into its stride I was charmed by the humour and intrigued enough to want to know how it ended. Jake was a sympathetic lead character- I couldn't help but be won over by a werewolf who found himself unable to kill a male model because he was 'too absurd'. Ellis was an amusing villain and I liked the way the vampires skated round the edges of the novel giving just enough to the plot to make it more interesting.Tallula was less interesting. She was the typical female lead character that's really only there for the male lead to worship and have sex with. I found the sex scenes crude and the language used to describe them schoolboyishly offensive. Neither I nor any of my female friends refer to our genitalia by the 'c' word - I'm sure some women do, but I suspect they're in the minority. It's not big and it's not clever, however much some men would like to believe otherwise. A pity because otherwise this was a fun book to read.

I bought this book in the middle of a tide of rave reviews from my fellow book bloggers - and happily, the hype turned out to be justified. It isn't the best book I've ever read, but it IS beautifully written, deftly plotted and extremely compelling.It is written in the form of an ongoing memoir belonging to Jake Marlowe, and begins at the moment he discovers another of his kind has just been killed, officially making him the last living werewolf on earth. Throughout his life the Hunt has been gradually chasing them down, one by one, and now, 200 years old, lonely and sick of the endless running and monthly bloodbath, Jake is ready to give up and go willingly. But before the next full moon arrives, when he plans to walk into his own death at the hands of the Hunt's top agents, everything is turned upside down. His friend is murdered, devious supernatural schemes start to surface, and he falls in love for the first time in his werewolf life. Suddenly he has something to live for - and he'll do anything to hold onto it. After all, life is all there is...If you pick this book up looking for teen romance and high-school thrills, you'll be sorely disappointed. This is literary fiction all the way - and definitely for the adult reader! It's bloody, provocative and downright filthy, yet it's written in the most exquisite, poetic language that flows like water. The only thing I didn't like was the repeated use of the 'c' word, not because of any moral objection, but because in sexual references it just sounds so horrible. A male-writer thing, perhaps. That aside, this is a fantastic, gripping read that expertly walks the fine line between gritty and gorgeous to build a novel that really sets itself apart from the supernatural pack (*groans*). Highly recommended.

I have never known Canongate Books to produce a bad book, and Glen Duncan's "The Last Werewolf" is no exception. This is a really smart, intelligent, witty, literary version of the werewolf story and I loved it. Jake Marlowe, The Last Werewolf of the title, is marvellously world-weary and just killing time until someone gets him with the silver bullet, until he discovers that he's not quite so alone as he first thought and suddenly has a reason for living. The action is fast-paced and exciting, with just the right amount of gore for the genre, and some really high quality writing. What I loved most about this book was the literariness of it. Duncan makes a really effective comparison between the craft of writing and the craft of "Wulf" finding "the where and the when and the who of the kill"; he consciously cites literary icon Susan Sontag's hypothesis that "something else is always going on" simultaneously with the main narrative voice and asks "the hell literature faces every day. It's a wonder anyone writes.)" and calls on other literary traditions (gently evoking Jane Eyre with his, "Reader, I ate him.") He pokes fun at his reader, asking if they're paying attention, hinting at current literary trends for a dark ending and accusing them of missing cues (You who consider yourself so well-read) (I may have misquoted that - I couldn't find the actual quote in the book, sorry). Jake as the narrator is refreshingly cynical, by turns offensive and lyrical, always having a neat turn of phrase to hand, crude and very well-read. I was less enamoured of the latter character of Tallula. She spoke too much in Jake's voice. In some parts I was left wondering if the narrative had flipped back to him again. I also don't like sequels - the last part of my Kindle edition was a preview of "Tallula Rising". I've got to say it put me off a bit - but that's just me. The Last Werewolf, in my opinion, should have been exactly that.Final point - I loved the way Jake's last stand was in Beddgelert with a 4x4 driver called Llewellyn - practically the only thing Beddgelert is famous for is the grave of a large dog (Prince Llewellyn's if I'm not much mistaken). It was a neat way to end the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from an author I had never heard of before. The book was only a couple of £ on the Kindle so I couldn't go far wrong.The story is set in almost diary form (though not in the typical day-by-day format, rather more like memoirs) and the author tells us how he became a werewolf, his fight for survival from the corrupt WOCOP, a government organisation that tracks down werewolves throughout the world in order to destroy them. He is the last werewolf in the world and now he is being hunted. There are vampires too which this organisation should also be hunting down but because many vampires are extremely rich they bribe the government into ignoring them. Werewolves and vampires in this book despise each other and generally have nothing to do with each other, but now something has changed; the vampires are hunting down the werewolves too but not to kill them; they have discovered that if a vampire is bitten by a werewolf they then are able to tolerate sunlight. Also it would seem that nobody is surviving werewolf bits anymore so our last werewolf is not even able to pass the "curse" on.A great book with a gripping and exciting story with plenty of action, and a lot of sex (though for you dirty-minded people; cool yourselves down - there are no full blown descriptions! :-P )This is the first book in a trilogy; the second is out ( Talulla Rising ) but I'm not sure about the 3rd.Note on the Kindle version; great! No proplems at all. Talulla Rising

I have always tended to be more attracted towards vampire literature but I've become increasingly disillusioned with how sanitised the novels have become and so I thought I would give this a go. It doesn't disappoint!Jake thinks he is the last werewolf and is being hunted by an organisation whose sole aim is to track him down. This doesn't really bother Jake, who after 200 years is tired of running and tired of living; that is until something happens that reawakens his desire and gives his life a purpose. He must then dodge the people trying to kill him, which amongst others, includes a bunch of vampires.The novel includes plenty of sex and violence as well as, almost philosophical, musings on the nature of good and evil. Certainly it's not one for the squeamish, the hunting and killing of human prey is described in graphic detail! Duncan also revels in language and there were times when I thought his deliberate use of complicated vocabulary, to describe the most basic things, could alienate some readers.The only irritations for me (and the reason it gets four stars instead of five) are his constant and relentless use of the phrase; `If this was a film..' blah, blah,blah and the fact that by page 100 I was keeping track of how many times he referred to Jake's erections (approximately 18 times from page 100 to the end of the book, in scenes that aren't technically sex scenes.) I understand that werewolves are primal creatures but enough already!That said, I really enjoyed this book and am eager to start the next book in the trilogy.