This has been quietly waiting on my shelves for me to get around to it in between school novels, weighty tomes for my Masters and books that I promised students I would read. Finally, I got there. Jacob Marlowe is an urbane and intelligent voice and it was easy to listen to his story. He relates the tale of his life, flitting between the action at the moment (getting shot at by a WOCOP agent) and back to his beginnings (being ‘created’ by a werewolf running away from said WOCOP) and the intervening years; the sad tale of his first love, told as dispassionately as only a werewolf could. We begin Jacob’s tale near the end and this technique keeps the pace up. The plot has enough unseen twists to keep most genre fans happy and it differs from other supernatural tales in its style and voice, the aforementioned urbanity staying charming throughout, even when relating depraved debauchery. I did find the ending a bit disappointing in that I was able to guess much of it before it happened, a shame really as up until the last quarter I felt outwitted by the novel, which I like. However, having said that, I would still recommend it. The self awareness of the voice of Jacob was touching and sad at times, even while chronicling his own inability to maintain a moral focus. His ability to analyze his fate and embrace his own monstrosity was fascinating and oddly allowed me to sympathize with him.
This is definitely not for anyone enamoured of the Twilight genre. It remains strictly adults only and it’s gore and sex may put off some readers but for me it was an interesting exploration of the idea of survival and morality, relationships and modern life.
Telling Tales 