Bitten
by Kelley Armstrong
Review by Aimee Rhodes
In this post-Buffy-world, writing about werewolves and vampires is potentially fraught with accusations of obsessive fandom at best and outright plagiarism at worst. Especially when your chosen protagonist is as adept at wisecracking as she is at kicking bad guy arse.
Fortunately, Kelley Armstrong’s first novel Bitten manages to avoid the pitfalls inherent in traipsing down such a well-trod genre path, and even explores some unique territory on the way. Armstrong deftly weaves the better points of horror and paranormal suspense largely without resorting to cliché, and even manages to inject some humour into what can be an overly serious genre.
Armstrong’s heroine, Elena Michaels, is the world’s only female werewolf. As the book begins, she has already been a werewolf for ten years, but this has not ended her struggle with her identity and the memory of being human. Nor has it made her forget all the human hopes and dreams that are now beyond her grasp; as an abused former foster child shunted around by the system after seeing her parents die in a car accident, she wants nothing more as an adult than to live a normal life. She was on the verge of achieving this when her lover turned her into a werewolf.
She is quietly making a normal life for herself estranged from her werewolf Pack, complete with day-job and live-in lover, when the Pack Alpha contacts her. The Pack is in deep trouble, and they need her help. Someone is committing werewolf-style murders on Pack territory, and Elena’s knowledge of the non-Pack werewolves, known as mutts, is vital to solving the mystery. The problem is, if Elena is to help the Pack, she needs to leave her carefully developed life behind, and fears she may be forced to choose between the two.
Elena’s own sense of horror rises as she discovers that there are some new mutts engaged in the ancient battle between the Pack and the mutts, and that these new mutts were formerly human serial killers. Unlike the Pack and even most other mutts, they kill purely for the enjoyment of it and mostly target female victims. In order to defeat them, Elena must overcome the deeply-ingrained horror of her own abusive past as well as avoid becoming the prize victim of these uber-mutts.
Armstrong keeps the plot taught and fast-paced; despite the novel’s length I found no obviously superfluous scenes. She draws everything together to support and strengthen the numerous subplots, major and minor. The novel contains some genuinely funny moments which are balanced out by its darker parts; its subject matter might dictate a need for gruesome scenes, but the appropriately timed levity provides relief as the body count grows on both sides of the werewolf vendetta.
The major characters are engaging and for the most part likable, although Armstrong draws heavily from archetypes. Elena is a unique, strong and sympathetic heroine in both conventional and unconventional ways, and I found her a fascinating character study. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the novel’s bad guys; here Armstrong veers into stereotype territory, relying on generic notions of evil. Considering that she goes to great lengths to show the many shades of grey of her heroes’ personalities, avoiding one-dimensionality in her antagonists might have been more effective as a narrative device.
If you’re after a fast-paced, compelling read, and you like your dark fantasy tinged with humour and even romance, Bitten will be a valuable addition to your collection. As the beginning of what is shaping up to be a compelling new series in dark fantasy, it is a signal of great (and grotesque) things to come from Kelley Armstrong.
Publisher: Viking Adult (Oct, 2001)
ISBN: 0670894710 Hardcover (352 pages)
Publisher: Plume (Dec, 2002)
ISBN: 0452283485 Paperback (384 pages)
Publisher: Plume (Sep, 2004)
ISBN: 0452286034 Mass Market Paperback (436 pages)
Publisher: Time Warner
ISBN: 1-8414-9350-3 Paperback