American Werewolves - Emily Jane
One of my household’s favorite television programs of this century has been the six seasons of NBC’s “Grimm.” I think we’re now on our fourth – or maybe it’s our fifth – cycle through the entire series. Not familiar with the show’s premise? Simple: there are people who look just like everyone else who can change into humanized versions of animals: sheep, wolves, foxes, pigs, beavers, rats, even bees. These people can be either benign or evil; although most of the predator types are evil.
Which brings us to American Werewolves, the latest from novelist Emily Jane (On Earth, as It Is on Television). Jane’s titular werewolf pack are all male partners at a Seattle venture capitalist firm (therefore rapacious and evil by definition?). Once their newest partner, insta-obsessed closeted gay Shane LaSalle, is turned at a full-moon partner’s retreat; he realizes that this isn’t what he wanted out of life. Enter Natasha and Nova Z’Rhae (a fictional version of Taylor Swift, complete with glitter-covered Nozees). The three, helped by a “good” werewolf, are determined to euthanize the pack. Hilarity (some) and gore (lots) ensue.
Jane’s version of werewolves says a lot about her: they’re so evil that they immediately kill any female child born with the werewolf gene/virus/whatever. This is in addition to manipulating the levers of power to their kind’s advantage at every level: CEOs like Zuckerberg and Bezos, as well as officials like Cheney and Rumsfeld are all members of their own packs (although Elon Musk is said to be a vampire). As a result, Jane’s entire novel is overlain by a coat of misandry: only the males are greedy, bloodthirsty murderers.
The book’s not a terribly easy read, being somewhat longer than the subject matter probably deserves. It would also benefit from the omission of included “reference material” and a lighter touch on the man-hating stuff. Still and all, it’s a fairly fun read – although this this the only werewolf literature I’ve read (admittedly a small sample) that suggests that lycanthropy can be transmitted by a bite like vampirism. Maybe the Twilight series says so, I wouldn’t know. All told, I’d give it a middling three stars.
