I struggled through The Wolf Gift. Mind you, I should state here and now that the only books of Rice's that I have read were the first five vampire novels and then (and I am embarrassed to admit it) the first book of her Beauty series. Ick.
I walked into Wolf Gift, expecting the same wonderful prose that made me fall in love with the romance of her vampires. However, the prose was more of the oh God, gag me type. My initial thought was: Did I download the right ebook? After double checking that I had, I decided to plow through in the hopes that perhaps it was just the character. Reuben is continually referred to by nicknames that make him seem bright and sweet. And as a character, he is. My problem with Reuben is that he is more of a reflector than a character that absorbs and grows. Yes, he does grow physically, but it seems like Rice takes advantage of his intelligence, education and the fact that he knows a little about everything due to his being essentially a trust fund baby. There's no real struggle with the gift, he accepts it and then starts tearing evil doers to pieces. Huzzah!
Wait! Now he's in love with this long haired lady he found in the woods! I mean, seriously. Come on. Laura served absolutely no purpose. She was not a moral compass and was completely unnecessary to the story. She appears as this frail woman child. Oh, and plus we have to mix the bestiality in there. P.S. He had a girlfriend who is conveniently now in love with his (ex?) best friend. Everything just comes across as so trite. What should have taken me a week to get though took several months, as I continually put down my Kindle in favour of other books. I went back for a brief read of the beginning of Interview With the Vampire. The language and descriptions are smooth and have a lovely flow. Wolf Gift was not choppy, but the descriptions were over done and too flowery. It detracted from the plot, rather than adding to it.
I like a book with a bit of moral struggle, moral ambiguity. Wolf Gift drowns you with how right everything is about violently killing criminals and those who are evil. Don't get me wrong, I am all for violence. But, Reuben's "struggle" with whether or not his actions are right and justified seemed less of a struggle and more of a shallow justification used to pad the story. The rest of the characters are really equally as trite--from his mother Grace, who is also his doctor; his brother, the priest, to whom Reuben confesses all the way to the other werewolves. Rice's tale of how the Vampires began was richer and more believable than the half told tale given to us by Margon the Godless.
I am still having a hard time believing this is THE Anne Rice I'm reviewing and I have absolutely nothing good to say. I am disappointed to say the least. All in all, it's a definite miss and I don't suggest reading it at all. If you choose to, don't go in with the expectation of the old Anne Rice.
