Book Review
Oct. 24th, 2012 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariTallula Rising
by Glen Duncan
This sequel to The Last Werewolf follows Jake's lover Tallula's adventures after his death. She is pregnant and on the run from both WOCOP and the vampires, so she and her human familiar hide out in remote Alaska to await the birth. Unfortunately, the vampires find her and kidnap her son just after the delivery, but before the unexpected birth of her daughter (yes, it's twins). Tallula pursues the vampires, which also brings WOCOP into things. The vampire kidnappers turn out to be a fanatic religious cult with mystical yet deadly intentions, and WOCOP is now under the control of a cruel psychopath, so Tallula as well as her friends and allies find themselves involved in things that are both highly dangerous and unexpectedly complex.
Like its predecessor, Tallula Rising is very compelling - I could barely put it down. It's also definitely not for the faint of heart - it's got just as much sex, violence, and grittiness as The Last Werewolf. The plot is addictively exciting and contains some genuine surprises. Duncan's prose remains beautiful, and the characters both new and old are rich and complicated.
I especially loved Duncan's portrayal of Tallula as a mother. Giving birth and becoming a mother does not immediately fill her with beatified love, it does not profoundly or fundamentally change everything for her. She is deeply conflicted - wanting to love her children, fearful of how her monstrous nature as a werewolf may complement or conflict with motherhood, struggling to deal emotionally with the loss of her son combined with the presence of her daughter, and also struggling with the realities of her situation and self as compared to the social and cultural expectations of what a mother and motherhood is supposed to be. It's fascinating, and, I admit, refreshing.
I was also really happy with the reappearance of Madeline, Jake's prostitute companion from the first book. Now also a werewolf, Madeline becomes very important to both the plot and Tallula. It becomes clear that Jake very much underestimated Madeline, and it was great to see her character unfold.
The plot was awesome, too. So many things I did not see coming, so many interesting convergences and parallels. I did not expect the legendary oldest vampire to appear the way he did, and I hope that the third book gets into that whole angle a lot more. I was pleasantly surprised that the happy-ish ending I was hoping for actually arrived.
(ETA: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.)
by Glen Duncan
This sequel to The Last Werewolf follows Jake's lover Tallula's adventures after his death. She is pregnant and on the run from both WOCOP and the vampires, so she and her human familiar hide out in remote Alaska to await the birth. Unfortunately, the vampires find her and kidnap her son just after the delivery, but before the unexpected birth of her daughter (yes, it's twins). Tallula pursues the vampires, which also brings WOCOP into things. The vampire kidnappers turn out to be a fanatic religious cult with mystical yet deadly intentions, and WOCOP is now under the control of a cruel psychopath, so Tallula as well as her friends and allies find themselves involved in things that are both highly dangerous and unexpectedly complex.
Like its predecessor, Tallula Rising is very compelling - I could barely put it down. It's also definitely not for the faint of heart - it's got just as much sex, violence, and grittiness as The Last Werewolf. The plot is addictively exciting and contains some genuine surprises. Duncan's prose remains beautiful, and the characters both new and old are rich and complicated.
I especially loved Duncan's portrayal of Tallula as a mother. Giving birth and becoming a mother does not immediately fill her with beatified love, it does not profoundly or fundamentally change everything for her. She is deeply conflicted - wanting to love her children, fearful of how her monstrous nature as a werewolf may complement or conflict with motherhood, struggling to deal emotionally with the loss of her son combined with the presence of her daughter, and also struggling with the realities of her situation and self as compared to the social and cultural expectations of what a mother and motherhood is supposed to be. It's fascinating, and, I admit, refreshing.
I was also really happy with the reappearance of Madeline, Jake's prostitute companion from the first book. Now also a werewolf, Madeline becomes very important to both the plot and Tallula. It becomes clear that Jake very much underestimated Madeline, and it was great to see her character unfold.
The plot was awesome, too. So many things I did not see coming, so many interesting convergences and parallels. I did not expect the legendary oldest vampire to appear the way he did, and I hope that the third book gets into that whole angle a lot more. I was pleasantly surprised that the happy-ish ending I was hoping for actually arrived.
(ETA: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.)
