The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

To my knowledge, this is the most recent of Duncan's published works and, like the rest I have read, it's fantastic and quite clever. However, that's a limited list since "the rest" I've read is just I, Lucifer, one of the best books about angels I've ever read. All the same, I think he's a brilliant writer, which shows throw in his obvious fondness of stories and their well-known tropes that his characters tend to hang lampshades on. I had to read his take on werewolves.

Before getting into reviewing the novel itself, let me clarify something. I have always loved vampires and werewolves in fiction. Always. However, my love for vampires is expressed more often (e.g., for two or three Halloweens straight I dressed up as Count Dracula and got a lot of mileage out of the rubber fangs we got each year when I was little) than my adoration for people that are also wolves. Of course, much of that is due to the vast amounts of vampire-centric media that I consume, since there doesn't appear to be as much selection with werewolf-centric media. Or werewolves are side characters within a larger fictional universe, ala Buffy or Harry Potter.

Not only do I love the characters, plots, and tropes, but I love what both monsters tend to represent, which has hardly changed over time. Obviously, the werewolf is humanity's base, animalistic desires and urges made flesh. Whereas the vampire, while also toying with similar base urges in the blood drinking and sex, is all about death and dying. What makes them such fun is that writers not only build on or toy with the mythology, but add in their personal fears and concerns about both ends of the live-death spectrum.

So, er, the review. There's a lot going on this book, so I'm going to start with what I think needs criticizing.

Despite all of the fantastic pop culture references that Jacob (and a few other characters) make, I think there's a glaring omission in the form of Supernatural. In that show the people that seek out paranormal cases are called "hunters", as are the members of WOCOP (World Organization for the Control of Occult Phenomena) that participate in the field work that tends to kill supernatural beings. So, clearly, that's a missed opportunity to make wise cracks about the Winchester boys and the folks out to kill Jacob, the titular last werewolf and the tale's narrator. And the several references to Buffy don't help at all in that regard.

What I also felt it was lacking was more of the back story of Harley, Jacob's some of close friend and mole within WOCOP. And it's not just based on the fact that he was gay, I think the story might have benefited from more of their odd friendship since it started with Jacob saving him while in his wolf state. I mean, really, how could the writer leave that out when it's only one of the best tropes ever. Not that their friendship feels hollow, but I think it should have had that boost.

The post-script narrated by Talulla, while fantastic in every other respect, is riddled with British colloquialisms that are nonsensical since it had already been established that she was a born-and-bred New Yorker. And I know that Duncan must know this since he actually did some fairly accurate research about the stretch of California State Route 62 between the area around my hometown and Lake Havasu, so dropping the ball on that is ridiculous.

Anyway, on to the rest of it, which I adored.

As mentioned earlier, Harley and Jacob's friendship is so fantastic and I enjoyed it immensely. They're a bit like The Odd Couple. Granted, the novel opens with Jacob preparing to die at the next full moon, so they're not really as close as they were back when Harley was younger, but they know each other so well it's hard not to want more of them interacting. (Oh, forgot to mention, Jacob's just over 200 years old and looks almost exactly as he did the night he was bit, which is due to the Curse.) Their goodbye scene, with Jacob in drag since they didn't want to blow Harley's cover at WOCOP, was amazing though. It was so perfectly the pair of them, with the half-hearted sniping, sitting near one another and not quite bringing up that one of them will be dead in days until Jacob had to leave and said his final goodbye. Making Harley's death all the more poignant - despite the horrifying circumstances of Jacob being forced to open a bag with Harley's head in it by Ellis of WOCOP - and it not quite being enough to push him to going to his death fighting. It does, however, get him to start running away which leads to his abduction by Jacqueline Delon at the behest of one of the more powerful vampire families.

This leads to Jacob gaining some information about what exactly parts of the vampiric mafia are up to. As it turns out, there are cases of vampires being bit by a werewolf which temporarily bestows them with the ability to go out into the sun without turning into a cinder. Of course, Jacob being the last known werewolf, he comes with a large price tag that of which Delon is willing to take advantage. Piecing this together after taking a tumble with Delon, Jacob is able to escape with the aid of Delon's on-the-outs boytoy Cloquet. He then finds his way back up to England where he runs into Talulla in the middle of Heathrow while she's on her way back to New York City.

Talulla, shockingly, is a (newly turned) female werewolf, who happen to be fairly rare within this story's mythology and most werewolf stories period. Not only that, but since Jacob and Talulla are heterosexual and the Curse has their libidos on overdrive, they come together as He and She as quickly as they possibly can. Jacob's been tailed by the vampires since his escape, so they are constantly traveling all over North America to evade capture as their relationship blooms and builds beyond the near-instinctive sexual impulses of their He and She selves. This all culminates when they transform and kill and fuck during the course of the next full moon. At that point their connection reaches another level that they cannot quite regain in their human form. Alas, from there they are separated by WOCOP hunters that are seeking to create more werewolves and over throw those in control that just want to be rid of all of the supernatural beings by having Jacob kill a select few while turned.

After Talulla is taken by them, Jacob goes into something of a panic made worse by having to stay at one of Harley's houses in London and not being able to leave or do anything without being watched by WOCOP hunters. Meanwhile, Talulla is imprisoned and constantly undergoes a barrage of medical tests, but she's placed under the same limitations Jacob is, though he is allowed alcohol and cigarettes. The constant waiting and not being able to really do as they please is starting to get to the both of them until the vampires drop in on Jacob, which only temporarily interrupts the WOCOP coup and leaves Harley's place in shambles. After regrouping the hunters maneuver all the major players in the coup to an area near Snowdonia (where Jacob was turned) where all of everyone's plans goes to shit in the best possible way.

All of the double crossing within the WOCOP is revealed, which effectively ends the coup. Of course, being the hunters that they are, said coup is ended through a ton of killing, which includes Jacob by way of the hunter Grainer and Grainer by Cloquet's then off-screen hand. In the midst of this Talulla is revealed to be pregnant with what is possibly the very first ever werewolf child, explaining why they denied her the booze she wanted while under lock and key. Of course, since it is about two months into the pregnancy she is able to gain conformation from the leader of those who imprisoned her before eating him. Talulla then seeks out Cloquet's aid in getting them out of that place and into hiding as quickly as possible. The story, which began with a note of finality and sorrow, ends with hope and the promise of new life emerging from death. And, really, what better way to end a story?

Oh, and here's a link to the soundtrack by The Real Tuesday Weld! I found it in the book's acknowledgements and I'm intrigued by the idea of it since I like to think up applicable music/playlists for fiction a lot. (At the moment I'm working on a fanmix for Once Upon a Time.)