Not my cup of tea. Though it was a popular success and an important early milestone of the paperback horror boom, The Wolfen (1978) is workmanlike at best. The dialogue between the central characters (the male-female cop duo) feels strained and unnatural, and the basic concept of the Wolfen didn't win me over, either. (Vastly superior is David Morrell's nontraditional take on werewolf lore, The Totem, which was published the year after this book.) There's plenty of violence but few genuine chills. Nonetheless, despite being thoroughly mediocre, The Wolfen is better than many of the glossy-covered horror potboilers that appeared in its wake. This is one of those rare cases wherein the film is superior, however: Michael Wadleigh's cinematic adaptation gives the material an authentically gritty urban vibe that doesn't really come across in Strieber's novel. ( )

I understand this has a special place among many horror fans and it does have a unique spin on werewolves, including chapters from their perspective, but awfully clunky writing and police procedural clichés had me scratching my head a lot at illogical sequence of events, which is a problem when the novel wants to lean realistic and plausible. ( )

Wolf Pack Attack!

Backstory:

Two detectives (Becky Neff and George Wilson) are on the hunt for whoever killed two policemen, but when they find out that it is not a "who" they are looking for but a "what" is when things become interesting.

Neff and Wilson find out that something with paw prints were all over the two dead policemen and they begin to wonder what kind of animals would have killed the officers. They soon learn though that what killed the officers cannot be real as it can only be a myth - has to be because what they believe to have killed the officers couldn't possibly exist or could it?

The two detectives find out quickly that something is amiss when another killing happens and what they believed to really be non-existent does indeed lean toward really being true, so they will do whatever it takes to stop the killings even if it means creating silver bullets to put a stop toward the myth of the werewolf.

Thoughts:

This was a great story and it has been literally years since I read anything by Whitley Strieber so when one of my friends wanted to buddy read this book I jumped at the chance. The story starts out right away with some blood/gore action but then drops back down to a slow pace in the story with suspense build up.

I would consider this book to be quiet horror as there is not a lot of blood/gore action. There is tons of mystery and suspense along with the main characters trying to figure out what is stalking and hunting humans.

When the werewolf myth comes up and the detective characters, Neff and Wilson start going in search of what is happening the story kicks up a notch as the suspense is driven to a fever high.

I ended up reading the last 40% of the book within 12 hours as the story became unputdownable! The story seemed to end like maybe there could be another book in the wings, but not sure as it is hard to tell with horror as sometimes the author will just end it with no other book coming. Otherwise will be looking for more books by this author as he seems to have quite a few out there. Giving this book four "Wicked Werewolf" stars!
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I thought about this book for a while, and decided to call it "well executed." The point of view mostly stayed with the good guys. The bad guys plans were described after the fact - making a neat story telling experience. However, I rated it three stars, so it didn't get to the "hard to put down" zone where it would rate four. The time frame was the 1970's, and having no 24X7 surveillance or cell phone cameras was something I kept saying to myself. That took away from my enjoyment and a big negative for this book and author. ( )

So boring. Someone told me that this book was SOOOO scary. -_- It's a snoozefest.







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