Lonely Werewolf Girl

February 11, 2008
Complex family and social conflicts clutter the pages of this scattershot romp from World Fantasy Award–winner Millar (The Good Fairies of New York
). Kalix MacRinnalch, a poorly socialized, laudanum-addicted teenage werewolf, has violently assaulted her father, thereby adding “outcast” to her list of defining traits. Suddenly and inexplicably supported by two preternaturally patient new friends, Daniel and Moonglow, the young werewolf skulks around London and struggles with anxiety and eating disorders while scores of subplots merrily explode around her. As Kalix’s relatives bicker and backstab to establish a new leader, a cast of thousands shoehorns its way into the narrative, stealing story space for a sorcerous fashion designer with spy problems, werewolf twins with a terrible punk band that can’t get a gig and a romantically mercenary transvestite. Overly reliant on luck and coincidence and populated by unsympathetic characters with unconvincing motives, Millar’s urban fantasy epic swiftly dissolves into a tragedy of contrived errors.

Starred review from April 1, 2008
The MacRinnalch clan of Scottish werewolves is at war with itself. Attacked by his 17-year-old daughter, Kalix, the thane has succumbed, leaving the succession in question. Neither eldest son Sarapen nor younger, cross-dressing scion Markus have enough votes in the werewolves Great Council to become thane, and the late thanes mother offers her vote to whomever brings her Kalixs heart. Kalix, despondent over losing her lover to exile, is on the verge of suicide before either bounty hunters or the secret society that hunts werewolves finds her. After shes rescued by college students Moonglow and Daniel, things take a curious turn to, among other things, her sister Thrix, a werewolf enchantress and couturier for fashion-obsessed fire-elemental warrior queen Malveria. This complex romp features scores of characters, multiple races, enchanting fashion trappings, business, family dynamics, music, sex, enduring love, romance, business, eating disorders, drug addiction, back-alley fights, epic battles, politics, and, most prominently, the contrary nature of werewolves, not to mention 236 (!) chapters. And its so compelling you dont want to it end. The grungy, gory, glorious world that World Fantasy Awardwinner Millar has created is unforgettable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)