[edit 8/7/19: I still think about this book a LOT so I decided to bump my rating up to 5 stars]



"I will not be your human idol, your little goddess of suffering. I am not all human women. And you would do well to remember that while you devour and rape and preach and lament that humans will never love you."



actual rating: 4.5



This seems to be one of those books that you either hate or love and i almost didn't pick it up because it seems to have so many mixed reviews. I can definitely see how it wou

[edit 8/7/19: I still think about this book a LOT so I decided to bump my rating up to 5 stars]



"I will not be your human idol, your little goddess of suffering. I am not all human women. And you would do well to remember that while you devour and rape and preach and lament that humans will never love you."



actual rating: 4.5



This seems to be one of those books that you either hate or love and i almost didn't pick it up because it seems to have so many mixed reviews. I can definitely see how it wouldn't be a book for everyone, but I'm so glad that I decided to read it. If I had to compare it to something else I would probably go with "Indian werewolf Interview with the Vampire" except like ...actually a lot better written and also by someone who seems to have an actual understanding of race and gender roles throughout history. But you're not reading this review to listen to me drag Anne Rice.



I guess let's start with the stuff that might turn people off of this book. Yes, there is rape in it. One of the shape-shifters rapes a human woman and then tries to justify it, but soon after that the narrative switches to the woman's point of view and continues with her story and the narrative is definitely 100% behind her all the way. If you don't want to read a book that has rape in it at all I completely understand, but in my opinion this book handles the subject well.



Also there are a lot of bodily fluids in here [especially piss] and it gets incredibly vulgar sometimes, so I can see how that would be a turn-off as well. I don't think it's done without purpose though. A lot of time they are scent-marking things [hello, werewolves!] and other times it's kind more used as symbolism or a mirroring device as this book deals heavily with the topic of the nature of man and man vs. beast etc.



The writing style is very interesting and fluctuates between incredibly descriptive almost purple-prose and then incredibly vulgar things like I mentioned above. I think this works for the story though because like I said a lot of it is about the duality of man and what makes someone human or a 'monster'. I also really like what he did with the shape-shifter mythology. Basically all shape-shifters from every mythology are one race and they choose different forms based on what area they come from. It was definitely an entirely unique mythology that I haven't seen before.



If you are someone who likes a narrative that jumps around a lot and focuses on several different stories and focuses more on characters than action, then you will probably like this book. It does a lot of really interesting things with gender roles and sexuality as well that I really enjoyed. Definitely not for everyone, but if it sounds at all interesting to you I would say to give it a chance. Also the audio is just wonderful and both the narrators do an amazing job but the female narrator in particular has a very good emotional range.



I'd like to close out this review by leaving you with the longer version of the quote I used above just because I like it so much and feel like it really encapsulates a lot of what goes in in the book and with Cyrah's journey in particular. As I said before, I listened to the audio so I transcribed this while listening so it might not be exactly as it appears in the text of the book and any mistakes are my own:



"Those things you said before about my kind, that human men and women only war and rape. The worst thing about you is that you almost make me want to agree with you, with everything you say about my kind. But you're not human. You've no right to say such things. I do, but I'll never say those things. I am one woman. I am not all women. [...] You bring out the bitterness in me. You bring it out like a fountain. All you do is make me remember rape and agony and hatred and forget every other moment in my entire life in which I loved. In which I loved my dear mother and laughed with her and marveled at her courage, at how much she cared for me. [...] And I cried with happiness and not hatred and sorrow and fear. I've never loved a man in my life, but I am not fool enough to think that there are no men and women in this world that truly love each other and love their children together and did not conceive them through violence and pain. I will not be your human idol, your little goddess of suffering. I am not all human women. And you would do well to remember that while you devour and rape and preach and lament that humans will never love you."