Wolf Moon

As I read this story, I found myself enjoying it the more I got into it. I reread the beginning a few times, as I kept losing interest, but after I got past the first few chapters I found the story a great entertainment. An easy read, it may be, but it's quite a twist from your regular supernatural stories. DeLint has sent the magic from the story into the mind of the reader, and his carefully worded descriptions make this story a great read. When compared to his other works, this little story may be overlooked and thought inferior, but this story is just as important to the DeLint collection as is his bestseller, Moonheart. DeLint has taken a classic tale and twisted its wrist to make it his own. It's totally unpredictable.

I really enjoyed this book. It's light and easy to read, yet filled with vivid imagery and characters that you can easily sympathize with. I'm also a sucker for wolf/werewolf stories. Again, I really loved this and I think it's a great book for all ages.

I've never read a book by De Lint, so, unlike other reviewers, I'm not bias because of reading his later works. This one is a normal run of the mill fantasy, based in a far off land and a far off time. It is my understanding that De Lint normally writes urban fatansy, so this obviously is a difference. What I like about it is the fact that it is not some epic fantasy. He doesn't go on and on about the world and how what the hero does or accomplishes will save man kind or beast kind, or whatever. This is simply a man, with a certain gift--or curse (depending on how you look at it) who simply want's to find his place in life. He's unhappy and lonely. By shear chance he is taken in by a family made up of friends and welcomed as their own. He even finds a love. But these friends may not last forever, because they don't know his deepest secret--that he is a werewolf. Unfortunately, someone comes to the village that does, a hunter, and the hero (said werewolf) has to make a decision. To run or stay and fight for what he has found. I found De Lint's writing poetic at times and well put together. He said much, with only a few words and his character development was flawless.

This was the first novel of de Lint's that I had ever read, and is still one of my all-time favorourite books. Back when I first read it, when it was initially released, it seemed a much different take on the concept of being a werewolf than most storytellers were doing. Being a wolf-lover in a time when wolves were NOT popular (as they are now), I found it very refreshing. I was ecstatic when I heard this book was being re-released, as my own copy has been read so much that all the pages fell out. Fans of de Lin't current work who are not over-all fantasy lovers may not like it so well, as you can see by the other reviews, but I believe that is because they are more into his "urban storytelling", which this is rather different from (I've met a number of his fans who've said that other than his works, they do not read fantasy at all). Still, those of his fans who DO like a variety of styles (particularly those who are into high-fantasy) will appreciate it, as will those who love shapeshifter fantasy and are not already familiar with his work.