Guest review by Jo from Bournemouth Book Club

Talulla Demetriou is the main character of this book and is believed to be the last living werewolf. She is pregnant by her deceased lover who was also a werewolf and hiding out from her enemies as she waits to give birth. To begin with I found this book quite confusing as I did not realise there is a book before this and I became quite confused about the organisations the main character was talking about as she dipped in and out of events which happened previously. In addition to this she hinted at past events without disclosing their nature until later on “until I met Deliah Snow” this phase was used repeatedly but you do not find out who Deliah Snow is or the relevance for some time, which starts to become more annoying than interesting and enticing. However after Talulla gives birth and goes after her enemies, the book gathers pace and momentum and is very enthralling.

This book fits into the horror genre but is more factual and humorous about the werewolf’s predicament than blood thirsty.

The character Talulla is very honest and shows a strong woman uncertain in her animal and human instincts and at times these are at loggerheads. She is a woman who is a monster underneath the normality of day to day in between the full moon. It is interesting to see her character evolve as she becomes a mother and she knows what her priorities should be and how she wrestles with these emotions. She has to do what she has to, to survive and she is very aware of this. She is also being looked after by a ‘minder’ but how they met and why he is looking after her is quite vague, it is also not mentioned how he fell into this position or how he knows about werewolves.

The phase “Tallula Demetriou you have been a very ….bad…girl” is on the back cover and how the book begins, yet I find its connection quite disjointed with the book. It tries to describe the character Talulla as always bad and so the fate of becoming a werewolf is a role she slipped into easily. Yet in between transformations she strikes me as a normal rational woman who is in touch with her desires and the behaviour that accompanies the ‘curse’. This phase does not seem to be relevant to the story.

In conclusion I did enjoy this book and after I got half way, it did become difficult to put down however I would advise anyone to read the The Last Werewolf first as I think the author assumes a lot of knowledge from the previous book.

Talulla Rising is published by Canongate and is now available in paperback and ebook editions. Thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy for review and to Jo for reading and reviewing it for me.

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Disclosure: Jo received a copy of this book free of charge for review purposes only. Guest reviewers are asked to share their honest opinion and are under no obligation to provide a positive review.