Book Review: Benighted by Kit Whitfield
Jul. 17th, 2008 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Benighted
Author: Kit Whitfield
Published: New York: Del Ray, 2006
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 516
Total Page Count: 56,985
Text Number: 164
Read For: reading books about werewolves, checked out from the library
Short review: Benighted takes place in a world not unlike our own, except for one fundamental difference: over 99% of the population are lycanthropes, and the remaining minority work with the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity, capturing and prosecuting lunes that break full-moon curfews. Lola Galley is a DORLA veteran, but the events of two bad moon nights leads her to investigate a new type of lycanthrope crime: lycos capable of thought in wolf form and murder in human form. Benighted is uniquely conceived and features a complex plot and a cast of realistic, faulted characters. Unfortunately, it suffers from inconsistent pacing and the conclusion comes out of left field, seemingly unrelated to the rest of the book. I recommend it as a unique, intelligent deviation from the werewolf genre, but I hope that Whitfield's later novels are more consistent.
Benighted is Kit Whitfield's first novel, and it reads like one—a very promising first novel, introducing an author with with new ideas and realistic characters, but a first novel nonetheless. The author's inexperience shows: Inconsistent pacing, where some events pass swiftly but some linger in lengthy backstory and character introspection, makes the book feel even longer than its 500 pages. The plot builds in layers of increasing complexity, but the conclusion is an unwelcome departure from this careful scripting—it seems to come from nowhere, resting on plot points which don't appear until the very end of the story.
Despite these weaknesses, Benighted has a lot to offer. The premise is ingenious: rather than an exception, werewolves are the rule—and non-transforming humans are a pitied and discriminated minority group, charged with policing the behavior of lycos in their wild transformed state. This creates a dark and gritty setting peopled by characters with shadowed pasts and circumspect motivation. It also raises a number of delicate political and social issues, including the most difficult question of all: if you could join the majority group, would you? These issues could benefit from more analysis and more open-minded conclusions, the characters are identifiable but not always likable, and the conclusion is decidedly bittersweet. Gritty and depressing as these aspects may be, they are still a welcome and intelligent deviation from the standard tropes of the werewolf genre.
I look forward to future novels from Whitfield, to see if she writes more consistently now that she has some experience. But for all its faults, I enjoyed Benighted. It reminds me somewhat of the film Perfect Creature, with the same gritty aesthetic and social divide. The premise is an ingenious deviation from standard werewolf tropes and the horror genre, and Whitfield has an incredible grasp on the complexities and darkness of human motivation. The book is compelling and engrossing, despite the length and sometimes slow pacing. I have some reservations, but I recommend Benighted. Werewolf and horror fans will appreciate it, but the complex characters, crime drama aspects, and social issues open it to an even wider audience of readers.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
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lupanotte: You should check this one out.
Author: Kit Whitfield
Published: New York: Del Ray, 2006
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 516
Total Page Count: 56,985
Text Number: 164
Read For: reading books about werewolves, checked out from the library
Short review: Benighted takes place in a world not unlike our own, except for one fundamental difference: over 99% of the population are lycanthropes, and the remaining minority work with the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity, capturing and prosecuting lunes that break full-moon curfews. Lola Galley is a DORLA veteran, but the events of two bad moon nights leads her to investigate a new type of lycanthrope crime: lycos capable of thought in wolf form and murder in human form. Benighted is uniquely conceived and features a complex plot and a cast of realistic, faulted characters. Unfortunately, it suffers from inconsistent pacing and the conclusion comes out of left field, seemingly unrelated to the rest of the book. I recommend it as a unique, intelligent deviation from the werewolf genre, but I hope that Whitfield's later novels are more consistent.
Benighted is Kit Whitfield's first novel, and it reads like one—a very promising first novel, introducing an author with with new ideas and realistic characters, but a first novel nonetheless. The author's inexperience shows: Inconsistent pacing, where some events pass swiftly but some linger in lengthy backstory and character introspection, makes the book feel even longer than its 500 pages. The plot builds in layers of increasing complexity, but the conclusion is an unwelcome departure from this careful scripting—it seems to come from nowhere, resting on plot points which don't appear until the very end of the story.
Despite these weaknesses, Benighted has a lot to offer. The premise is ingenious: rather than an exception, werewolves are the rule—and non-transforming humans are a pitied and discriminated minority group, charged with policing the behavior of lycos in their wild transformed state. This creates a dark and gritty setting peopled by characters with shadowed pasts and circumspect motivation. It also raises a number of delicate political and social issues, including the most difficult question of all: if you could join the majority group, would you? These issues could benefit from more analysis and more open-minded conclusions, the characters are identifiable but not always likable, and the conclusion is decidedly bittersweet. Gritty and depressing as these aspects may be, they are still a welcome and intelligent deviation from the standard tropes of the werewolf genre.
I look forward to future novels from Whitfield, to see if she writes more consistently now that she has some experience. But for all its faults, I enjoyed Benighted. It reminds me somewhat of the film Perfect Creature, with the same gritty aesthetic and social divide. The premise is an ingenious deviation from standard werewolf tropes and the horror genre, and Whitfield has an incredible grasp on the complexities and darkness of human motivation. The book is compelling and engrossing, despite the length and sometimes slow pacing. I have some reservations, but I recommend Benighted. Werewolf and horror fans will appreciate it, but the complex characters, crime drama aspects, and social issues open it to an even wider audience of readers.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
lupanotte: You should check this one out.
