Read by Aasne Vigesaa
Book 1 of Women Of The Otherworld series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook
About Bitten:
I've got to get out of here - I don't have a lot of time left.Source: Info in the About Bitten was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910160.Bitten on 03/10/2012.
Philip doesn't stir when I slip from the bed. There's a pile of clothing tucked underneath my dresser so I won't have to risk the squeaks and groans of opening drawers and closets. I pick up my keys, clasping my fist around them so they don't jangle, ease open the door and creep into the hallway. My legs now itch as well as hurt and I curl my toes to see if the itching stops. It doesn't. It's too late to drive to a safe place now-the itching has crystallized into a sharp burn. I stride out onto the streets, looking for a quiet place to Change.
Young, beautiful, and successful, Elena Michaels seems to have it all. Her happy, organized life follows a predictable pattern: filing stories for her job as a journalist, working out at the gym, living with her architect boyfriend, and lunching with her girlfriends from the office. And once a week, in the dead of night, she streaks through a downtown ravine, naked and furred, tearing at the throats of her animal prey.
Elena Michaels is a werewolf.
The man who made her one has been left behind, but his dark legacy has not. And though Elena struggles to maintain the normal life she's worked so hard to create, she cannot resist the call of the elite pack of werewolves from her past. Her feral instincts will lead her back to them and into a desperate war for survival that will test her own understanding of who, and what, she is.
I like the way Kelley Armstrong glossed over the darker and gorier side of "human nature" depicted in the story, like paedophilesm and torture. An aspect of this author's story telling ability which I fully appreciated!! However the story telling quality while very good, is just a hair short of masterful.I bought the paperback version of this book way back when I was on my "wolf shifter" phase a year or so ago, when most of the books I read involved wolves. However this book remained in my TBR (To Be Read) shelf, until I got hold of the audiobook format lately. But even with the audiobook format, it still took me a long time to get into the story. This book was such a slow starter that I actually abandoned it a few times before getting through the halfway mark. The story telling quality while good, takes a little getting used to.Empirical Evaluation:
What I didn't like about this book is the heroine making mistake after mistake after stupid mistake. After a while it gets really annoying. For somebody described as a top-dog predator, she sure does act like prey!And that is not the only TSTL (too stupid to live) scene that our heroine gets up to. Annoying!!Guess what our heroine did? Yep! You guessed it, choice a.! Thus the title of our book, Bitten.
- The owner of a strange big dog evenly tells you to withdraw your hand away from his dog repeatedly and giving off danger vibes, what do you do?
- a.) Tell the owner that he is wrong and proceed to pet the dog.
- b.) Go the safe route and do as he says.
- c.) Stay still, not move a muscle and hope for the best.
And as if that is not enough, our heroine is also the undisputed crowned Ms. Denial Queen who can't see reality even if it bit her in the ass! So... I am expected to relate with this character who is determined to bury her head under the sand?!?...
I like the narrator though, her words are clear and distinct. No slurring nor mumbled words. Another thing likeable about this book is the world building. It's beautiful and intricate. Or maybe because I am a fantasy geek that this world of werewolves appealed to me even though it got a big gaping hole in it so wide, it could swallow a dinosaur! But that I choose to ignore. However after all that, you have to consider that this series has a huge following, so there must be something in it interesting enough to hold people's interest. In view of this, I presumed that this first book is not the best in the series and it gets better as the series progresses. Besides I like to be optimistic about a series which I already bought and is waiting in my TBR shelf.
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 2.5
Story itself = 1.5
Ending = 2
World building = 4
Cover art = 2
Pace = N/A (12 hours and 55 minutes of listening time)
Plot = 1.5
Narrator = 4
Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries
I loved this book when I read it :D
ReplyDeleteBlodeuedd - Glad you enjoyed the book even if it wasn't so much for me :)
DeleteHahaha, Love the TSTL there. :D I think she wises up as the books go, right? LOL!
ReplyDeleteI think i did find Elena annoying the first time I listened to this book, but after a few in the series I began to have a different opinion of her, as I did for this book in particular. I know I enjoyed more when I revisited after having a cemented idea in my head about the characters.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, like you say, it takes a second book to really get into a series. One my top 5 audiobook of all time is Man of the Other World, the story of Clay.