Caragh Reviews - Cursed: A Werewolf's Tale by David Wellington

Published - 1st October 2009
Publisher - Piatkus
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - There's one sound a woman doesn't want to hear when she's lost and alone in the Arctic wilderness: a howl. When a strange wolf's teeth slash Cheyenne's ankle to the bone, her old life ends, and she becomes the very monster that has haunted her nightmares for years. Worse, the only one who can understand what Chey has become is the man–or wolf–who's doomed her to this fate. He also wants to chop her head off with an axe.Yet as the line between human and beast blurs, so too does the distinction between hunter and hunted . . . for Chey is more than just the victim she appears to be. But once she's within killing range, she may find that–even for a werewolf–it's not always easy to go for the jugular.

I bought this book not too long after its release and yes, I have literally just read it! You know how people have 'buzz words' that make them pick up a book.. well 'Werewolf' is the opposite of a buzz word for me. I don't know what it is about Werewolves but i'm seriously put off! I remember buying this book knowing that there was a slim chance I would read it but as an avid 'vampire fan' I hoped that one day I would find an interest in the other side of the coin, so to speak. Well after Brianna picked up the second book from the library (she read this last year!), I decided I would give it a go so that I could read Ravaged before it had to be taken back.

Though I can't say that i'm now a converted Were fan, I was surprised to find that it wasn't completely terrible. I had a lot of issues with Cursed but most of that came down to irritating mistakes rather than the overall plot of the book. At the beginning of the book, main character Chey is struggling to find her way through Arctic Canada after having lost her pack and her bearings. This was when I started having problems. Immediately she comes across people despite being literally in the middle of nowhere with no civilisation and rather than being skeptical, she proceeds to go and introduce herself and tell the reader that she was finally going to be saved! 

Okay, so she's crazy. That's fine. I could maybe forgive her for that. Except she then hints CONSTANTLY that there is a specific reason for her being there. When she meets the all important Werewolf in the woods, she is surprised to see "those eyes"... despite being the SOLE reason for being there in the first place. WHAT? This confusing and backtracking continued until the end of the book but after the mid-way point, I kind of just stopped worrying about it. The plot takes on a life of it's own and slowly draws you in. I kind of expected to lose interest once Chey's mystery was uncovered but in actual fact the opposite was true. The plot itself was the reason for reading, and not my curiosity. 

There was some beautiful writing scattered throughout Cursed. One of the chapters fairly early on begins with a long description of a caterpillar's transformation as a precursor for the Werewolf transformation. It was calming and full of imagery which fit perfectly with the actual transformation we are about to experience. As I said at the beginning, I haven't read many Were books at all but the transformation process was excellent. Another element I enjoyed was the comedy. There were some brilliant one liners - mostly from the character Dzo who is easily my favourite! 

Overall, Cursed wasn't the best thing i've ever read and had more than a few inconsistencies but I did end up enjoying it and it has made me think about perhaps reading more Werewolf books and getting rid of that stigma!