Sick of Vampires?

  Here are two surprisingly good books about werewolves and shape shifters:  Benighted, by Kit Whitfield and Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow.  I say “surprisingly” because many books in this genre are cheesy, so my expectations were low.  Benighted takes place in a world where most of the population is lycanthropic (i.e., able to turn into a werewolf at the full moon) but a small minority do not share this genetic trait and remain fully human.  They are called “barebacks” derogitorily and considered disabled, if not repulsive.  The non-werewolves are discriminated against, relegated to inferior educations and limited career options.  The main character, Lola, is fully human and works as a lawyer with DORLA (Dept. for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activities) - a hated bureaucracy (think of the IRS merged with the TSA) that maintains the peace during full moons.  When a DORLA employee is mauled by a loose werewolf, and is later found shot to death, Lola must defend the accused murderer.  Ostensibly about werewolves, it’s really about what it means to be a member of a despised minority, and what happens when the powerless are empowered. Lola is a fully nuanced character with her own prejudices and troubling character flaws.  Part detective story, part dystopian fantasy, with a little romance thrown in, Benighted is really a treatise on prejudice.  Fans of The Help might like it!

  I picked up Sharp Teeth because I thought my teenage son would like it (anything to get him to put down the mobile phone and video game controllers and pick up a book).  It is marketed as a Young Adult novel, so I was expecting Twilight with fewer vampires and more canines.  What I got was a gritty urban novel where rival gangs battle for dominance in LA.  Only the gangs are comprised of human-to-dog shape shifters, and their numbers are growing as they conscript the local homeless population into their turf wars.  Then there are the star-crossed lovers - the local dog catcher and the bitch (and I’m using the term in the zoological sense, of course) who has separated from her pack.  There is sex, drugs, violence and plenty of black humor.  Most interesting of all, though, is that the entire book is written in blank verse!  Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down.  My teenager, on the other hand, refused to read it because it was in verse, the dumbass.  Beautifully written, it deserves a wider audience than fans of YA or genre fiction.