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The Last Werewolf / Bloodlines Trilogy #2
Talulla Rising
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Horror (2012)When I change I change fast. The moon drags the whatever-it-is up from the earth and it goes through me with crazy wriggling impatience . . . I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled—then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power . . . A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops. The woman is a werewolf.
The woman is Talulla Demetriou.
She’s grieving for her werewolf lover, Jake, whose violent death has left her alone with her own sublime monstrousness. On the run, pursued by the hunters of WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena), she must find a place to give birth to Jake’s child in secret.
The birth, under a full moon at a remote Alaska lodge, leaves Talulla ravaged, but with her infant son in her arms she believes the worst is over—until the windows crash in, and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . .
What follows throws Talulla into a race against time to save both herself and her child as she faces down the new, psychotic leader of WOCOP, a cabal of blood-drinking religious fanatics, and (rumor has it) the oldest living vampire.
Harnessing the same audacious imagination and dark humor, the same depths of horror and sympathy, the same full-tilt narrative energy with which he crafted his acclaimed novel The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan now gives us a heroine like no other, the definitive twenty-first-century female of the species.
The woman is Talulla Demetriou.
She’s grieving for her werewolf lover, Jake, whose violent death has left her alone with her own sublime monstrousness. On the run, pursued by the hunters of WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena), she must find a place to give birth to Jake’s child in secret.
The birth, under a full moon at a remote Alaska lodge, leaves Talulla ravaged, but with her infant son in her arms she believes the worst is over—until the windows crash in, and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . .
What follows throws Talulla into a race against time to save both herself and her child as she faces down the new, psychotic leader of WOCOP, a cabal of blood-drinking religious fanatics, and (rumor has it) the oldest living vampire.
Harnessing the same audacious imagination and dark humor, the same depths of horror and sympathy, the same full-tilt narrative energy with which he crafted his acclaimed novel The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan now gives us a heroine like no other, the definitive twenty-first-century female of the species.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2012
About the author
Glen Duncan
31 books875 followersAka Saul Black.
Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter. In 1990 Duncan moved to London, where he worked as a bookseller for four years, writing in his spare time. In 1994 he visited India with his father (part roots odyssey, part research for a later work, The Bloodstone Papers) before continuing on to the United States, where he spent several months travelling the country by Amtrak train, writing much of what would become his first novel, Hope, published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997. Duncan lives in London. Recently, his 2002 novel I, Lucifer has had the film rights purchased, with actors such as Ewan Mcgregor, Jason Brescia, Jude Law, Vin Diesel, and Daniel Craig all being considered for roles in the forthcoming movie.
(from Wikipedia)
Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter. In 1990 Duncan moved to London, where he worked as a bookseller for four years, writing in his spare time. In 1994 he visited India with his father (part roots odyssey, part research for a later work, The Bloodstone Papers) before continuing on to the United States, where he spent several months travelling the country by Amtrak train, writing much of what would become his first novel, Hope, published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997. Duncan lives in London. Recently, his 2002 novel I, Lucifer has had the film rights purchased, with actors such as Ewan Mcgregor, Jason Brescia, Jude Law, Vin Diesel, and Daniel Craig all being considered for roles in the forthcoming movie.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 638 reviews
October 26, 2017
”Life's generally artless ... but it does get these occasional hard-ons for plot. It connects things, nefariously, behind your back, and before you know it you're in the final act of a lousy movie.”
Talulla is eight months pregnant, on the run from an organization called World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena (WOCOP), and trying to stay under the radar of a nest of vampires. Yes, vampires, which would be weird enough, but what makes things even weirder is:
Talulla is something special, something rather wild.
”Meanwhile, the freak biology show. My lungs expand, threaten to burst against the ribs--but never do. My spine elongates in three, four, five spasms and the claws come all at once, like speeded-up film of shoots sprouting. I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled--then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power. Muscular and skeletal wrongness at an elusive stroke put right. A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops.
The woman is a werewolf.
And she is starving.”
She is also a pregnant werewolf, something that wasn’t supposed to be possible. WOCOP wants to examine her and her offspring, and not in the take a few test tubes of blood variety of health check up sort of way. The vampires, strangely, have been infected with their own religious cult ideas and want her child for a sacrifice to their god. To top it all off Jake, who at one time thought he was the last werewolf, has gotten himself killed just when she needs him the most. The bastard got her pregnant and absconded permanently. (Actually, I’m a little pissed off at Glen Duncan, too, for killing Jake off in book one. He was damn cool. This might be a good time to mention that you REALLY should read book one before reading book two.)
Jake left behind some journals chronicling his four hundred years of knocking around the planet which Talulla is delving into anytime she needs to hear Jake’s voice in her head. His more philosophical musings, while somewhat annoying to ponder, were also proving to be an endearing life raft.
”Did you ever have a dream you were dreaming? You know. In your dream ... you're having a dream. Dreams are the nearest parallel universe. Like the universe next door. So when you dream, you're really entering the universe next door. But if you dream you're dreaming, that's the universe NEXT to the universe next door …”
Talulla goes to Alaska to disappear as best she can, to safely give birth. It doesn’t work. The moment that her son Lorcan is born, the vampires attack. In her weakened state, Talulla can not even go all wolfie to protect her son. This forces her to make uncertain alliances with uncertain agendas as she works to get her son back. She also has to deal with her own conflicting emotions about how she really feels about her son and how much should she sacrifice to save him. Is he worth dying for? Her wolf side and her compromised human side contend for control of her actions which produces confusion when she needs clarity.
”You kill for two reasons. First, because it’s kill or die. Second, because it feels good. In the human court of appeals the first reason buys you theoretical mitigation. The second buys you a silver bullet.”
As Glen Duncan weaves in Jake’s writings and Talulla’s own reflections, I really did start to see them as more than just someone who goes all fur and claws once a month. Most of the time they are those other persons, influenced by the virus floating in their bloodstream, but not necessarily dominated by it. The book is frankly a quote machine, with lots of great thoughts and observations about being human and about being something else. The book is also humorous, sometimes unexpectedly so. I enjoy Duncan’s free flowing writing style. He is fairly irreverent; everything is on the table from anal sex to the existence of god. He even makes an Updike reference, talk about endearing himself to me. ”Updike would have rhapsodised about her oily skin and long fingers and freckled boobs.”
Glen Duncan looking WOLFIE.
The reason I knocked it down a star is because of the amount of time Talulla spends being tortured. The moment she escapes she is captured by someone else. Each group brings its own creative way to inflict pain on the werewolf. They lob off hands and breasts, and remove organs just to watch them grow back. I’m always amazed at the amount of thought that has been put into how to torment and abuse another human being. Of course with Talulla’s regenerative powers, even more heinous things can be devised. As I mentioned earlier in the review, do read The Last Werewolf first because you really must meet Jake before you get to know Talulla.
I did write a review of The Last Werewolf, but it was an early effort so forgive the lack of pertinent details. :-) The Last Werewolf Review
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Talulla is eight months pregnant, on the run from an organization called World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena (WOCOP), and trying to stay under the radar of a nest of vampires. Yes, vampires, which would be weird enough, but what makes things even weirder is:
Talulla is something special, something rather wild.
”Meanwhile, the freak biology show. My lungs expand, threaten to burst against the ribs--but never do. My spine elongates in three, four, five spasms and the claws come all at once, like speeded-up film of shoots sprouting. I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled--then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power. Muscular and skeletal wrongness at an elusive stroke put right. A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops.
The woman is a werewolf.
And she is starving.”
She is also a pregnant werewolf, something that wasn’t supposed to be possible. WOCOP wants to examine her and her offspring, and not in the take a few test tubes of blood variety of health check up sort of way. The vampires, strangely, have been infected with their own religious cult ideas and want her child for a sacrifice to their god. To top it all off Jake, who at one time thought he was the last werewolf, has gotten himself killed just when she needs him the most. The bastard got her pregnant and absconded permanently. (Actually, I’m a little pissed off at Glen Duncan, too, for killing Jake off in book one. He was damn cool. This might be a good time to mention that you REALLY should read book one before reading book two.)
Jake left behind some journals chronicling his four hundred years of knocking around the planet which Talulla is delving into anytime she needs to hear Jake’s voice in her head. His more philosophical musings, while somewhat annoying to ponder, were also proving to be an endearing life raft.
”Did you ever have a dream you were dreaming? You know. In your dream ... you're having a dream. Dreams are the nearest parallel universe. Like the universe next door. So when you dream, you're really entering the universe next door. But if you dream you're dreaming, that's the universe NEXT to the universe next door …”
Talulla goes to Alaska to disappear as best she can, to safely give birth. It doesn’t work. The moment that her son Lorcan is born, the vampires attack. In her weakened state, Talulla can not even go all wolfie to protect her son. This forces her to make uncertain alliances with uncertain agendas as she works to get her son back. She also has to deal with her own conflicting emotions about how she really feels about her son and how much should she sacrifice to save him. Is he worth dying for? Her wolf side and her compromised human side contend for control of her actions which produces confusion when she needs clarity.
”You kill for two reasons. First, because it’s kill or die. Second, because it feels good. In the human court of appeals the first reason buys you theoretical mitigation. The second buys you a silver bullet.”
As Glen Duncan weaves in Jake’s writings and Talulla’s own reflections, I really did start to see them as more than just someone who goes all fur and claws once a month. Most of the time they are those other persons, influenced by the virus floating in their bloodstream, but not necessarily dominated by it. The book is frankly a quote machine, with lots of great thoughts and observations about being human and about being something else. The book is also humorous, sometimes unexpectedly so. I enjoy Duncan’s free flowing writing style. He is fairly irreverent; everything is on the table from anal sex to the existence of god. He even makes an Updike reference, talk about endearing himself to me. ”Updike would have rhapsodised about her oily skin and long fingers and freckled boobs.”
Glen Duncan looking WOLFIE.
The reason I knocked it down a star is because of the amount of time Talulla spends being tortured. The moment she escapes she is captured by someone else. Each group brings its own creative way to inflict pain on the werewolf. They lob off hands and breasts, and remove organs just to watch them grow back. I’m always amazed at the amount of thought that has been put into how to torment and abuse another human being. Of course with Talulla’s regenerative powers, even more heinous things can be devised. As I mentioned earlier in the review, do read The Last Werewolf first because you really must meet Jake before you get to know Talulla.
I did write a review of The Last Werewolf, but it was an early effort so forgive the lack of pertinent details. :-) The Last Werewolf Review
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
May 3, 2015
Talulla Demetriou, you have been a Very... Bad... Girl
I felt like I was literally on a roller coaster while reading this book. I have to admit that did I have my doubts before reading. Hearing from Jakes POV in the first book was fun and interesting, so I felt iffy with this one because Duncan decided to switch up to Talulla's POV. But I ended up liking Talulla's voice even more than Jake's. I felt that Talulla brought something to this book, something that first book kind of lacked, and that is emotion.
Also story had more action in it (of course, more sex), and it was really hard putting this book down. If days had more hours, and I had more free time, I think I would've read it in one sitting.
In conclusion, amazing sequel (in some parts even better than the first one), and I can't wait to see how will Dankan wrap the story up in the last book.
I felt like I was literally on a roller coaster while reading this book. I have to admit that did I have my doubts before reading. Hearing from Jakes POV in the first book was fun and interesting, so I felt iffy with this one because Duncan decided to switch up to Talulla's POV. But I ended up liking Talulla's voice even more than Jake's. I felt that Talulla brought something to this book, something that first book kind of lacked, and that is emotion.
Also story had more action in it (of course, more sex), and it was really hard putting this book down. If days had more hours, and I had more free time, I think I would've read it in one sitting.
In conclusion, amazing sequel (in some parts even better than the first one), and I can't wait to see how will Dankan wrap the story up in the last book.
August 16, 2017
Part of the appeal of paranormal fiction lies in watching an author navigate the protocols. How much of a world does he plan to build? How will he balance his human/inhuman dynamics? Will there be depth and complication enough to curry fascination? Can he sell heroism in a transformed realm? Rarest to encounter, and priceless when found: Beneath all the imaginative sleight-of-hand, will he be making a point here? Does he have something (beyond a wild tale) that he's determined to impart?
Talulla Rising is the second leg of Glen Duncan's journey through a modern-day underworld of werewolves and vampires. His initial offering, The Last Werewolf, set the bar pretty high. This was seriously intelligent work delivered over in a darkly carnal, Hell's Angel style. His two hundred year old lupine, Jake Marlowe, bled quarts of existential fatigue as he weighed his willingness to finally die at the hands of an organization whose sole aim was to exterminate his kind. Now we pick up with Jake's lover, Talulla, barricaded in an Alaskan cabin as she readies herself to give birth. She is similarly endangered - sought by both the exterminators and a splintered sect of vampires who believe her blood holds the secret to overcoming their vulnerability to the sun.
I was hesitant to follow along, and for a fairly pedestrian reason. A story told from this psychological depth does not generally benefit from a change in gender. To go from what is essentially a Renaissance man's mid-life crisis to the hormonal overload of a birthing mother is a certified alpha/omega shift in internal narration. Death to Life. Seed to seeded. Collapsing yang to replicating yin - and, really, as astute as Mr. Duncan may be, what can he possibly pronounce in a lived-in way from the core of the feminine?
Not much, as it turns out. As it turns out, this particular element will require the granting of a big ol' pass from the yin of the readership. You'll just have to forgive him his ignorance and concentrate, instead, on what he has to say about the road men and women share; the one we travel as a species. This is, of course, the highway of humanity and the catastrophe of Life's travail.
The words had softly alarmed both of us, in the van's little fan-heated space. I had a piercing feeling of love moving through history like a thin glimmering waterway. Suddenly in the middle of things you suffered these poignancies, found yourself blinking or swallowing or having to look the other way.
And...
He didn't answer. There was no comfort. Comfort by definition referred to what had happened to him. Comfort was logically self-defeating. In spite of which I wanted so much to put my arms around him. At these moments it was as if God said: "See? There's a reason I put the soul in the body. The body is there for when the soul's money is no good."
There are many of these moments, a substantial selection of crisis wisdoms that weave in and out of the chase and the loss, the grief and the many dire degradations. There is also a phenomenal introduction made in the closing pages that snaps every attentive fiber in the reader's imagination. A new character, and a wise one, who looks to have the answers to just about everything.
And (because it amused me to no end):
"God bless Manhattan for breeding the most impatient people on the planet! Manhattan impatience saves the world decades that would otherwise be spent not cutting to the chase."
Say what you like about Glen Duncan. He's awfully hard to dismiss.
Talulla Rising is the second leg of Glen Duncan's journey through a modern-day underworld of werewolves and vampires. His initial offering, The Last Werewolf, set the bar pretty high. This was seriously intelligent work delivered over in a darkly carnal, Hell's Angel style. His two hundred year old lupine, Jake Marlowe, bled quarts of existential fatigue as he weighed his willingness to finally die at the hands of an organization whose sole aim was to exterminate his kind. Now we pick up with Jake's lover, Talulla, barricaded in an Alaskan cabin as she readies herself to give birth. She is similarly endangered - sought by both the exterminators and a splintered sect of vampires who believe her blood holds the secret to overcoming their vulnerability to the sun.
I was hesitant to follow along, and for a fairly pedestrian reason. A story told from this psychological depth does not generally benefit from a change in gender. To go from what is essentially a Renaissance man's mid-life crisis to the hormonal overload of a birthing mother is a certified alpha/omega shift in internal narration. Death to Life. Seed to seeded. Collapsing yang to replicating yin - and, really, as astute as Mr. Duncan may be, what can he possibly pronounce in a lived-in way from the core of the feminine?
Not much, as it turns out. As it turns out, this particular element will require the granting of a big ol' pass from the yin of the readership. You'll just have to forgive him his ignorance and concentrate, instead, on what he has to say about the road men and women share; the one we travel as a species. This is, of course, the highway of humanity and the catastrophe of Life's travail.
The words had softly alarmed both of us, in the van's little fan-heated space. I had a piercing feeling of love moving through history like a thin glimmering waterway. Suddenly in the middle of things you suffered these poignancies, found yourself blinking or swallowing or having to look the other way.
And...
He didn't answer. There was no comfort. Comfort by definition referred to what had happened to him. Comfort was logically self-defeating. In spite of which I wanted so much to put my arms around him. At these moments it was as if God said: "See? There's a reason I put the soul in the body. The body is there for when the soul's money is no good."
There are many of these moments, a substantial selection of crisis wisdoms that weave in and out of the chase and the loss, the grief and the many dire degradations. There is also a phenomenal introduction made in the closing pages that snaps every attentive fiber in the reader's imagination. A new character, and a wise one, who looks to have the answers to just about everything.
And (because it amused me to no end):
"God bless Manhattan for breeding the most impatient people on the planet! Manhattan impatience saves the world decades that would otherwise be spent not cutting to the chase."
Say what you like about Glen Duncan. He's awfully hard to dismiss.
June 2, 2015
Wow that was good! I really enjoyed the first book in this series The Last Werewolf but this was even better. Talulla is a magnificent creature - a werewolf of course but we mostly see her as a human and one who is dealing with major issues. I loved the idea of baby werewolves, babies who turn into wolf puppies when the moon is full. And they have the same dietary needs as the adult werewolves. Sometimes this book gets a bit gruesome but then these are werewolves we are talking about. Lots of vampire issues too and these are not pretty vampires. Right at the end we are introduced to an intriguing character who on his own makes sure the reader has to go on to read the sequel. I have ordered it already.
December 5, 2017
When I was listening to THE LAST WEREWOLF, I wasn't sure I would continue on with the series. I liked the bloodiness of it, and I enjoyed the world building, but was less than thrilled with the tons of graphic sex going on. However, there was such a hook at the end of the narrative AND the library had the audio of this one in stock, and here we are!
Right now, I feel the same way as I did when I finished the first book in the series. Here there were many surprises, (maybe too many to be believed, but hey-it's a werewolf book), and a good amount of action. However, I didn't feel that the quality of the writing was quite as good as THE LAST WEREWOLF.
Once again, close to the end, there is another surprising tidbit that makes me want to continue on with the series. This time, though, I'm going to read a few books in between, and then see if I still feel like continuing.
*I checked this audio out from my local library for FREE. LIBRARIES RULE!*
Right now, I feel the same way as I did when I finished the first book in the series. Here there were many surprises, (maybe too many to be believed, but hey-it's a werewolf book), and a good amount of action. However, I didn't feel that the quality of the writing was quite as good as THE LAST WEREWOLF.
Once again, close to the end, there is another surprising tidbit that makes me want to continue on with the series. This time, though, I'm going to read a few books in between, and then see if I still feel like continuing.
*I checked this audio out from my local library for FREE. LIBRARIES RULE!*
July 23, 2012
In the authors first werewolf novel 'The Last Werewolf' I liked the way he put you in P.O.V mode of the character and the memoir way we learned of the werewolf. I liked The whole interview with a vampire styled way it read like. There was more a faster pace change and was written differently with a stronger male character. Here in this novel, which can be read without reading the first, the werewolf is a female protagonist Talulla who's expectant. Most of the story captures your interest in the ensuing search and possible rescue of her son and the fate of her twins in general from the clutches of vampires and other dangers. These old Vampires who go by the name of 'The Disciples of Remshi' they require her child werewolf for a ritual of very high significance to their leader in order to achieve full power. The story is written well and has his usual humour and deep self reflection on being a werewolf. The story starts of with a slower approach in the first half and the last half picks up momentum as she find herself captive and having to endure very brutal circumstances. She, alongside others, faces tests, rape and torture. The first novel, I mentioned in my review, features high libido activity, this one by far less due to the main character being preoccupied mostly in care of her baby daughter and keeping them in safety from the danger of those that want blood. The time is limited she only has time to the next full moon-eclipse to find and save her son from ruin. The libido activity only comes while stuck in certain situations with others where she finds time to endure her carnal requirements. All around the story was good but felt slightly short in satisfying my expectations left from finishing the first book in expecting more horror and thrill to come.
My review also @ http://more2read.com/review/talulla-rising-by-glen-duncan/
The Guardian Newspaper features a good review on this novel: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/05/talulla-rising-glen-duncan-review?newsfeed=true
My review also @ http://more2read.com/review/talulla-rising-by-glen-duncan/
The Guardian Newspaper features a good review on this novel: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/05/talulla-rising-glen-duncan-review?newsfeed=true
February 24, 2013
Glen Duncan’s back with the follow up to the brilliant 2011 novel The Last Werewolf. I’ve been looking forward to see how the story continues as I personally felt the last novel left off with a bit of a cliff-hanger. Talulla Rising continues the story, now from the point of view of Talulla Demetriou; an exciting strong female protagonist, whom I loved simply because she is both kick-ass and full of inner torment. The novel kicks off with a brief look back at Talulla’s life before being turned, a slightly too small of a glimpse but enough to give you an idea of the type of woman she was before becoming a werewolf.
Like the last novel, Talulla Rising continues the memoir style; not only is there a focus on the inner struggle between the human and wolf side but now Talulla has her mother’s side thrown into the mix. WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena) have taken Talulla’s newly born son and she is racing to save him before he is used in a horrible blood-drinking ritual. While she is trying to get her son back she is still getting hunted by WOCOP (as Glen Duncan puts it in the book, think CIA meets Keystone Kops meets Spanish Inquisition) as well. As the story progresses you get a sense of just how twisted this organisation.
Talulla Rising is a fast paced, exciting novel; dark, gritty and over sexed. I really love how Glen Dunan takes a popular genre that has been selling well and makes it literary and enjoyable to read again. If the constant excitement of this novel doesn’t keep you going then the dark humour throughout this book will. From the slight pokes of other authors in literature to Talualla remembering that her first human tasted like onions and whiskey; the humour in this book was pleasing. But when it comes done to it, in the end, the thing I loved the most about this book and the one that come before this, is the internal struggle; there is something about that that always pleases me. I’m looking forward to seeing how Glen Duncan wraps up this trilogy when he releases By Blood We Live; hopefully next year.
Like the last novel, Talulla Rising continues the memoir style; not only is there a focus on the inner struggle between the human and wolf side but now Talulla has her mother’s side thrown into the mix. WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena) have taken Talulla’s newly born son and she is racing to save him before he is used in a horrible blood-drinking ritual. While she is trying to get her son back she is still getting hunted by WOCOP (as Glen Duncan puts it in the book, think CIA meets Keystone Kops meets Spanish Inquisition) as well. As the story progresses you get a sense of just how twisted this organisation.
Talulla Rising is a fast paced, exciting novel; dark, gritty and over sexed. I really love how Glen Dunan takes a popular genre that has been selling well and makes it literary and enjoyable to read again. If the constant excitement of this novel doesn’t keep you going then the dark humour throughout this book will. From the slight pokes of other authors in literature to Talualla remembering that her first human tasted like onions and whiskey; the humour in this book was pleasing. But when it comes done to it, in the end, the thing I loved the most about this book and the one that come before this, is the internal struggle; there is something about that that always pleases me. I’m looking forward to seeing how Glen Duncan wraps up this trilogy when he releases By Blood We Live; hopefully next year.
March 6, 2013
Talulla Rising starts off with a bang and keeps going almost all the way though to its crazy end. Edgy, action-packed, thoughtful, and definitely gristly, it’s an entertaining read. I enjoyed it.
The book starts out with the grieving Talulla, eight months pregnant and on the run, hiding up in Alaska hoping to have her child. She’s assisted by the androgynous Cloquet (who made me think of Renfield) and a pack of wolves that snuggles up close to keep Talulla to warm after she’s had her babies. Of course there are a slew of bad guys after her and her offspring.
One of the things I admired about The Last Werewolf was the character of Jake. Yes, he talks too much, and he could be a bit of a jerk, but I liked him. He was funny and quirky. I felt like I got to know him. Duncan’s writing is refreshingly honest and he gave Jake a surprising candor. He had a lot of personality.
Unfortunately I never felt that way about Talulla. One of the jarring things about The Last Werewolf was that when the book jumped into Talulla’s point of view you didn’t notice it right off the bat. That’s because the voice didn’t change. Yet it should have –drastically. After all, Talulla is not only a woman and an American, but she is a hundred and seventy years younger than Jake. She should be quite different, but she isn’t. That’s one of the big flaws of this book. Duncan never truly finds Talulla’s voice. He tries. Talulla talks about her post partum depression, her guilt, her grief, her anger, and her blood-thirsty nature, but they all seem to be just excuses for her lack of personality. Without her own unique voice (like Jake most definitely had) she doesn’t come alive. Consequently I don’t think she was as compelling.
Talulla also does some things that don’t quite make sense. For instance, why would she be terrified of being raped when she just used sex to escape a few chapters back? I would have thought she’d be laughing at them, even taunting. “Yeah come here, asshole. I’ll bite your dick off!” After all, she’s a werewolf – a very dangerous creature. Her previous torture by the creepy scientists was a lot worse than just being raped.
I also thought she fell in love pretty fast. Talulla’s grief struck over Jake. She just had two babies, one of them abducted. I would have thought she wouldn’t have the energy to get involved with the somewhat bland and boring Walker. The happy ending on the end seemed just a little bit too convenient, like even the author didn’t believe it.
The next major flaw is the incredible deus ex machina at the end. I was like, come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.
I do like this world that Duncan has created though. The werewolves have a cool dynamic. There is an unspoken communication between them that makes them stick together and back each other up, even though it may not be necessarily what their human half wants. I love this mix of wolfish and human tendencies.
Duncan also makes it’s clear that werewolves are gruesome cannibals. While in The Last Werewolf this devouring of human flesh almost has a Vor quality, it’s even more disturbing in this book. Duncan makes Talulla a true monster, which was shocking and disturbing, yet I admired it a lot.
So in the end, while this book is very flawed, I enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be reading book 3. I give Talulla Rising 3 ½ stars.
*buddy read with Sony*
The book starts out with the grieving Talulla, eight months pregnant and on the run, hiding up in Alaska hoping to have her child. She’s assisted by the androgynous Cloquet (who made me think of Renfield) and a pack of wolves that snuggles up close to keep Talulla to warm after she’s had her babies. Of course there are a slew of bad guys after her and her offspring.
One of the things I admired about The Last Werewolf was the character of Jake. Yes, he talks too much, and he could be a bit of a jerk, but I liked him. He was funny and quirky. I felt like I got to know him. Duncan’s writing is refreshingly honest and he gave Jake a surprising candor. He had a lot of personality.
Unfortunately I never felt that way about Talulla. One of the jarring things about The Last Werewolf was that when the book jumped into Talulla’s point of view you didn’t notice it right off the bat. That’s because the voice didn’t change. Yet it should have –drastically. After all, Talulla is not only a woman and an American, but she is a hundred and seventy years younger than Jake. She should be quite different, but she isn’t. That’s one of the big flaws of this book. Duncan never truly finds Talulla’s voice. He tries. Talulla talks about her post partum depression, her guilt, her grief, her anger, and her blood-thirsty nature, but they all seem to be just excuses for her lack of personality. Without her own unique voice (like Jake most definitely had) she doesn’t come alive. Consequently I don’t think she was as compelling.
Talulla also does some things that don’t quite make sense. For instance, why would she be terrified of being raped when she just used sex to escape a few chapters back? I would have thought she’d be laughing at them, even taunting. “Yeah come here, asshole. I’ll bite your dick off!” After all, she’s a werewolf – a very dangerous creature. Her previous torture by the creepy scientists was a lot worse than just being raped.
I also thought she fell in love pretty fast. Talulla’s grief struck over Jake. She just had two babies, one of them abducted. I would have thought she wouldn’t have the energy to get involved with the somewhat bland and boring Walker. The happy ending on the end seemed just a little bit too convenient, like even the author didn’t believe it.
The next major flaw is the incredible deus ex machina at the end. I was like, come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.
I do like this world that Duncan has created though. The werewolves have a cool dynamic. There is an unspoken communication between them that makes them stick together and back each other up, even though it may not be necessarily what their human half wants. I love this mix of wolfish and human tendencies.
Duncan also makes it’s clear that werewolves are gruesome cannibals. While in The Last Werewolf this devouring of human flesh almost has a Vor quality, it’s even more disturbing in this book. Duncan makes Talulla a true monster, which was shocking and disturbing, yet I admired it a lot.
So in the end, while this book is very flawed, I enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be reading book 3. I give Talulla Rising 3 ½ stars.
*buddy read with Sony*
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2012
Talulla Rising is book two in Glen Ducan's The Last Werewolf trilogy. The first book, The Last Werewolf, came out in 2011 to much fanfare. I didn't think it lived up to the hype, but I still think it's a book that horror fans might like to check out. It's certainly nowhere near the literary heights of horror classics like Dracula or Frankenstein, but it does bring a grown-up werewolf to the contemporary literary scene.
Let me start with what I liked about Talulla Rising:
I like the world Duncan has created, even if I don't always admire how he executes the story. It's a world where werewolves and vampires are physically repellant to one another. Most humans seem oblivious to the monsters in their midst, but a small paramilitary organization is out to capture or kill them. Vampires get "vampire burnout" from living forever and not being able to eat real food or have sex or walk in the sunshine: vampires are depressives,"centuries of no sunlight. Seasonal Affective Disorder on a massive scale." Werewolves live about 400 years and even Jake Marlowe from book one was ready to be done with it after only 200 years of eating, shagging, and walking in the sunshine. There is some good, dark humor throughout the story.
Jake's advice to Talullah that she keep reading will tug at the heart and library card of most bibliophiles: "Literature is humanity's broad-minded alter-ego, with room in its heart even for monsters, even for you. It's humanity without the judgement. Trust me, it'll help." She thinks of his words after noticing the pages of Moll Flanders fluttering on the table near an open window. How can anyone not appreciate that sentiment or image?
Duncan also won me over with the idea of species sympathy: "a feeling of accommodating something you never imagined you'd have room for. At the time I'd thought: that's what God wants us to do, find room for each other the way He finds room for Everything." Least you think this book has gone soft or religious, the sprouting of Talulla's species sympathy gets its energy from a moment in the past when she secretly sniffed her best friend's recently worn underwear.
This species sympathy is part of a huge shift that's underway in Talullah Rising and which I'm assuming will play out in book three, By Blood We Live (click here to read a NYT interview where Duncan mentions the title).
Overall, however, Talulla Rising lands a bit lower on my rating scale than did its predecessor, The Last Werewolf.
There's some poor, uneven writing throughout, particularly in the first 100 pages or so when it seems that Duncan was still looking for Talulla's voice. In the beginning she sounds exactly like Jake Marlowe (the last werewolf character of book one) and even uses male slang to describe her own masturbatory act. I've never heard a woman say she "jerked off." Perhaps it's a British thing.
I'd need to give the book a second reading to sort out the vast array of sexual violence and stereotypes about women, men, rape, and motherhood (there's lots of angst about motherhood). In short it seems that Talullah's voracious female libido has to be counterbalanced by rape, prostitution, domestic violence, and/or the pornographic subjugation of women. It's like feminism never happened. I'm all for a healthy libido and it would be refreshing to see a woman character have one that can stand on its own.
Another sexual device that I found offensive is Talulla's teasing speculation about not if, but when she'll have sex with another woman. Sure, Jake Marlowe had sex with a few guys over the 200 year span of his werewolf existence, but this hint of woman-on-woman sex came off like a cheap Hollywood ploy designed to keep some people watching (or reading).
And speaking of characters, don't get me started on Mr. Walker. He's a walking, talking, plastic stereotype and the plot twist regarding him toward the end, with the help of the babysitter, is a cheap deus ex machina.
I had a hard time suspending my disbelief with the non-supernatural aspects of this novel. I'm hoping book three will rely less on stereotypes and cheap tricks and have more species sympathy.
If you really liked The Last Werewolf, you'll no doubt want to rush out to your local bookstore and pick up Talulla Rising. If you thought The Last Werewolf was just so-so, I recommend you check it out of the library. If you didn't like The Last Werewolf, I imagine you'd like the follow-up even less so, but you never know.
Let me start with what I liked about Talulla Rising:
I like the world Duncan has created, even if I don't always admire how he executes the story. It's a world where werewolves and vampires are physically repellant to one another. Most humans seem oblivious to the monsters in their midst, but a small paramilitary organization is out to capture or kill them. Vampires get "vampire burnout" from living forever and not being able to eat real food or have sex or walk in the sunshine: vampires are depressives,"centuries of no sunlight. Seasonal Affective Disorder on a massive scale." Werewolves live about 400 years and even Jake Marlowe from book one was ready to be done with it after only 200 years of eating, shagging, and walking in the sunshine. There is some good, dark humor throughout the story.
Jake's advice to Talullah that she keep reading will tug at the heart and library card of most bibliophiles: "Literature is humanity's broad-minded alter-ego, with room in its heart even for monsters, even for you. It's humanity without the judgement. Trust me, it'll help." She thinks of his words after noticing the pages of Moll Flanders fluttering on the table near an open window. How can anyone not appreciate that sentiment or image?
Duncan also won me over with the idea of species sympathy: "a feeling of accommodating something you never imagined you'd have room for. At the time I'd thought: that's what God wants us to do, find room for each other the way He finds room for Everything." Least you think this book has gone soft or religious, the sprouting of Talulla's species sympathy gets its energy from a moment in the past when she secretly sniffed her best friend's recently worn underwear.
This species sympathy is part of a huge shift that's underway in Talullah Rising and which I'm assuming will play out in book three, By Blood We Live (click here to read a NYT interview where Duncan mentions the title).
Overall, however, Talulla Rising lands a bit lower on my rating scale than did its predecessor, The Last Werewolf.
There's some poor, uneven writing throughout, particularly in the first 100 pages or so when it seems that Duncan was still looking for Talulla's voice. In the beginning she sounds exactly like Jake Marlowe (the last werewolf character of book one) and even uses male slang to describe her own masturbatory act. I've never heard a woman say she "jerked off." Perhaps it's a British thing.
I'd need to give the book a second reading to sort out the vast array of sexual violence and stereotypes about women, men, rape, and motherhood (there's lots of angst about motherhood). In short it seems that Talullah's voracious female libido has to be counterbalanced by rape, prostitution, domestic violence, and/or the pornographic subjugation of women. It's like feminism never happened. I'm all for a healthy libido and it would be refreshing to see a woman character have one that can stand on its own.
Another sexual device that I found offensive is Talulla's teasing speculation about not if, but when she'll have sex with another woman. Sure, Jake Marlowe had sex with a few guys over the 200 year span of his werewolf existence, but this hint of woman-on-woman sex came off like a cheap Hollywood ploy designed to keep some people watching (or reading).
And speaking of characters, don't get me started on Mr. Walker. He's a walking, talking, plastic stereotype and the plot twist regarding him toward the end, with the help of the babysitter, is a cheap deus ex machina.
I had a hard time suspending my disbelief with the non-supernatural aspects of this novel. I'm hoping book three will rely less on stereotypes and cheap tricks and have more species sympathy.
If you really liked The Last Werewolf, you'll no doubt want to rush out to your local bookstore and pick up Talulla Rising. If you thought The Last Werewolf was just so-so, I recommend you check it out of the library. If you didn't like The Last Werewolf, I imagine you'd like the follow-up even less so, but you never know.
August 26, 2016
Tallula Demetriou - the Greek-Irish American werewolf and the sole survivor of the lycanthropes from the incredible first novel, The Last Werewolf - is left alone and bereft following the death of her lover, Jake. Like Jake was, Tallula is now finds herself in ever present danger due to WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena) and some deity-like vampires. Amidst all this, Tallula is about to give birth.
Can Tallula and her bloodline survive the monstrous world, while ironically giving into animalistic urges themselves?
This is pacey like the latter third of the first novel, rather than the reflective Marlowe-esque musings of Jake; it suits the modern woman of the 21st century.
Duncan is his usual witty self. Tallula Rising is dark, sardonic, wickedly humourous and completely irreverent. Duncan's observations and social commentary ensure that Tallulla Rising bounds ahead of the rest of the werewolf genre. This is a fine book for any reader after something fresh and edgy and clever. Duncan also attracts readers of horror and dark fantasy, as he manages to weave all these elements into a gripping narrative that will hold you by your throat and not let go. The novel and its biting prose is lethally effective...
Can Tallula and her bloodline survive the monstrous world, while ironically giving into animalistic urges themselves?
This is pacey like the latter third of the first novel, rather than the reflective Marlowe-esque musings of Jake; it suits the modern woman of the 21st century.
Duncan is his usual witty self. Tallula Rising is dark, sardonic, wickedly humourous and completely irreverent. Duncan's observations and social commentary ensure that Tallulla Rising bounds ahead of the rest of the werewolf genre. This is a fine book for any reader after something fresh and edgy and clever. Duncan also attracts readers of horror and dark fantasy, as he manages to weave all these elements into a gripping narrative that will hold you by your throat and not let go. The novel and its biting prose is lethally effective...
Read
September 6, 2016Dosta bolja od keca. Dopada mi se hemija izmedju svih likova, jedino je Talula skolna prenemaganju što mi baš i nije po volji.
I tepanja poput "anđele", "dušice" i slično mi uopšte ne idu uz krvoločnog vukodlaka, čak i da onaj ljudski deo nije sastavljen iz razmeženog bogataškog delikventnog stvorenja...
A i Voker je ispao prava bebica...Medlin je zakon :D
I tepanja poput "anđele", "dušice" i slično mi uopšte ne idu uz krvoločnog vukodlaka, čak i da onaj ljudski deo nije sastavljen iz razmeženog bogataškog delikventnog stvorenja...
A i Voker je ispao prava bebica...Medlin je zakon :D
March 5, 2014
Iako sam došla do zaključka da mi vukodlaci izgleda ne leže, moram da priznam da je "Talulin čopor" uzbudljiviji i zanimljiviji od svog prethodnika "Poslednjeg vukodlaka". Poslednjih 50 stranica su ODLIČNE, tako da sad jedva čekam treći deo.
June 12, 2022
4 stars - English Ebook
Ilike Glen Duncan's writing, you could say a little dark. The way he spins a tale, draws the scenery and pulls you in are wonderful.
I enjoyed Talulla Rising, but not nearly as much as its predecessor, it took my some time to take it in. Jake Marlowe was a relate-able character to me, he was likable and enjoyable, I would have enjoyed having a cocktail with him.
Talulla, however, is somehow less human. I understand that she was holding back her emotions for most of the book, I'm kind of like that myself in that I put my feelings on hold when I have to get something done- hysteria isn't productive. However, it just managed to make her kind of unlikable for some reason.
Ilike Glen Duncan's writing, you could say a little dark. The way he spins a tale, draws the scenery and pulls you in are wonderful.
I enjoyed Talulla Rising, but not nearly as much as its predecessor, it took my some time to take it in. Jake Marlowe was a relate-able character to me, he was likable and enjoyable, I would have enjoyed having a cocktail with him.
Talulla, however, is somehow less human. I understand that she was holding back her emotions for most of the book, I'm kind of like that myself in that I put my feelings on hold when I have to get something done- hysteria isn't productive. However, it just managed to make her kind of unlikable for some reason.
April 8, 2019
“Salty arterial blood gouted into my mouth as I crunched through his neck, his trachea collapsing with the sound of a cheeto being squeezed in a child’s fist.”
Oh, sorry. That’s a bit graphic for the beginning of a review, I know. I’m just getting you ready for what you’re in for if you read Talullah Rising, Glen Duncan’s follow up to the hilarious and damn enjoyable lycanthropic romp The Last Werewolf. Be warned. Twilight this isn’t.
Seriously, if you’re squeamish, look away. This is not the book for you. You will spend time in the head of a character who occasionally eats peoples’ still beating hearts, a lady who will punch her werewolf claws through the warm wrap of someone’s abdominal muscles, her talons grasping a bundled fistful of viscera before exploding back out in an expanding flower of crimson and shit.
Yep. There’s some serious gore in here!
However, if you can handle the heat in the gore-kitchen then you’re in for some fun. Duncan once again demonstrates his prodigious talents, taking readers on a wild ride through the vampire and werewolf infested life of Talullah Demetriou.
Continuing on from The Last Werewolf, Talullah is now alone, grieving her lover Jake (The titular last werewolf of the first book) and heavily pregnant.
As you can imagine, being up the duff isn’t ideal for someone who turns into a slavering monster once a month, and Talullah, along with a human familiar, has retreated to the Alaskan wilderness to give birth, with her next meal chained up in the basement and a whole lot of clean towels and hot water ready to go.
Naturally, birth isn’t a smooth process. Someone wants a werewolf of their own, and a baby one, stolen while it’s mother is weak, is too good an opportunity to pass up. The theft is carried out and so begins a global chase as Talullah fights to find out who stole her child and why.
From here the story drives forward at a relentless pace, and keeps the action coming. And, hooboy, there’s some serious action.
Duncan doesn’t gild the lily in his version of werewolf-dom. While there are numerous perks – a 400 year lifespan, Wolverine-like healing, heightened senses - the monthly transformation into a bloodthirsty killer who craves human flesh is shown as pure horror. The raw fleshlust of Duncan’s werewolves as they tear people to pieces in hedonistic orgies of murder is something grotesque to behold.
This horror leads to some interesting character arcs. Duncan’s characters have to deal with the fracturing juxtaposition between being a normal functioning person in society, with friends, bills, family, etc. while knowing they are going to chew someone’s leg off and eat it once a month. Duncan deals with this deftly, exploring the monster within (who very much becomes the monster without) and the accommodations people make with their own darkness.
It all works pretty well as a package. Duncan knows what he’s doing, and mostly rises above the cliches and dross, the my-lover-the-sexy-werewolf junk that clogs up bookshelves across the world. This isn’t as strong a book as The Last Werewolf (the Citizen Kane of werewolf novels) and some of the plot developments are a touch obvious, but it’s still a damn compelling read. I’m very much looking forward to the next installment of Talullah’s adventures.
Three point five arterial spurts out of five.
Oh, sorry. That’s a bit graphic for the beginning of a review, I know. I’m just getting you ready for what you’re in for if you read Talullah Rising, Glen Duncan’s follow up to the hilarious and damn enjoyable lycanthropic romp The Last Werewolf. Be warned. Twilight this isn’t.
Seriously, if you’re squeamish, look away. This is not the book for you. You will spend time in the head of a character who occasionally eats peoples’ still beating hearts, a lady who will punch her werewolf claws through the warm wrap of someone’s abdominal muscles, her talons grasping a bundled fistful of viscera before exploding back out in an expanding flower of crimson and shit.
Yep. There’s some serious gore in here!
However, if you can handle the heat in the gore-kitchen then you’re in for some fun. Duncan once again demonstrates his prodigious talents, taking readers on a wild ride through the vampire and werewolf infested life of Talullah Demetriou.
Continuing on from The Last Werewolf, Talullah is now alone, grieving her lover Jake (The titular last werewolf of the first book) and heavily pregnant.
As you can imagine, being up the duff isn’t ideal for someone who turns into a slavering monster once a month, and Talullah, along with a human familiar, has retreated to the Alaskan wilderness to give birth, with her next meal chained up in the basement and a whole lot of clean towels and hot water ready to go.
Naturally, birth isn’t a smooth process. Someone wants a werewolf of their own, and a baby one, stolen while it’s mother is weak, is too good an opportunity to pass up. The theft is carried out and so begins a global chase as Talullah fights to find out who stole her child and why.
From here the story drives forward at a relentless pace, and keeps the action coming. And, hooboy, there’s some serious action.
Duncan doesn’t gild the lily in his version of werewolf-dom. While there are numerous perks – a 400 year lifespan, Wolverine-like healing, heightened senses - the monthly transformation into a bloodthirsty killer who craves human flesh is shown as pure horror. The raw fleshlust of Duncan’s werewolves as they tear people to pieces in hedonistic orgies of murder is something grotesque to behold.
This horror leads to some interesting character arcs. Duncan’s characters have to deal with the fracturing juxtaposition between being a normal functioning person in society, with friends, bills, family, etc. while knowing they are going to chew someone’s leg off and eat it once a month. Duncan deals with this deftly, exploring the monster within (who very much becomes the monster without) and the accommodations people make with their own darkness.
It all works pretty well as a package. Duncan knows what he’s doing, and mostly rises above the cliches and dross, the my-lover-the-sexy-werewolf junk that clogs up bookshelves across the world. This isn’t as strong a book as The Last Werewolf (the Citizen Kane of werewolf novels) and some of the plot developments are a touch obvious, but it’s still a damn compelling read. I’m very much looking forward to the next installment of Talullah’s adventures.
Three point five arterial spurts out of five.
September 13, 2020
I read The Last Werewolf about a year before this second book of the series and really enjoyed it, so when the sequels came on sale, I had to have them.
It didn't take long for me to start getting involved in the story. Tallulah is pregnant. The pregnancy from Hell is exacerbated by the wulf foetus clawing from inside and by the need to hide from those who are adamant about hunting the last werewolves to extinction as well as vampires.
The writing is very good, which is part of the reason I enjoyed the first book so much. This story has a strong sexual element, not like romance graphic porn but more gritty with a matter of fact approach to being a werewolf does things to the libido and off-camera sex.
I can't say I enjoyed it as much as the first book. I think I basically didn't like Talullah and her depressive attitude towards life, the universe and everything. Parts of the later story became hard for me to visualise and muddled.
Having said that, the last quarter or so of the book was high action and had some interesting twists, some of which set it up for the third book. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 for GR.
It didn't take long for me to start getting involved in the story. Tallulah is pregnant. The pregnancy from Hell is exacerbated by the wulf foetus clawing from inside and by the need to hide from those who are adamant about hunting the last werewolves to extinction as well as vampires.
The writing is very good, which is part of the reason I enjoyed the first book so much. This story has a strong sexual element, not like romance graphic porn but more gritty with a matter of fact approach to being a werewolf does things to the libido and off-camera sex.
I can't say I enjoyed it as much as the first book. I think I basically didn't like Talullah and her depressive attitude towards life, the universe and everything. Parts of the later story became hard for me to visualise and muddled.
Having said that, the last quarter or so of the book was high action and had some interesting twists, some of which set it up for the third book. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 for GR.
November 29, 2012
This book is not half as good as the first one in Glen Duncan’s werewolf trilogy, The Last Werewolf. I had a number of problems with Talulla Rising:
1)Most of the time, the story evinced pretty shoddy writing and the choices the author made about what to include in the story were puzzling:
--The book seemed fixated on sex. This is not a criticism put forth due to prudery; its treatment just seemed so artless. It seemed as if every fourth thought in Lu’s head was about sex—nothing enlightening that would advance the story, mind you, but just for the heck of it. We get it--werewolf libido is its own master, but there has to be some better way to convey this than just shoehorning it everywhere in the most annoying ways.
--Pages and pages of Talulla’s thoughts would just interrupt conversations or action in the story. So we’d have a scene that’s paused just so we’d get Lu’s superficial assessment of a character, their family background, and their psychological profile, or we’d have to suffer through her ruminations on other random things that added zero to the story.
--So often—too often—in her ponderings, Lu would just hark back to her only human friend, Lauren vouching for whatever point Lu was trying to make to the readers, acting as an example for those points. Was this supposed to humanize Lu, emphasizing how much her werewolf life has diverged from normal life? It just seemed artificial to have her recall her former friend constantly—a friend who served no purpose and one whom we never got to know, so could give a flying fuck about.
2) The narrative voice was boring, and since we have to spend the entire book with this voice as our portal to the story, the story suffered mightily. I could’ve ignored all of the above flaws had the story not been boring. In The Last Werewolf, Jake Marlowe and his literature references, existential musings, and philosophical questions on the nature of killing people and his own tortured history with his family made for a refreshing, literary spin on the age-old werewolf story. I didn’t mind spending time with him throughout the book.
Unfortunately, Jake’s love, Talulla doesn’t have a voice or character that’s up to the challenge to succeed Jake. Duncan seemed to want to imbue her with sexiness, pathos, contradictions, complexity, thoughtfulness—none of which really worked to make her interesting. Her supposedly interesting ‘tics,’—her sex drive, her conflict about embracing her animal nature (sex drive, killing, blah, blah, blah), her “bad girl” identity (see lame prologue) her yearning for Jake, her reluctant and then full embrace of maternal feelings—were all so milquetoast. No amount of quoting from Jake’s diaries could compensate for her boring character.
Because of the above flaws, getting through the first 200 pages of the book was a huge chore. However, once we move beyond Talulla and friends sitting around waiting for something to happen and get to the real action, the story moved pretty briskly and I finally got into the book. The stakes did seem pretty high all of a sudden.
In the first part of the book I swore to myself that I would not be moving on to the future book 3. But you know what? I’m going to have to come back to the story whenever book 3 comes out. Damn it! Duncan dangled a huge mystery towards the end so I need to know what happens next. So evil. My experience with this trilogy is similar to my reading of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy: the books weren’t very special and were often times boring and frustrating, but I went back to that series each damn time. So I guess the author gets the last laugh!
1)Most of the time, the story evinced pretty shoddy writing and the choices the author made about what to include in the story were puzzling:
--The book seemed fixated on sex. This is not a criticism put forth due to prudery; its treatment just seemed so artless. It seemed as if every fourth thought in Lu’s head was about sex—nothing enlightening that would advance the story, mind you, but just for the heck of it. We get it--werewolf libido is its own master, but there has to be some better way to convey this than just shoehorning it everywhere in the most annoying ways.
--Pages and pages of Talulla’s thoughts would just interrupt conversations or action in the story. So we’d have a scene that’s paused just so we’d get Lu’s superficial assessment of a character, their family background, and their psychological profile, or we’d have to suffer through her ruminations on other random things that added zero to the story.
--So often—too often—in her ponderings, Lu would just hark back to her only human friend, Lauren vouching for whatever point Lu was trying to make to the readers, acting as an example for those points. Was this supposed to humanize Lu, emphasizing how much her werewolf life has diverged from normal life? It just seemed artificial to have her recall her former friend constantly—a friend who served no purpose and one whom we never got to know, so could give a flying fuck about.
2) The narrative voice was boring, and since we have to spend the entire book with this voice as our portal to the story, the story suffered mightily. I could’ve ignored all of the above flaws had the story not been boring. In The Last Werewolf, Jake Marlowe and his literature references, existential musings, and philosophical questions on the nature of killing people and his own tortured history with his family made for a refreshing, literary spin on the age-old werewolf story. I didn’t mind spending time with him throughout the book.
Unfortunately, Jake’s love, Talulla doesn’t have a voice or character that’s up to the challenge to succeed Jake. Duncan seemed to want to imbue her with sexiness, pathos, contradictions, complexity, thoughtfulness—none of which really worked to make her interesting. Her supposedly interesting ‘tics,’—her sex drive, her conflict about embracing her animal nature (sex drive, killing, blah, blah, blah), her “bad girl” identity (see lame prologue) her yearning for Jake, her reluctant and then full embrace of maternal feelings—were all so milquetoast. No amount of quoting from Jake’s diaries could compensate for her boring character.
Because of the above flaws, getting through the first 200 pages of the book was a huge chore. However, once we move beyond Talulla and friends sitting around waiting for something to happen and get to the real action, the story moved pretty briskly and I finally got into the book. The stakes did seem pretty high all of a sudden.
In the first part of the book I swore to myself that I would not be moving on to the future book 3. But you know what? I’m going to have to come back to the story whenever book 3 comes out. Damn it! Duncan dangled a huge mystery towards the end so I need to know what happens next. So evil. My experience with this trilogy is similar to my reading of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy: the books weren’t very special and were often times boring and frustrating, but I went back to that series each damn time. So I guess the author gets the last laugh!
October 28, 2012
Loved this! as much as the one before it, The Last Werewolf. Talulla Rising doesn't pick up immediately where The Last Werewolf left off. Talulla is almost 8 months pregnant and is starting to have trouble with the pregnancy as well as full moon coming. In the throws of labor she is found by the vampires seeking her blood for the Helios project.
Told in Talulla's point of view, the story sweeps you in and flows like water. Talulla is a strong female character that knows how to take charge and be assertive and fight for her children. Still mourning the loss of Jake, she refuses to give up on life even tho she can't let go of him. There are other strong female characters, some we were intrduced to in The Last Werewolf, like Madeline and Mia. We also are introduced to new characters, some we don't expect to see, who change Talulla's life and the way she sees others.
I love how it shows life as not black and white. Not all the monsters out there have fangs. Humans have such a potential for death and pain, escpecially for those that are different from us or things we don't fully understand. Murdoch and WOCOP is a perfect example of this.
There is so much going on in this book that it keeps you on the edge of your seat til the end. There are constant twists and turns and things you don't see coming. Its also full of sex and violence and the wulf psychology revolves around this. The wulf libido wanes and waxes with the moon and is in full force when they are turned during full moon. If you are easily offended by sex and violence don't read this series. The kills themselves are full of detail and you can see how they relish their meals. Full of blood and gore and sex this is an awesome adult themed horror story.
Overall, I loved this one. Anyone that enjoyed The Last Werewolf should continue the story with Talulla Rising and I would recommend reading The Last Werewolf first. I hated to see the book end. I wanted more and hope there is another book down the line. This is definitely an over 18 book as there is not only violence but alot of sex, but the book is so much more than the sum of its parts. All of it flowed together making each part necessary to complete the picture.
Told in Talulla's point of view, the story sweeps you in and flows like water. Talulla is a strong female character that knows how to take charge and be assertive and fight for her children. Still mourning the loss of Jake, she refuses to give up on life even tho she can't let go of him. There are other strong female characters, some we were intrduced to in The Last Werewolf, like Madeline and Mia. We also are introduced to new characters, some we don't expect to see, who change Talulla's life and the way she sees others.
I love how it shows life as not black and white. Not all the monsters out there have fangs. Humans have such a potential for death and pain, escpecially for those that are different from us or things we don't fully understand. Murdoch and WOCOP is a perfect example of this.
There is so much going on in this book that it keeps you on the edge of your seat til the end. There are constant twists and turns and things you don't see coming. Its also full of sex and violence and the wulf psychology revolves around this. The wulf libido wanes and waxes with the moon and is in full force when they are turned during full moon. If you are easily offended by sex and violence don't read this series. The kills themselves are full of detail and you can see how they relish their meals. Full of blood and gore and sex this is an awesome adult themed horror story.
Overall, I loved this one. Anyone that enjoyed The Last Werewolf should continue the story with Talulla Rising and I would recommend reading The Last Werewolf first. I hated to see the book end. I wanted more and hope there is another book down the line. This is definitely an over 18 book as there is not only violence but alot of sex, but the book is so much more than the sum of its parts. All of it flowed together making each part necessary to complete the picture.
July 9, 2012
This took me forever to finish and I am a fast reader - I just kept putting it down and days would go by before I picked it up again..it is the 2nd in a trilogy and overall the first (The Last Werewolf) was a better read. In this one Tululla, a werewolf, has two kid/werewolves and one is stolen by a secret society trying to strengthen an ubervamp.. anyway Talulla and her gang plot, get caught, plot, get caught, plot, get caught...etc. And through-out their efforts to retrieve the stolen baby/wolf, we the readers, are hit over the head with the sexual needs/demands of werewolves...It's like reading a 13 year old boy's wet dream. The author uses every word he knows to describe sex and the needs of the werewolves ...I mean really, I get it - the werewolves MUST have sex, are ALWAYS thinking of having sex, CAN NOT function without sex...it's just so ....BORING. I ended up skipping a lot of pages as the plot bogged down in another failed plan or another sexual escapade. And, SPOOILER AHEAD -so stop reading now.. WOCOP, while in a bit of organizational mess, seems to be completely unaware that there are a new group of werewolves in England - a tiny country. Whatever. It does pick up at the last 30 pages or so - when all the suspects are in the same room - so to speak -
I bought the first one, but got this from the Library (Yeah Public Libraries) and that was a good economical decision on my part. The third one - I don't know if I will read it or not - but I will again use my public library.
I bought the first one, but got this from the Library (Yeah Public Libraries) and that was a good economical decision on my part. The third one - I don't know if I will read it or not - but I will again use my public library.
September 15, 2014
In this sequel to The Last Werewolf, we follow Tallula Demetriou as she, pregnant and close to giving birth, to her deceased lover's (the aforementioned last werewolf, Jake Marlowe, or so he thought in the previous book, until he ran into recently Turned Lulu and they fell in love) child. That is, until she gives birth to twins. On the run from Hunters (part of WOCOP, a global organization bent on destroying vampires and werewolves), and vampires determined to capture her and her child, for their blood, which could potentially allow the "boochies" to walk in daylight. Watched over by her handler, Cloquet, while giving birth isn't enough when they're attacked in a remote Alaskan cabin and her son is taken by a vampire cult bent on possessing the werewolf blood. Tallula still has a newly born daughter to care for, but struggles internally with this newfound being she's responsible for, who will be a moonstruck monster like Mommy once a month, while trying desperately to find out where her son was taken.
Unrelentingly and unapologetically horrifying, and erotic, Duncan sprinkles in the snarky wit and stream of consciousness musings that made the first book so refreshing and unique. Lots of twists and turns make the plot barrel along to its cliff hangerish conclusion. The third book was recently released, entitled By Blood We Live.
Unrelentingly and unapologetically horrifying, and erotic, Duncan sprinkles in the snarky wit and stream of consciousness musings that made the first book so refreshing and unique. Lots of twists and turns make the plot barrel along to its cliff hangerish conclusion. The third book was recently released, entitled By Blood We Live.
May 2, 2014
Mislio sam da ću poslednjih stotinak strana ostaviti za sutra ali đavo mi nije dao mira i morao sam završiti knjigu večeras.
Koliko god je Glen Dankan bio odličan narator u prvom delu, pišući u prvom licu ispovest poslednjeg vukodlaka, mužjaka, toliko je njegova transformacija u vukodlaka, ženku bila još bolja. U "Talulinom čoporu", Dankan nam je opet pružio jednu sirovu, prljavu, neuvijenu ali ovoga puta mnogo emotivniju priču u kojoj opet nije štedeo nikoga. Svako poglavlje/stranica bukvalno puca od adrenalina ne libeći se da na površinu izbaci i ono najintimnije o čemu mnogi ne žele da pričaju.
Zaista sjajno ispričana priča i jedva čekam sledeći nastavak koji će (nadam se uspešno) zaokružiti ovu triologiju.
Koliko god je Glen Dankan bio odličan narator u prvom delu, pišući u prvom licu ispovest poslednjeg vukodlaka, mužjaka, toliko je njegova transformacija u vukodlaka, ženku bila još bolja. U "Talulinom čoporu", Dankan nam je opet pružio jednu sirovu, prljavu, neuvijenu ali ovoga puta mnogo emotivniju priču u kojoj opet nije štedeo nikoga. Svako poglavlje/stranica bukvalno puca od adrenalina ne libeći se da na površinu izbaci i ono najintimnije o čemu mnogi ne žele da pričaju.
Zaista sjajno ispričana priča i jedva čekam sledeći nastavak koji će (nadam se uspešno) zaokružiti ovu triologiju.
March 21, 2014
I give this book ALL OF THE STARS. It was great, and even better than the first which I already loved. I won't talk about it too much since it's the middle of the trilogy and practically everything that I could talk about involves spoilers, but this is everything a sequel should be. The action was non-stop, the characters well drawn out (we get a different narrator here and it works brilliantly), and the story showed progress towards a definitive ending.
This is really shaping up to be one of my favourite adult series, and I just can't get enough of Glen Duncan's writing. Just assume the rest of this review would be lots of gushy praise, and go out and pick up the original if you like your stories dark, gory and full of mayhem!
This is really shaping up to be one of my favourite adult series, and I just can't get enough of Glen Duncan's writing. Just assume the rest of this review would be lots of gushy praise, and go out and pick up the original if you like your stories dark, gory and full of mayhem!
April 16, 2014
Book Info: Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of werewolf stories, those who like Duncan's style, those who find werewolves tragic and might like to see a different type.
Trigger Warnings: Lots of “Mommy” triggers. If you have children, be prepared to cringe a lot. Rape (male, female). Murder.
My Thoughts: This book is a sequel to The Last Werewolf (that review linked here where formatting allowed). Even the synopsis for this book has spoilers for the last, so if you have not yet read The Last Werewolf, and you do not wish to have it spoiled for you, it would be in your best interest to not read any of the plot details about this book. However, I have done my best to keep spoilers out of this section, so you should be safe reading until you hit my disclosure section.
I should warn that if you are looking for the same sort of wry, understated humor as the first book, you will be disappointed. Duncan switches writing style to match this new character, Talulla. Jake was a very old werewolf, one who had been alive almost 200 years, had seen it all, done it all, been through it all—and it showed. Talulla, however, is young as werewolves go, is still learning her way through things, still coming to terms with things, and doesn't have the same sort of feel to her voice. So, in many ways, this is a very different book. Oh, there are still plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, especially in the first few chapters, set in Alaska. But in many ways, while I called the first book Urban Fantasy, this is a much darker book; one I would almost label as horror, but not quite (based on the ending, which is not a horror-book ending). I especially want to warn mothers. If you've read the synopsis, then you know Talulla's son is kidnapped. This is just one of the very mother-nightmare-inducing things that happens in the book, and honestly? One of the mildest. So be prepared to spend a lot of time, if you are a mother, freaking right out.
Because this book is written by a different person, so to speak, it has a very different feel to it. That beautiful, polished lyricism that Jake possessed, based upon his age and the age in which he was born, is missing from American, Manhattan-raised Talulla. But that didn't make the story any less absorbing. Oftentimes werewolf stories make me too sad. I find the idea of werewolves to be unbearably tragic, since the traditional werewolf becomes feral at the full moon, unable to control him- or herself, and thus often destroys those around him or her unknowingly, leaving them depressed and upset once they are aware. However, Duncan's werewolves do not go feral—they maintain consciousness, full memory of who they are—they just have the Hunger to deal with. They must kill and eat at the full moon or, eventually, they will die. Although this is still often tragic, to me it's not quite as tragic for some reason. I guess because they have some choice in the matter. At any rate, all this basically means that if you are like me and find the idea of werewolves to be sad, you might enjoy these books anyway.
I can see some potentials for additional books in this universe. What will the small roads to friendship with the vampires (revealed late in the book) lead to? What about Mia? Will she forgive the thing with Caleb? How about Marco? What will happen with him? How about the “new” werewolves? The idea of packs has been born—will that make them more or less susceptible to WOCOP's Hunts? Or will the Hunts continue? Questions, questions, questions. I hope to see more!
I've decided to continue the theme by next reading Benjamin Percy's upcoming book Red Moon, so expect some compare and contrasts. Meanwhile, if you enjoy werewolf books—or even if you don't, based upon that previous paragraph—you will want to read this one. I have picked up a copy of Duncan's book I, Lucifer based on how much I enjoy his writing and will be reading it when I can, which basically means I highly recommend Duncan in general, and these werewolf books in particular. Check 'em out.
Disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof ARC through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: When I change I change fast. The moon drags the whatever-it-is up from the earth and it goes through me with crazy wriggling impatience . . . I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled—then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power . . . A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops. The woman is a werewolf.
The woman is Talulla Demetriou.
She’s grieving for her werewolf lover, Jake, whose violent death has left her alone with her own sublime monstrousness. On the run, pursued by the hunters of WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena), she must find a place to give birth to Jake’s child in secret.
The birth, under a full moon at a remote Alaska lodge, leaves Talulla ravaged, but with her infant son in her arms she believes the worst is over—until the windows crash in, and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . .
What follows throws Talulla into a race against time to save both herself and her child as she faces down the new, psychotic leader of WOCOP, a cabal of blood-drinking religious fanatics, and (rumor has it) the oldest living vampire.
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of werewolf stories, those who like Duncan's style, those who find werewolves tragic and might like to see a different type.
Trigger Warnings: Lots of “Mommy” triggers. If you have children, be prepared to cringe a lot. Rape (male, female). Murder.
My Thoughts: This book is a sequel to The Last Werewolf (that review linked here where formatting allowed). Even the synopsis for this book has spoilers for the last, so if you have not yet read The Last Werewolf, and you do not wish to have it spoiled for you, it would be in your best interest to not read any of the plot details about this book. However, I have done my best to keep spoilers out of this section, so you should be safe reading until you hit my disclosure section.
I should warn that if you are looking for the same sort of wry, understated humor as the first book, you will be disappointed. Duncan switches writing style to match this new character, Talulla. Jake was a very old werewolf, one who had been alive almost 200 years, had seen it all, done it all, been through it all—and it showed. Talulla, however, is young as werewolves go, is still learning her way through things, still coming to terms with things, and doesn't have the same sort of feel to her voice. So, in many ways, this is a very different book. Oh, there are still plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, especially in the first few chapters, set in Alaska. But in many ways, while I called the first book Urban Fantasy, this is a much darker book; one I would almost label as horror, but not quite (based on the ending, which is not a horror-book ending). I especially want to warn mothers. If you've read the synopsis, then you know Talulla's son is kidnapped. This is just one of the very mother-nightmare-inducing things that happens in the book, and honestly? One of the mildest. So be prepared to spend a lot of time, if you are a mother, freaking right out.
Because this book is written by a different person, so to speak, it has a very different feel to it. That beautiful, polished lyricism that Jake possessed, based upon his age and the age in which he was born, is missing from American, Manhattan-raised Talulla. But that didn't make the story any less absorbing. Oftentimes werewolf stories make me too sad. I find the idea of werewolves to be unbearably tragic, since the traditional werewolf becomes feral at the full moon, unable to control him- or herself, and thus often destroys those around him or her unknowingly, leaving them depressed and upset once they are aware. However, Duncan's werewolves do not go feral—they maintain consciousness, full memory of who they are—they just have the Hunger to deal with. They must kill and eat at the full moon or, eventually, they will die. Although this is still often tragic, to me it's not quite as tragic for some reason. I guess because they have some choice in the matter. At any rate, all this basically means that if you are like me and find the idea of werewolves to be sad, you might enjoy these books anyway.
I can see some potentials for additional books in this universe. What will the small roads to friendship with the vampires (revealed late in the book) lead to? What about Mia? Will she forgive the thing with Caleb? How about Marco? What will happen with him? How about the “new” werewolves? The idea of packs has been born—will that make them more or less susceptible to WOCOP's Hunts? Or will the Hunts continue? Questions, questions, questions. I hope to see more!
I've decided to continue the theme by next reading Benjamin Percy's upcoming book Red Moon, so expect some compare and contrasts. Meanwhile, if you enjoy werewolf books—or even if you don't, based upon that previous paragraph—you will want to read this one. I have picked up a copy of Duncan's book I, Lucifer based on how much I enjoy his writing and will be reading it when I can, which basically means I highly recommend Duncan in general, and these werewolf books in particular. Check 'em out.
Disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof ARC through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: When I change I change fast. The moon drags the whatever-it-is up from the earth and it goes through me with crazy wriggling impatience . . . I’m twisted, torn, churned, throttled—then rushed through a blind chicane into ludicrous power . . . A heel settles. A last canine hurries through. A shoulder blade pops. The woman is a werewolf.
The woman is Talulla Demetriou.
She’s grieving for her werewolf lover, Jake, whose violent death has left her alone with her own sublime monstrousness. On the run, pursued by the hunters of WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena), she must find a place to give birth to Jake’s child in secret.
The birth, under a full moon at a remote Alaska lodge, leaves Talulla ravaged, but with her infant son in her arms she believes the worst is over—until the windows crash in, and she discovers that the worst has only just begun . . .
What follows throws Talulla into a race against time to save both herself and her child as she faces down the new, psychotic leader of WOCOP, a cabal of blood-drinking religious fanatics, and (rumor has it) the oldest living vampire.
December 8, 2013
Talulla is in an Alaska cottage to have her baby. She is in hiding from WOCOP organisation and vampires who want to use her kind as a scientific experiment and assessment. But her life, and the life of her baby, is soon threatened when her hiding place is discovered and she needs to use every ounce of her being to fight to protect her family.
Talulla Rising is the 2nd book in the Last Werewolf series by Glen Duncan and I felt this book was very different. In the Last Werewolf you meet Jake who deals with the physiological issues of being the last werewolf; he was lonely and suicidal. Whereas Talulla has a goal and a purpose for living; she used her strength, sexually and knowledge from Jake’s diary to go all out to reach her goal. Talulla is one amazing beast, woman and mother; she had to endure the most extreme physical and mental punishment imaginable. It was painful to read at times and hardcore in every possible way. What I also liked about this book was the element of surprise in every corner. I had no idea what was to come next or where it was headed, but it was a pure adrenaline rush and fast paced from start to finish with a few new disturbing characters you meet along the way.
This is completely awesome and highly recommend it if you’ve loved the Last Werewolf. The only disappointment is now I have to wait a year for book 3.
Talulla Rising is the 2nd book in the Last Werewolf series by Glen Duncan and I felt this book was very different. In the Last Werewolf you meet Jake who deals with the physiological issues of being the last werewolf; he was lonely and suicidal. Whereas Talulla has a goal and a purpose for living; she used her strength, sexually and knowledge from Jake’s diary to go all out to reach her goal. Talulla is one amazing beast, woman and mother; she had to endure the most extreme physical and mental punishment imaginable. It was painful to read at times and hardcore in every possible way. What I also liked about this book was the element of surprise in every corner. I had no idea what was to come next or where it was headed, but it was a pure adrenaline rush and fast paced from start to finish with a few new disturbing characters you meet along the way.
This is completely awesome and highly recommend it if you’ve loved the Last Werewolf. The only disappointment is now I have to wait a year for book 3.
June 5, 2012
This book had such promise: a world where vampires hunt (or is that breed) werewolfs (or werwulfs) and other oddities. The problem is the writing. I know this is a sequel, and perhaps that's the problem (I haven't read the first book). On the other hand, it could also be the writing style.
Here's what I mean: far too much is alluded to in one place, with bits and pieces of explanation leaking out in a sort-of "nyah nyah I know what's going on and you don't" manner. Take Talulla's nightmares as an example. She mentions that there are three of them and even talks about two. Then there's a strong hint about the third. And later, another hint. Later still, another. Finally we get to know what the third nightmare is, but by then I didn't really care.
I like books that stand alone, which this does. But by a quarter of the way through, I hadn't been made to care about the situation or the characters, and the hints and circular writing didn't help.
ARC provided by publisher.
Here's what I mean: far too much is alluded to in one place, with bits and pieces of explanation leaking out in a sort-of "nyah nyah I know what's going on and you don't" manner. Take Talulla's nightmares as an example. She mentions that there are three of them and even talks about two. Then there's a strong hint about the third. And later, another hint. Later still, another. Finally we get to know what the third nightmare is, but by then I didn't really care.
I like books that stand alone, which this does. But by a quarter of the way through, I hadn't been made to care about the situation or the characters, and the hints and circular writing didn't help.
ARC provided by publisher.
October 26, 2012
After reading The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan and having a hard time getting into the story at first, I was a little hesitant to pick this one up. BOY AM I GLAD I DID!!!
I have always loved werewolf stories, but of late, they seem to only be in romance novel disguised at horror or silly teenage heart-throb tales with shiny vampires... Though there is plenty of romance, this is not a PG-13 tale of teenage longing. It is a visceral, violent adult story with true horror, lust, sex and gore.
Following the main character's (Talulla) development as she expands her acceptance of what and who she is, while reluctantly embracing motherhood is a fascinating joyride into a beloved genre that is often abused and given little depth. Instead of lip-service, Duncan dives headlong into the tough questions of morality, love, and parental torment as he bring the raw being of his characters to the reader in full spectrum. His unblinking glimpses their reality are sometimes unpleasant, unclean and unrelenting but by the end you find your appetite ready for more...
A Must Read for the Wolf-fan!!!
I have always loved werewolf stories, but of late, they seem to only be in romance novel disguised at horror or silly teenage heart-throb tales with shiny vampires... Though there is plenty of romance, this is not a PG-13 tale of teenage longing. It is a visceral, violent adult story with true horror, lust, sex and gore.
Following the main character's (Talulla) development as she expands her acceptance of what and who she is, while reluctantly embracing motherhood is a fascinating joyride into a beloved genre that is often abused and given little depth. Instead of lip-service, Duncan dives headlong into the tough questions of morality, love, and parental torment as he bring the raw being of his characters to the reader in full spectrum. His unblinking glimpses their reality are sometimes unpleasant, unclean and unrelenting but by the end you find your appetite ready for more...
A Must Read for the Wolf-fan!!!
June 8, 2016
Wonderful Read. Engrossing, driving force, very difficult to put down. Arguably as good as the first installment.
January 15, 2018
1 star more because of the violence and the gore. Also, now I want to know if I guessed correctly where the plot is going, so onward to no. 3.
December 20, 2020
Raw. This is the one word that I would use to describe this book. The sex is abundant. The consumption by werewolves is explicit and repeated. The action is nonstop. I do not usually like books that are this bloody and sexually explicit. Talulla thinks that she is the last werewolf except for her young. Her mate was killed in the previous book. The same bad guys exist just the sides aren't necessarily the same . Not my usual fare, but not bad.
February 23, 2013
Man, I really wanted to love Duncan's Talulla Rising as much as I loved
The Last Werewolf
, but I can't say that I did.
Was it because I wasn't really in the mood for pages and pages of a pregnant werewolf's guilty conscience? Perhaps. There was a crispness to The Last Werewolf that I didn't find here in Duncan's sequel... a fierce juxtaposition of language that I found exciting. But Talulla just wasn't as engrossing a character as Jake was. She's hung up on him (he died at the end of the first book), and she's terrified of what she's got in her sometimes-furry werewolf oven. Is it a human baby or a werewolf cub? Will she survive birth? Will she eat it?!
The majority of the first part of the book is setting us up in Talulla's life -- where she is now, who's in her corner, what her objectives are, what's going on in the werewolf-vampire dynamic since Jake died. It's rather boring, actually, even though Duncan delivers us (ahem) the werewolf birth and a vampire cub-napping all in one night in this part. Things don't really pick up until Talulla gets a crew together and decides to go after the baby boy, Lorcan, but the momentum to recover her stolen offspring is slowed because -- dum dum DUM! -- she really was pregnant with twins and the second baby, Zoe, was not whisked away by smelly boogies.
IF Talulla had stormed forward fueled with righteous motherhood, that would have been one thing. But what Duncan gave us was a lot of in-Talulla's-head about how she wasn't sure she was cut out to be a mother, how she contemplated letting the vampires just have Lorcan (because, hey!, she's got a spare!), and on and on about how she couldn't allow herself to love Zoe until she got Lorcan back. Ugh. Okay, so... NOT awful, but still!
Jake was so easy to empathize with, and he was a 200-year-old bored werewolf. Talulla -- a pregnant widow who was still "wanted" (but not "hunted") and whose child was taken from her -- should have been a character that you wanted to root for, to feel her loss and want vengeance for her and her family. Instead, I found myself just kinda reading along like, "huh."
Most of the sub-characters in the book were described but not really explained. Luckily, we met Madeline through Jake in Book One, so she was easier to like. But Talulla's familiar/handler (also from Book One) was rather pathetic, and the guards-turned-werewolves were little more than descriptions before they turned (when we finally got to see a little bit more of their personalities).
Okay, FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm also taking an online editing class right now and just read a lesson on showing, not telling, so I was more inclined to notice this in Duncan's writing now (compared to when I read The Last Werewolf. I still really like his take on werewolves (original) and vampires, and I'm interested to see what he does with a "pack" and this age-old vamp, Marco. Now that Talulla's got herself a werewolf-man and a sense of family, I hope that Duncan finds a way to bring out some kind of oomph in her. I'm not saying she needs to shine like glitter in the sunlight, but I want her to grow into her badass self and actually take some control instead of letting everyone guide her around (while she insists on going along but doesn't really do anything). Human-Talulla needs to learn some SKILLS, if this pack is going to be successful with whatever danger Marco throws their way, they're going to have to unite into a clan.
Now I don't want to waste this entire review in criticism, because Duncan still pulled off a good story and some really nice "ahh" moments... I think I missed the language, which, since this book was from Talulla's POV and she doesn't have those 200 years of knowledge I can totally understand why he dialed that down. But will Duncan allow her to have a happy ending? I'm not entirely sure, and that is exciting. What will he come up with, and how will he let a third book rest? I guess we'll find out, eventually.
Was it because I wasn't really in the mood for pages and pages of a pregnant werewolf's guilty conscience? Perhaps. There was a crispness to The Last Werewolf that I didn't find here in Duncan's sequel... a fierce juxtaposition of language that I found exciting. But Talulla just wasn't as engrossing a character as Jake was. She's hung up on him (he died at the end of the first book), and she's terrified of what she's got in her sometimes-furry werewolf oven. Is it a human baby or a werewolf cub? Will she survive birth? Will she eat it?!
The majority of the first part of the book is setting us up in Talulla's life -- where she is now, who's in her corner, what her objectives are, what's going on in the werewolf-vampire dynamic since Jake died. It's rather boring, actually, even though Duncan delivers us (ahem) the werewolf birth and a vampire cub-napping all in one night in this part. Things don't really pick up until Talulla gets a crew together and decides to go after the baby boy, Lorcan, but the momentum to recover her stolen offspring is slowed because -- dum dum DUM! -- she really was pregnant with twins and the second baby, Zoe, was not whisked away by smelly boogies.
IF Talulla had stormed forward fueled with righteous motherhood, that would have been one thing. But what Duncan gave us was a lot of in-Talulla's-head about how she wasn't sure she was cut out to be a mother, how she contemplated letting the vampires just have Lorcan (because, hey!, she's got a spare!), and on and on about how she couldn't allow herself to love Zoe until she got Lorcan back. Ugh. Okay, so... NOT awful, but still!
Jake was so easy to empathize with, and he was a 200-year-old bored werewolf. Talulla -- a pregnant widow who was still "wanted" (but not "hunted") and whose child was taken from her -- should have been a character that you wanted to root for, to feel her loss and want vengeance for her and her family. Instead, I found myself just kinda reading along like, "huh."
Most of the sub-characters in the book were described but not really explained. Luckily, we met Madeline through Jake in Book One, so she was easier to like. But Talulla's familiar/handler (also from Book One) was rather pathetic, and the guards-turned-werewolves were little more than descriptions before they turned (when we finally got to see a little bit more of their personalities).
Okay, FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm also taking an online editing class right now and just read a lesson on showing, not telling, so I was more inclined to notice this in Duncan's writing now (compared to when I read The Last Werewolf. I still really like his take on werewolves (original) and vampires, and I'm interested to see what he does with a "pack" and this age-old vamp, Marco. Now that Talulla's got herself a werewolf-man and a sense of family, I hope that Duncan finds a way to bring out some kind of oomph in her. I'm not saying she needs to shine like glitter in the sunlight, but I want her to grow into her badass self and actually take some control instead of letting everyone guide her around (while she insists on going along but doesn't really do anything). Human-Talulla needs to learn some SKILLS, if this pack is going to be successful with whatever danger Marco throws their way, they're going to have to unite into a clan.
Now I don't want to waste this entire review in criticism, because Duncan still pulled off a good story and some really nice "ahh" moments... I think I missed the language, which, since this book was from Talulla's POV and she doesn't have those 200 years of knowledge I can totally understand why he dialed that down. But will Duncan allow her to have a happy ending? I'm not entirely sure, and that is exciting. What will he come up with, and how will he let a third book rest? I guess we'll find out, eventually.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 17, 2018
If you haven't read the first book, you can't just jump in with this one. While the story stands on its own merits, you really need the background of The Last Werewolf to get the full story.
As with my review of its predecessor, this is not a book for anyone under 18! I should almost put that in all caps. The coarse language, sexual content and graphic killings are almost too much for me to handle as an adult. Switching over from the voice of Jake to that of Tallula, I thought the obsession with all things anal would subside. While tampered down, it is definitely still present.
The story of the werewolf and vampire is unwound a little more in this book. And much of what happens catches the reader by surprise, though some parts are predictable. Even being able to guess the next step doesn't make for any less enjoyment. I'd really say my only complaint, aside from the richness of and ongoing vulgarity, was the factual misstep. The moon is on a 28 day cycle, not 30!
Overall, a superb story. Listening to this on audiobook was thoroughly satisfying. The first book was told through the voice of Jake and therefore, a man. This book, being told through the eyes of a woman, was narrated by an excellent actress who could still give the male characters depth and believability.
As with my review of its predecessor, this is not a book for anyone under 18! I should almost put that in all caps. The coarse language, sexual content and graphic killings are almost too much for me to handle as an adult. Switching over from the voice of Jake to that of Tallula, I thought the obsession with all things anal would subside. While tampered down, it is definitely still present.
The story of the werewolf and vampire is unwound a little more in this book. And much of what happens catches the reader by surprise, though some parts are predictable. Even being able to guess the next step doesn't make for any less enjoyment. I'd really say my only complaint, aside from the richness of and ongoing vulgarity, was the factual misstep. The moon is on a 28 day cycle, not 30!
Overall, a superb story. Listening to this on audiobook was thoroughly satisfying. The first book was told through the voice of Jake and therefore, a man. This book, being told through the eyes of a woman, was narrated by an excellent actress who could still give the male characters depth and believability.
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