Dumb And Quirky: Curse of the Wolf Girl

Martin Millar's engaging story of British werewolves amused me a lot, but I never could quite commit to it. The mosaic pattern of short chapters featuring various people keeps the interest level high, especially as their various stores wind in and out and then explode across each other brilliantly at the end of The Curse of the Wolf Girl.  I frequently found myself laughing out loud at a blunt declaration of the fashion designer/sorceress, or the dual interests of the Fire Queen, who studied couture with the same dedication as her understanding of dragon fighting.

But I found myself constantly putting the book down, and a lot of it is my prejudice against drug addiction.  I don't find it interesting, and two of the main characters spend a lot of their time lying around as a result of their laudanum problem.  It's frustrating when they contemplate doing something active (and interesting) and then just drug themselves into a stupor.  One of the characters has very little sense in general, but the other clearly could do a lot better, and it's just annoying to read about.  So I'm unlikely to seek out other books by this author, since the enjoyment/annoyance ratio isn't quite high enough to satisfy me.  But that's mainly because of my pet peeve, so I recommend the book in general.   After all, it had me cheering on the two girls who couldn't add their way out of a paper bag.