Book Review

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

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Title: Bitten
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication Info: Plume 2002
ISBN: 9780452283480
Genre: Paranormal

Book CoverThis isn’t so much a review as a re-read and reflection as to why I love this book so much.

I reread this book because it’s one of my favorites, but I didn’t question whether or not I’d enjoy it. I knew I would, and I did, and I’ll probably reread it again soon, even though I’ll remember what happens.

This was the book that hooked me on the paranormal romance, and rocked my world when I read it. I had no idea romance could be like this, that heroines could be angry and violent, that exploring the rage-filled and violent side of humans could be so fascinating. I think it’s because of this book that I have such a love for werewolf romance fiction.

If you’re not familiar with this book, go read it now. I’ll give the briefest plot synopsis possible. Elena Michaels is living in Toronto, desperate to have a normal life. She can’t. She’s a werewolf.

The story opens with Elena trying to find a safe place to shift. Because she’s put it off for so long, she can’t stop herself. When she’s called back to her Pack in upstate New York, she tries to resist going, but she can’t avoid that, either. Irritated that she’s being commanded by so many forces in her life, she leaves her boyfriend and their apartment under some really flimsy excuses, and heads south.

When she returns to the Pack, there are major problems she has to face, not the least of which is Clay. It would be too mild to say he has it bad for her. It’s more like he has it worst for her, and Elena finds herself torn between the world she’s carefully built for herself, and the life she keeps trying to leave, but can’t.

I don’t know if it’s possible to describe how much I love this book. Even after multiple readings, the minute I pick it up, I’m done. Call in for takeout and ignore the woman drooling in the corner. That’s just Sarah, reading “Bitten.”

This last reread was brought about when I started wondering why it was that I was drawn to wolf shifter books but not much else in the shifty universe (except were-koalas. I’m telling you. Next big thing: sleepy and cute, with BIG ASS CLAWS OMG. Were-Phascolarctos. Trust me on this).

I hold this book entirely responsible for my love of shifter wolf romance, even bad shifter wolf romance. It’s hard for any book to measure up to this one. The story is told from Elena’s point of view, in first person, and even though the reader spends the entirety of the story in her head and viewing things from her perspective, it doesn’t get old. She’s the relative newcomer to the wolf world, and through her the reader gets a thorough education in their hierarchy.

The story has three main threads: Elena vs. Clay, Elena vs. her life in Toronto or with the Pack, and Elena vs. herself. That last one informs the other two and is the most powerful with each subsequent reread.

The focus on Jeremy made me want his story more, though I’m hesitant to pick up the sequels for fear I won’t enjoy them as much. I read the prequels to Bitten when they were available online, and having that additional backstory has made re-reads of the novel more powerful. Everything that happens in the book is more significant. As a result, I genuinely miss the characters and the world when I’m done.

My favorite part of this novel is the complexity of what is revealed as Elena learns to accept herself. The book’s exploration of a female werewolf – the only one of her kind – reframes and creates a new arena for fictional exploration of female violence. Elena herself is part horrified and part fascinated by her own capacity for killing, either as a human or as a wolf, and that struggle, which is both internal and external in the story, is the aspect that remains with me after I finish the book. Elena is both violent and vulnerable, fearless and yet afraid to love and accept anyone, even herself. The ways in which Armstrong peels away Elena’s defenses is chilling, and a lesson in the art of not revealing too much, but revealing plenty at the same time.

There are so many scenes that get me, like when Elena allows one of the wolves to lean on her while making it seem like she’s leaning on him, or when she finds a secret hidden in a closet that tell her something that should have been painfully obvious to her. The scene where Clay comes toward her in the lamplight. Or, when Elena has dinner with Phillip’s sisters and mother, and watches family interactions from a distance, even while she’s right there among them. Later, Elena finds herself with her Pack family – and is part of the group, though she struggles to hold herself apart as she did before. The power of this book is in the sneaky emotion and the pain of it, and in the depth of possibly limitless loyalty and violence Elena and the other characters possess.

Reading it makes me wonder about the role of violence in shaping the popularity of paranormals and urban fantasy in romance, and the ways in which violence and vulnerability coexist in romance heroines. Elena was one of the first characters I read in a paranormal setting who was both fragile and forged with otherworldly strength. She’s angry and full of latent rage – and has an outlet for it that human women do not have access to, one that romance readers read about repeatedly. She can and does become the violent, raging, instinctively vengeful animal that we are told is unacceptable behavior for women.

I never tire of revisiting with her, and learning something new from her story.


This book is available from Amazon, Indiebound, Book Depository, and Powell’s.

Comments are Closed

  1. dangrgirl says:

    @Lizzie:

    I just couldn’t keep reading

    And that’s your prerogative as a reader. You bring up some great points. Every reader is different.

  2. lyssa says:

    Thank you for reviewing this book. All the Women of the Otherworld books are fav’s of mine as well. Although I came to the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre from a different direction, Kelley Armstrong is a strong contender for the top of the list. Patricia Briggs and Kim Harrison taking the main slots there.

    I think something that I enjoy is how Armstrong’s female protagonists are all ‘strong’ in different ways. From Paige’s willingness to step away from the safe zone to protect her charge, to buck the system, to Elaina’s physical strength combined with intellegence, to Jamie’s use of fame and stardom for something better, none of these women just sit back and let life roll over them. They can’t.

    Armstrong also does not make her female progagonist unbeatable. These women run up against people that could beat them, but they overcome though ‘the help of their friends.” This feature marks all the authors on my ‘top list’ and makes the characters more fleshed out.

    SPOILER:
    Regarding the science of male children only inheriting the “werewolf” gene. I think the science would work if you see it as something generated by the Y gene normally and recessive in the females. Since the mothers are not were, the females don’t inherit. The version that Clay and Elaina have is transmitted by body fluid, so the biological cause of the were (er) mutation can bypass the genetic marker. (Other than that, suspend disbelief and enjoy the story)

  3. Robin says:

    This is my least favourite Armstrong book (and I’ve read all the adult ones); it took me three tries to get through it. I was thoroughly disgusted by Elena’s reactions to Clay in this book when she sees him again and his (more than borderline, in my opinion) abusive treatment of her, past and present.

    Yes, he’s had a terrible life, has no idea of how to handle women or relationships, and loves her more than anything but that doesn’t make the way he treats her (in this book and before) right. I didn’t feel he ever truly learned what he done, how he had treated her, was wrong and in the end he was simply modifying his behaviour to get what he wanted (Elena), not because he truly regretted what he did.

    Clay still remains my least favourite character in any of the books simply because I can’t forget what happened in Bitten.

  4. Tina C. says:

    Wow—this is the first time I’ve seriously diverged in reading tastes from SBSarah!  I simply could not finish this book.  I couldn’t finish Dime Store Magic, either.  It’s kind of like melon, for me—it smells so good that I have often thought, “Well, I’ll try it again and maybe this time I’ll like it” and then I do and I have to spit it out because I hate the taste so much.  As with the melon, Armstrong is so popular with people whose tastes I generally agree with that I occasionally try her again and I always feel annoyed that I wasting the money that could have gone to a book I would have enjoyed.  I can’t remember exactly what I didn’t like about Armstrong’s books without going back to one of the books because it’s been a while and I don’t currently own any, but I just don’t.  (Probably the characters—can’t usually finish a book if I hate the characters.)

  5. Naomi says:

    @lizzie, @willa

    God, I could not agree more. I had the exact same reaction to this book. I really, really wanted to love it but instead it was more like the red mists of rage descended every time the supposedly strong, unique and determined Elena acted like every other female doormat I encounter in fiction. Her empowerment rang false to me because she spends most of the book making empty threats.

    Even worse though, was Clay. Sad childhood? Wild? I don’t give a shit. WHAT. AN. ALPHOLE. Seriously. I could not handle his petty, childish demands and his “I know better than you, little woman” posturing. He seemed arrested in some kind of adolescent nightmare. The sex scene only confirmed my suspicions of his total creepiness. The book might have been SLIGHTLY redeemed for me had Clay at least grovelled for all of his appalling behaviour, but no, apparently it was justified because he just couldn’t help himself / IT’S TRUE LURVE.

    The idea that his feral nature meant that he couldn’t help but take what he wanted and bite her was unbelievable to me, seeing as he goes out of his way to seduce her/take her to meet his family AND is a successful academic (where an understanding of some social convention and an appearance of normal human behaviour is surely necessary?) He clearly functions perfectly adequately in society, so it makes no sense for him to endanger pack secrecy just because Elena should be “his”.

    Oops, my apologies, that went on rather long. I think I needed an outlet to express my frustrations with this book!

  6. Stina says:

    This book is one of my top favourites too!!
    I did read the next two, though, and they were pretty disappointing. I might have thought they were ok if they hadn’t been connected to this awesome novel, but alas…
    Now you’ve made me want to go re-read it 🙂

  7. lizzie (greeneyed fem) says:

    because she spends most of the book making empty threats.

    I’m right there with you on the red mists of rage re: empty threats.

    “I’m leaving unless you tell me what’s going on, I really mean it! I’m not gonna stay here at your beck and call, I’m not under your command! I’m leaving! Oh, okay, I guess I’ll just go to bed and see you in the morning.”

    Jeez louise, stick to your guns, honey. I would have had so much more respect for her if she’d at least started walking and then changed her mind a mile out.

  8. 'col says:

    …can I just pop in here with a recommendation for a different werewolf book? Benighted by Kit Whitfield is one of the most amazing urban fantasy books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot. It’s an inside-out werewolf story: in this world, almost everyone is a shifter. Our protagonist is not, and being born unable to change dictates the terms of her entire life. Even her job is predetermined—she has to join the branch of the government responsible for law enforcement on full-moon nights, making her part cop, part lawyer, underpaid and miserably discriminated against. Whitfield does some incredible things with social power: who’s got it, who doesn’t, and what that means.

    There is a love story, but—fair warning—the boo is not a romance. Nonetheless I think it will appeal to some of the readers here…

  9. Miranda says:

    “I didn’t really like Elena that much as a main character, and I kind of hated Clay, his character always felt borderline abusive to me. “

    Yep. Except crossing the borderline.

    I’ll take the Carrie Vaughn werewolf series. Kitty starts out being abused and raped by her pack alpha, but it’s not dressed up as romantic behavior.

  10. Just tried to buy at at Fictionwise (to read on my iphone), but was told it has geographical restrictions. What the hell? Why – in the global village of ours – does a publisher refuse to let someone outside the US buy a book? An ebook, for pete’s sake?? Not fair *pout*

    mean52. Fair dinkum, it’s mean52 🙁

  11. Gina says:

    @Anaquana: SQUEE! I hadn’t seen that news, just assumed she’d get her book eventually since she’s been a major secondary character in several of the books so far.

  12. I’ve read most of Armstrongs other books. I’m a big fan of everybody in her Women of the Otherworld series but Elena. But I don’t think its a bad thing. I think that Armstrong is a good writer in that she makes her characters frustrating. I like having a character that I could dislike for the first few chapters, and redeems herself later in the book. Armstrong lets her women be flawed, the happily ever after is believable to me. While Elena specifically drove me batty in the many reasons the readers above stated, I’d say give her other Women of the Otherworld series a chance. I found them just as torn, =just as real and in my case even more likeable.

    (I <3ed the Paige Winterbourne series like woah! And I loved her plunge into YA fiction in The Summoning)

  13. Randamu-ko says:

    I really enjoyed the following books.  I appreciate how Armstrong manages to tie all the characters and events together without it being like name dropping.  Also, if you read onto No Humans Involved you will find a little bit more on Jeremy.

  14. Anaquana says:

    Hmmm… don’t know why that didn’t turn into a link, but the actual link is http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/aWaking.htm>Waking The Witch

  15. Kaetrin says:

    I scanned over the comments above and I can see why some people didn’t like this book.

    I read it only a couple of months ago after reading about how much Jane from DA and Sarah loved it.

    My experience of the book was a bit curious.  I certainly got through it quickly and was eager to continue reading but I wasn’t conscious of “enjoying” it at the time, although I definitely didn’t hate it.  However, I noticed that the book “stayed with me: after I read it, so it definitely impacted me.  I ended up rating it as an A-.  (Perhaps I needed to assess the book as a whole?)

    I didn’t have any beef with Elena and Clay really.  I saw Elena as totally conflicted and that, for me, explained her “I’m leaving” and then staying, etc.  It also explained her relationship with Phillip and Clay.  I did enjoy her relationship with Jeremy too.

    As for Clay, well, yeah, from time to time he was an “alphole” (but this is often true of men in general! LOL!) but overall, I saw him as a somewhat clueless male.  I thought he followed a simple logic process – I adore this woman, I want her with me, I’ll do anything, I’ll never hurt her (this obviously is HIS definition) and when he follows through he’s just clueless about what’s gone wrong.  I didn’t see the photos or the stuff in the closet as “stalker-y”.  I saw them as evidence of (and and outlet for) his true feelings.  After all, he stayed away from her when she was in Toronto.  He DIDN’T stalk her.  He was exceedingly patient, but then showed frustration when she came home – at first (from memory) he thought that meant she had accepted what had happened and was ready to be with him.  Really, I just think that his reality was different to hers and he genuinely struggled with it. 

    Oh, I’m not saying this well at all I’m afraid.  My thoughts about this book aren’t really articulate – they’re more impressions and feelings which I find hard to express.  That is a pretty curious reaction for me and it’s why I ended up giving it such a high (albeit personal) rating.

    The first sex scene was, for me, just an extension of Elena’s conflict. We didn’t know then, how much was between Clay & Elena, I think.  But later, I felt that Clay truly did know what Elena wanted/the strength of what was between them and also knew that Elena didn’t WANT to want it and he was trying to push her past that and get her to admit how she really felt.  Sometimes this sort of thing bugs me in a book but it didn’t here.  There IS violence in their relationship – they are werewolves and not tame.  I thought the author did a wonderful job of portraying the violence between them as well as the softer emotions.  That was one of the wonderful differences in this story to the usual [paranormal] romance (at least, I thought so). 

    I haven’t read the other books in the series, but I’m very interested in the prequels (I think some of them have been taken down because they’re going to be in the Men of the Otherworld book to be released soon (?)).  I am interested in more of Clay and Elena though so I’ll probably pick up the others in due course.

    Thanks for the review Sarah.

  16. Elise says:

    Put me solidly in the “hated it” camp.  I actually picked up this book on the recommendation of the SBs, and only kept reading it ‘cause I couldn’t believe they’d be so wrong.  I agree with all the criticism abouve, and thought the world-building was shoddy at best, the love interest was a total creep, but the thing that really turned me off was Elena’s job as an “investigative journalist” or something like that.  Not that she ever did any journalism, or did anything more than just show up to some office somewhere, but when she decided to dig up some information on some other character, she literally had no idea where to start.  Cause her investigative journalism profession wouldn’t help her out there, oh no.

    In fact, after that point I just kept hearing the Zoolander voice, “investigugaytive Journalist.”  Apparently the author wanted to give the heroine a career that sounded intelligent, modern and ballsy, but didn’t actually make her any of the three.

  17. Tae says:

    put me in line for another one who loved, loved, LOVED this book, but couldn’t stand the sequels.  I’m still trying to read Dime Store Magic, but then I just cant’ get into demon books.  Anyhow..I loved that this book wasn’t primarily a romance, and it focused more on the world building and character development.  This was one of those books that when I finished I was like “wow” and “I need to read everything else in this series” and even, “hrm, maybe i should have my husband read this as an example of a good paranormal romance”

  18. Laurel says:

    Read the review yesterday, bought the book and read it last night. I am still trying to put my finger on exactly what it was about this book I didn’t love.

    Characters are awesome. Well drawn and they don’t do things that don’t make sense given personal history and personality. I am already invested in them enough to want to know what happens next.

    Lots of good action.

    Interesting mystery and bad guys.

    I think the missing piece for me is the grovel. With a truly spectacular grovel from Clay I could have loved this book. It was hinted at in the flashback from her first year after being bitten but insufficient. Maybe that is not in his character but what he did was truly terrible. It stuck in my craw that after he deceived her and took away her other viable choices it was sort of okay because what she wants is really in the life she doesn’t think she wants. Plus, shouldn’t he have been in the least concerned that since females don’t survive werewolf bites that his would kill her? She becomes homocidal and lives caged for a year but he really loves her can’t she forgive him?

    I get that Clay is damaged, and Elena, too. In fact, their relationship much more closely resembles reality than any I’ve read in recent years. This is what damaged people do to each other: they hurt each other for selfish reasons and stay together anyway. But if I wanted real life toxic relationship patterns I would read self-help books.

    I’m holding out hope for some groveling in a sequel. Gut-wrenching, self-excoriating, weapons grade groveling.

  19. dangrgirl says:

    @Laurel:

    I think the missing piece for me is the grovel. With a truly spectacular grovel from Clay I could have loved this book.

    That’s an important point and another reason why I think Bitten is Urban Fantasy and not Paranormal Romance. The grovel moment seems to be a fundamental cathartic element in certain types of Romance. I also think expectations play a big role in the enjoyment of a book and if a reader picks up Bitten expecting a Romance novel I think she’ll be disappointed. I read Bitten when it first came out and picked it up in the new releases section of the bookstore—not the Romance shelf—and so didn’t have any Romance expectations.

  20. Laurel says:

    That’s an important point and another reason why I think Bitten is Urban Fantasy and not Paranormal Romance.

    Good point! I also am not sure if the grovel I crave is really in Clay’s character. He’s instinctive and sees things in very black and white so he is truly confused why Elena can’t forgive him if she can have what she wants. And apparently Elena never explains to him what he took away. No matter how much she loves him, she was never given the chance to choose him, really. He set her up so that she wouldn’t be free to fully explore other options.

    Knowing her background and that she was just coming into a time of self-actualization he did the most self-serving thing possible and is frustrated that she is still mad about it.

    Nope, even for the sake of character continuity, I can’t get past it. I need some grovel. I’m weak like that.

  21. marley says:

    it seems like this book has created some serious controversy.
    i’ve yet to read it though i have it requested from the library and think i may really like it.  because
    but if you, sarah, like shifters and shifter romance, totally check out Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series, the first one is Kitty and The Midnight Hour.
    hmm, i don’t know how to put in a address but whatev
    http://www.amazon.com/Kitty-Midnight-Hour-Norville-Book/dp/0446616419
    radio79: radio talk show host werewolf

  22. kinseyholley says:

    I only read the first Kitty Norville book, but I loved the way Kitty’s completely abusive relationship with the pack’s leader was handled – and the author makes you wait till the end of the book to do it. Throughout the book i was going – waaaait a minute, that ain’t right. Who says you have to live like that just b/c you’re a werewolf? That’s some fucked up dymanics right there…and then one day Kitty thinks to herself “waaaait a minute, this ain’t right…” 

    I like alpha heroes, even alphole heroes, and even especially emotionally damaged alphole heroes who Just Need To Be Loved. Clay probably wouldn’t put me off the book. 

    I keep saying I’m going to read this, so I finally bought it for my Sony tonight.

  23. Samantha says:

    I think those that don’t like it may approach it as romance. And as pointed out above, it isn’t one, really.

      In regular fiction, I expect and can relate to less than ideal behavior and character flaws, but the same might be a deal breaker in a romance for me. Those very flaws mentioned, Clays bad behavior, Elena’s indecision, the male-oriented society, were what made all the dynamics so interesting for me. It was more real, in that sense to me, than in a romance where I want some idealism vs. the gritty realism in the characters here.

  24. lizzie (greeneyed fem) says:

    I think those that don’t like it may approach it as romance.

    This may be true for some of the folks who didn’t like it, but to me, this feels a little like being told I just didn’t appreciate what Armstrong was doing—as if no one could ever NOT like this book if they really understood what it was about.

    So it felt like “gritty realism” to you and was interesting. Great. It felt like asshattery-and-douchbaggery to me, and I tend to not finish books in which the main characters drive me crazy, romance or not.

  25. Tina C. says:

    Samantha:

    I think those that don’t like it may approach it as romance. And as pointed out above, it isn’t one, really.

    lizzie (greeneyed fem):

    This may be true for some of the folks who didn’t like it, but to me, this feels a little like being told I just didn’t appreciate what Armstrong was doing—as if no one could ever NOT like this book if they really understood what it was about.

    I came here this morning specifically to respond to Samantha’s comment, but lizzie beat me to it.  I’m glad you liked the book, Samantha, but I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain from telling me and others who didn’t that we’re doing it wrong.

    Very very condescending, Samantha.  And very very rude.

  26. SB Sarah says:

    Kinsey I’m very curious what you think of it.

    I had no idea opinions on this book were so divided! Wow.

    I think the scene that troubles everyone works for me not because I think it’s romantic (ew) but because in the structure of the plot, it made me loathe Clay as much as Elena did, and made me better able to relate to her conflict. I was with her early on as to why she didn’t want to be there, and why she didn’t want to be with or even near Clay.

    She wants to leave him in the dust and go find humanity exclusively, but she can’t because of what and who she is. And that struggle to balance her instinctive animal side and her human damaged side makes the book amazing for me, because I think it speaks to the number of ways I think I’m told as a female to manage, hide, subvert, squish and otherwise channel my own rage.

    For those who really loathed this book, thank you for sharing why. You’ve given me a lot to think about. And some recommendations, too. Woo!

  27. Laurel says:

    Aw, let’s go easy on Samantha. She might be right. I took her to mean that the reader might feel bait-and-switched and not like what they got because it wasn’t what they anticipated. Remember the first time you tried a beet and thought it was a spiced apple?

    At any rate, gritty realism books of any genre are not my thing. This one toes the line for me because I can see the possibility for a happy ending. So close, so frustrating! Aaugh!

    It is extremely well written, though, and definitely drew me in. I fully plan to read more of her books.

  28. dangrgirl says:

    Laurel said:

    Aw, let’s go easy on Samantha. She might be right. I took her to mean that the reader might feel bait-and-switched and not like what they got because it wasn’t what they anticipated.

    Ditto. I don’t think her comment was meant in that way. Like Sarah said, I appreciate the reviews from those who loathed the book—but life is too short to read or dwell on books you hate especially when there are so many more out there to enjoy.

    Some didn’t like Bitten; others did. Not everyone has to agree on liking the same books or even on why a story worked or didn’t work for them.

  29. willa says:

    I think those that don’t like it may approach it as romance.

    This may be true for some of the folks who didn’t like it, but to me, this feels a little like being told I just didn’t appreciate what Armstrong was doing—as if no one could ever NOT like this book if they really understood what it was about.

    So it felt like “gritty realism” to you and was interesting. Great. It felt like asshattery-and-douchbaggery to me, and I tend to not finish books in which the main characters drive me crazy, romance or not.

    Quoted for truth.

    I read Bitten as a speculative fiction fan, NOT a romance fan. I wasn’t really reading romance fiction at the time, but I was a long-time speculative fiction fan.

    This book was nasty to me, anyway, AS an urban fantasy reader.

    but life is too short to read or dwell on books you hate especially when there are so many more out there to enjoy.

    For some reason, this comment offends me. Are you advising us on whether or not to “dwell” on why we didn’t like Bitten when other people did? If I want to “dwell” on the subject, I think I’m allowed to, on a comment thread about the book. Whether you dwell on books you don’t like or not is entirely up to you, please don’t tell me you think me doing it is silly or whatever, which is exactly how it sounds from your comment.

  30. dangrgirl says:

    @willa:

    Whether you dwell on books you don’t like or not is
    entirely up to you, please don’t tell me you think me doing it is silly or whatever, which is exactly how it sounds from your comment.

    No, I don’t think you’re silly. I’m not telling anyone what to do. I am, however, entitled to my own opinion just as you are.

  31. willa says:

    No, I don’t think you’re silly. I’m not telling anyone what to do. I am, however, entitled to my own opinion just as you are.

    Yes, you are entitled to your opinion, that’s not being argued—are you saying that you think maybe people who don’t like the book are telling you that your opinion is invalid? That would be bothersome and upsetting if that were so.

    If not, then what do you mean by your comments?

    Because with your previous comment, I have a hard time understanding its meaning as anything other than dismissing other people’s opinions or telling them to stop dwelling.

  32. willa says:

    Just realized I helped derail this thread a little, sorry about that!

    On-topic: Also preferred the Kitty Norville series to Bitten. Pretty good standard urban fantasy series.

  33. I think I’ve mentioned here before that I’m predominantly a reader of SF/F, not of romance. So I had no particular issue with Bitten failing to behave like a romance novel. Nor, for that matter, did I have any particular issue with what I saw of Armstrong’s worldbuilding in the hundred or so pages I read, so I didn’t really have any issue with it as an urban fantasy, either.

    No, what made me bail was the realization “I don’t like ANY of these people and I do not want to read another word about them,” plain and simple. Like I said before, Armstrong’s prose seemed solid to me, but it’s just that the characters she was writing about actively pissed me off. Looking back, I suspect that it’s actually evidence that Armstrong’s writing is in fact pretty good, given that she clearly portrayed characters who did piss me off that much. 😉 Had her writing been less solid, I might not have had as strong a reaction to Elena and Clay.

  34. dangrgirl says:

    @willa:

    Yes, you are entitled to your opinion, that’s not being argued—are you saying that you think maybe people who don’t like the book are telling you that your opinion is invalid? That would be bothersome and upsetting if that were so.

    No, I don’t think that. I was wondering the same thing about you, actually. There’s no subtext here for me. I liked the book, you didn’t. What’s the big deal? I’m not trying to tell you or anyone what to think, nor am I trying to invalidate anyone’s opinion. I respect your opinion. In my earlier comments I said I was grateful to hear the opinions that differed from mine on the book.

    I have no quarrel with you or anyone here.

  35. lizzie (greeneyed fem) says:

    Aw, let’s go easy on Samantha.

    I agree that some readers probably did feel bait-and-switched. I’m not saying that romance genre expectations played no part in some folks not warming to the book.

    But it’s also incredibly frustrating to be told that I just didn’t understand what makes a book/movie/character so great, and Samantha’s comment touched that nerve. Frankly, I most often hear a comment like that when I bring up objections I have to books or movies because of what I experience as sexism or racism. It’s dismissive of my own experiences as a woman to have my discomfort or anger with a certain character or scene or joke or plotline dismissed as “just not getting it.”

    Now, I absolutely do not think that Bitten is a sexist text—obviously, it speaks to many women here about the complex, often painful business of being a woman in a world of men. But although I recognized Armstrong’s skill as a writer, it did not speak to me. It actively turned me off. And both responses are absolutely legitimate.

  36. dangrgirl says:

    @lizzie:

    But it’s also incredibly frustrating to be told that I just didn’t understand what makes a book/movie/character so great, and Samantha’s comment touched that nerve.

    I can’t read Samantha’s mind, but I certainly wasn’t dismissing your or anyone’s dislike of the book in that way. I wasn’t dismissing anyone’s opinion. I was saying that expectations matter and the weight of those expectations might matter differently for different readers.

    Case in point, I first encountered the Kitty Norville series at an RWA Conference agent panel where the author’s agent was saying what a great empowering story and heroine the book had. So, I had that expectation and was then entirely turned off by the heroine’s awful treatment in the beginning that I read—so turned off that I stopped reading. Since so many here liked that series, I might try again, but everyone is different and clearly we each got different things out of these books. Reading is such a subjective experience, so it makes sense readers experience stories differently.

  37. lizzie (greeneyed fem) says:

    Also, just to add—I think folks on this thread have been largely respectful of the different reading experiences people had with “Bitten,” as well as interested to hear the perspectives of those who are on the opposite side of the love/hate fence. Like Elise above, I was surprised that my experience of this book was so divergent from SB Sarah’s, because usually my tastes line up nicely with hers.

    It was actually really frustrating for me that “Bitten” was a DNF, because I’m very drawn to stories of female werewolves (precisely because I love texts that explore all of the things that SB Sarah brings up in her review: female rage and capacity for violence, the struggle between the pull of the animalistic and some version of morality/humanity, the acceptance/integration of multiple aspects of one’s self). I hated being disappointed in one of the few girl-werewolf stories out there.

    I haven’t read the Kitty Norville books, so I’ll have to put those on the TBR list. Do other people have recs for female werewolves that haven’t been mentioned yet? As I said upthread, I love Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series (although Mercy’s a coyote shapeshifter—and the series is not as dark in terms of Mercy’s internal struggle) and Blood and Chocolate (it’s YA, but deals with sex and violence and struggling with what you are—I LOVE the way the heroine’s violence finally comes out). Also Martin Millar’s Lonely Werewolf Girl was AMAZING, and I cannot wait until he hurries up and finishes the sequel already!

    Here’s part of the Booklist description of Lonely Werewolf Girl from the Amazon page:
    “The MacRinnalch clan of Scottish werewolves is at war with itself. Attacked by his 17-year-old daughter, Kalix, the thane has succumbed, leaving the succession in question. Neither eldest son Sarapen nor younger, cross-dressing scion Markus have enough votes in the werewolves’ Great Council to become thane, and the late thane’s mother offers her vote to whomever brings her Kalix’s heart. Kalix, despondent over losing her lover to exile, is on the verge of suicide before either bounty hunters or the secret society that hunts werewolves finds her. After she’s rescued by college students Moonglow and Daniel, things take a curious turn to, among other things, her sister Thrix, a werewolf enchantress and couturier for fashion-obsessed fire-elemental warrior queen Malveria.”

    It is a wild ride. Highly recommended.

  38. lizzie (greeneyed fem) says:

    Dang! First I post without refreshing and then my browser refuses to work for this website. I guess that’s what I get for avoiding work. 🙂

    @dangrgirl:
    “I certainly wasn’t dismissing your or anyone’s dislike of the book in that way. I wasn’t dismissing anyone’s opinion.”

    I absolutely know you were not. You’ve been fabulous! Very respectful of the different experiences different readers have had with the book, and a wonderful listener (if one can “listen” over the internets).

    And I’m sure that Samantha did not mean to come across as dismissive about my experience as a reader, either. But intent aside, her comment (posted after all the above discussion about how various people had various reactions to the book for various reasons) did not allow that a reader could dislike the book for any reason other than “I expected a rose-colored romance and got something darker.”

    I wouldn’t have had a problem with the comment at all if she’d simply said, “I think SOME readers that didn’t like it . . .”

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