A
Title: Bitten
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication Info: Plume 2002
ISBN: 9780452283480
Genre: Paranormal
This 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.
*stands up with target on chest*
I am going to throw out a couple of titles that haven’t been mentioned.
Full Moon Rising, Keri Arthur’s’ Riley Jenson Novel
and
Howling at the Moon by Karen MacInerney
I am now so confused as to what is Romance what is Fantasy I am not even going to take a leap at what they are classified as.
They are books I as a reader enjoyed. My sister enjoyed also. *waves to naughty nymph*
dangrgirl:
I have to say that with site, you find something that is almost impossible to find on the internet anymore—a place where people can disagree and it almost always, without fail, is civil and polite and fair-minded. For the most part, I usually never get a vibe of “you don’t think like I do so you are WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!!!111!!” that you see on some other sites over everything from politics to whether or not The Watchmen was a fairly decent translation of really dense material or an abomination that should never have seen the light of day.
I have to say, though, that Samantha’s post really pressed a hot button that I didn’t even know I had. Now, granted, she probably didn’t intend to be completely dismissive of opinions about this particular book that didn’t jibe with her view of it. But I read it and thought, “How DARE she assume to know what I read regularly and what my expectations were/are and say that I somehow lack comprehension skills based on these assumptions and yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah…” and I was off and running. Fortunately, I realized I was ranting and erased it all and just kept it simple.
So, mea culpa. I’m certainly not trying to start anything with anyone and I’ll try to keep my assumptions about what she meant in check. Especially in light of the realization that this is, apparently, a hot button for me—ie, being told that I feel the way I do because I’m just not grasping it the way it should be understood. Again, I love this place because we can disagree about individual books, but we all agree that we just LOVE books and we’re passionate about them. So….
Happy Friday, everyone, and happy early Thanksgiving for those that celebrate it.
Another second for Blood and Chocolate. I think that books explores wonderfully the triangulation between what we want, what we are, and what we need to/ought to do. The gender and community relationships seemed right to me, and I totally dug our main guy and girl wolf.
I think I might be one of the few wasn’t really for or against Bitten. I finished it, but was kind of meh. Like many others, I didn’t like Elena or Clay. I while I don’t HAVE to like the main characters, I prefer to. And I haven’t reread it, so I might be remembering wrong, but I really didn’t like the eventual reason that was given for why Elena could become a wolf.
Actually, TInaC, I’m kind of with you. It wasn’t quite the hotbutton issue for me, but my response when reading Samantha’s post was the same: this may be a romance site, but the readers here are really diverse and read all kinds of genres. And I feel pretty good about my ability to take off my genre glasses between books.
That said, I’ve been fascinated to see what everyone loved or hated.
Lil’ Deviant , thank you so much for emailing me at work today so I could read this blog, I actually laughed out loud! All the drama was rather entertaining ladies. 🙂
I loved Bitten, I really enjoyed it. And of course Im right because its my opinion and why would I agree with an opinion different from mine, because once again its just an opinion, we aren’t dealing in facts here, just opinions.
Please feel free to dismiss my opinion, because as I said already, I think your wrong anyway! 🙂 lol
*Waves back to Lil’ Deviant*
Wow…must read again. What I do remember is not loving the story, at first. Elena was driving me crazy. I kept thinking, get over yourself. At first I thought Clay was an ass, although I believed he was fucking crazy about her (fucking is definitely needed here). I also kept wondering when Elena was gonna figure her shit out.
Then it happened, all the things that were making me crazy we’re slowly being dissected, considered and resolved. Albeit, not quite the way I would have preferred, but done all the same.
I need a kickass HEA – it’s just how I’m wired, it’s why I read romance. So, Bitten is not technically romance, I still felt it was romantic (coulda had hotter sex, but Kelley doesn’t like writing sex all that much, so I’ve read).
What was my point? Fuck, I hate the beginning of a cold.
My point is, by the end of the book I wanted to read everything else that follows. Jeremy – I LURVE YOU! But I haven’t picked any up because they were never available at my bookstore(s). They’re in – I saw them last week, but I was buying Christmas gifts for others and had to pickup Kresley Cole’s Deep Kiss of Winter. But Stolen is on my list, the idea that Clay and Elena continue their relationship really appeals to me….can’t wait.
The only reason I read Armstrong was because I heard she is Canadian….We’re from the same city – the big nickel. She didn’t let me down.
When I picked up Bitten it was in the Horror section at the bookshop. Color me surprised. I expected to see it in the Paranormal Romance shelves. If someone had told me it was an SFUrban Fantasy I probably wouldn’t have read it because that’s not the sort of book I usually gravitate towards. BUT, because I had heard about this book via SB Sarah and DA Jane, I thought it was a Romance and that’s why I picked it up, even though it was in the Horror section (a section I had not previously visited).
I guess that the genre is in the “eye of the beholder”. I thought it was a Romance. Others think it’s SF/F or UF and, at least one person thought it was Horror.
Whatever the genre, I enjoyed the book and I’m glad I read it.
I must say it is interesting to read the comments on why people did/did not like it. Often enough, I’m on the side where almost everyone likes it and I don’t and I feel … guilty(?), something anyway… This seems about 50/50 so everyone has company! 🙂
You’re going to be really sorry when it turns out you’re WROOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG!!!! But by then it will be TOO LATE! And there will be lots of weeping and wailing, I can tell you! *waits for universe to prove me right*
i read it once and haven’t felt the pull to read it again…after reading the previous comments, i’m going to give it another try
I bought it, downloaded it…I’m sitting around here writing tonight and I wanted to take a break, so I read the first few pages…then my SIL came over – I told her I was being a good girl, getting writing done, but that I’d read a few pages of Bitten, and she said….“STOP! STOP! DON’T DO IT! STOP BEFORE YOU CAN’T! It’s the best book I’ve ever read and oh my God if you start reading it you won’t be able to stop and you won’t get any writing done for two days and your child will go hungry and you’ll forget to go to work! STOP!”
And I trust her opinion on most things so I’m going to set it aside till next weekend.
Wow, I am glad I came back to this thread, even if days later no one else sees my comment, I do want to try and explain my earlier post.
In re-reading it, I think that my comment would have benefited from adding “some”, because apparently “may” didn’t convey that I wasn’t thinking or wishing to imply “all”.
I certainly do not wish to offend anyone, or be dismissive of their reading experience and most especially the wonderful world of intelligent readers we have in this little niche of the net. I wouldn’t like it either if I thought someone was telling me “how” to read. That was never my intention, and it didn’t occur to me that I was being unclear, but that’s what I get for popping off a post at 2 A.M.
What I meant is that SOME people MAY have approached it in the way they do romance, where I at least (maybe not others), tend to want to like the characters and for them to have admirable qualities. To root for them despite their flaws. And because the actions of Clay certainly, and sometimes Elena, were not cheer worthy, not likable, and sooo not cool, that SOME readers might have been turned off by the entire story as a whole because of that. Hence the asshattery and douchbaggery…to ME, that’s not a deal breaker for a novel outside of romance. YMMV, and all that.
I certainly would never wish to imply that someone didn’t “get it” or even that they shouldn’t hate it. It just occurred to me that, at least for myself, I can stomach main characters and themes outside of romance that would make me run for the hills within the genre. I thought that others MIGHT have had a negative reaction because of this being such an often mentioned book in romance circles. Maybe not, just something that occurred to me when reading many of the comments that brought up negative character actions.
Hopefully, that is clearer. Hopefully, I didn’t re-offend.
Hey, Samantha! Thanks for coming back and posting—I thought maybe you’d been shut down by all the responses to your comment, and I didn’t want that to have happened.
You were very clear. Not offensive at all. I thought that’s probably what you meant, but it’s nice to get further clarification. 🙂
And yes, I too can come across pretty fuzzy-tongued in my 2am blog comments (why do I stay up that late checking blogs, anyway?).
Thanks, Lizzie.
I’m glad you feel that way, and I am really glad that you were still reading this.
And true enough, the vast majority of my blog posts are probably just encouraging my insomnia 🙂
I wasn’t mad about this book, but had a different reason to everyone else: obvious emotional arc was obvious. Elena blamed being a werewolf for her feelings of alienation and general attitude. It was obvious from the start that this was her real self and not a result of the bite.
The only other character there that was as feral as her was Clay, the rest were (relatively) perfectly adjusted.
Wow, I loved the world Armstrong built. I don’t love Elena, am so-so on Clay, and that’s with the other books that follow. But what I did and do appreciate is the fact Elena’s conflict spills over everything she does. Maintaining the false sense of identity is creating a chasm and she’s been denying it so long that going back to Pack means everything she’s done is useless. That for a decade she has been living a lie and her assumption on what happened to drag her into this other world was a lie. It’s a hard reconcile in the best of times. There’s a emotional detachment from everyone around her. I like that.
She’s not some empty-headed “teehee, I’ll follow whatever you want, because you’re my one true love” and she didn’t give up her humanity in sort with consent. She was in love with a man that took the choice from her. Finally figuring out how works best for both sides, not one or the other, is important for her. And the Pack. It’s hard to protect a member that refuses to acknowledge they are a part of it.
Elena’s not perfect. She makes stupid mistakes. And she’s trying very hard to maintain who she was, is, and will be within a pack full of dominant males that frequently fight to the death. It’s hard to determine where you fit when everyone around you keeps telling you, without asking. She’s setting up the case for the other women to come, of other off-chances that seem to stick after all. It’s a lot to take in and for someone like Elena, who is an enforcer and responsible for keeping peace, it’s a hard pill to swallow. Can’t say I blame her.
Again, I don’t like Elena much. I’m an Eve girl, through and through, but I can see her conflict. She didn’t fall instantly into Clay’s arms, like Luke and Laura. And Clay knows that he has to destroy those issues slowly, through methods that work for Elena…even if they upset his compass. He’s a lot different with her, his mate, than with a mutt or enemy. It’s not easy to adjust being feral, then son, then husband and yet still having to be your father’s hammer on when things go wrong. In a lot of ways, I think he fulfills the same role Charles does in Patricia Briggs Mercy world: he’s the tool you know will destroy you, even after you bait fate, and it won’t necessarily be a pretty end if you’re threatening his family.
Just my thoughts on Bitten. It was enough to hook me into Armstrong’s world and introduce me to the rather underbelly of the supernatural society where most things don’t land happily ever after. Though, I don’t really count the series as romance so much as urban fantasy. I say that because there’s more than the romance…it’s like one thread in many on the world she’s built. Which is why something like her YA series works within the universe if separately.
Love this book to bits! 🙂 it’s one of my first in this genre, and after reading some many of them, it’s still one of the best.
Rage in women is such a powerful emotion, i never tire of reading about it.
I just ordered this, along with Lord of Scoundrels. Finals week will be battled with romance!