Curse of the Wolf Girl

Curse of the Wolf Girl (Kalix MacRinnalch, #2)by Martin Millar

Scottish teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is in London trying to settle down and live a normal life. Her new friends support her as she goes to college to learn to read and write, but her old enemies won't leave her alone. Many powerful werewolves want Kalix dead, and the Guild of Werewolf Hunters is still dedicated to wiping out the entire MacRinnalch werewolf clan. Life might be easier for Kalix if her werewolf family were able to help, but her sister the Enchantress needs all of her sorcerous powers to locate the perfect pair of high heels, her brother Markus is busy in Scotland organising an opera, and her cousin Dominil is engaged in her own merciless vendetta with her enemies. Kalix must carry on alone but she's finding it difficult enough to pay the rent and cope with her anxiety and depression, while struggling with werewolf hunters and exams at the same time... (goodreads.com)

Publication Date: August 15, 2010In January 2008 I read The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar which was given to me as a gift by a friend who shares my reading interests and knows that I am all about anything faerie. I found the book both refreshingly unique and original and a little confusing due to so much activity in the story. I loved Millar's writing style yet had trouble keeping up with everything that was going on. I'm like that. Smart books scare me.When I was contacted by Underland press about a new Martin Millar book, this time about a werewolf girl I was both thrilled and aprehensive. I'd love to read something new by this author but I do not like werewolves, so what to do? I finally decided to say yes to the request and then the book got shelved in my "this book comes out a long time from now so it'll sit here" pile and promptly forgot about it. Oops.To be honest, the book itself terrified me. There are 203 chapters (each chapter is maybe a page, if not less). There are 386 pages in the ARC. There are So. Many. Words! And the font was tiny. I was terrified of picking this up in case the weight of it plus the werewolf thing! Oh my gosh! What had I agreed to?I started off slow. There were so many characters and each "chapter" jumps from one point of view to the other. I had a little difficulty trying to sort everyone out, but then again this was a sequel. Once I was about 70 pages in I realized that I had been laughing an awful lot and there were points during this entire story that I had to put the book DOWN because I was laughing SO HARD.With the exception of trying to keep track of the entire cast of characters, I didn't find that the story was confusing at all and this could very well have been a stand-alone book plot-wise. The writing is exquisite and the humour is dry and unassuming and it will have you cracking up each time you encounter Vex, the teen Fire Elemental or her Aunt Malvie, the Queen of Fire Elementals or Beauty and Delicious the rock star werewolf twins. Even humans Moonglow and Daniel are a hoot.There were some elements of the story I didn't care much about only because the characters didn't grab me. I didn't care about the Mistress of Werewolves or the council, I didn't care about the Princess from the rival Fire Elemental, er, clan. I didn't care much about Decembrius the werewolf until he became more amusing as he pursued Kalix towards the end. But I was amused and entertained by 90%of this story at least. And each chapter is only about a page or a page and a half and everything happens so fast!Vex's enthusiasm for anything human is hilarious! She awards herself her own gold stars in remedial college where she's learning to read and write. She randomly blurts out excitedly about what sort of new coloured pencils she has that day in the class. Rather than annoying I found her delightfully entertaining! You can't help giggle at her inappropriate, yet perky outbursts.One thing that did irk me a little during the story was each time the point of view would change there would be a sort of repetition about a character's trait which I found a little too much. For instance - Dominil is the only werewolf who can change into wolf form during the day. Or the describing of Decembrius' long red hair. I didn't need to read about it, in almost the exact same phrasing each time the point of view shifted to that character. I'm not the brightest bulb in the box but I like to think I can remember characters from one point of view to the other and by about 40 pages in it was a little tiring. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose as a running gag, or if it was just done to remind the readers which character we were suddenly talking about. Each character was distinct enough that you could tell them apart after a couple of chapters each.If you like smart humour and original, fun characters you should pick up a Martin Millar book. Heck, pick this one up even if you haven't read the first one! I know I'm going to go out and get the first one to add to my shelves. Do not let the number of chapters nor the many words daunt you. That's where I went wrong. This is excellent fiction and a supremely entertaining story.I am not sure what category to put the book in. I'm going with Fiction because even though there are werewolves and fire elementals in the story it's nothing like Urban Fantasy. This is more just plain ol' fiction with a twist on the regular human character.I promise you that this review is 100% honest because I really didn't think I would like this book when I got it and looked through it. My husband kept calling it "Avril Lavigne, the Emo Werewolf Book" because of the cover (ha!) and even the first few pages made my head spin. However I read the last 250 pages in one day yesterday because I could NOT put the book down. My fears were quelled and I enjoyed myself way more than I thought I would.This is not a book about werewolves, it's a book about a large Scottish family who happen to BE werewolves.If you see this somewhere - pick it up. (Also? I would love to see this as a movie/tv show. Just for the awesome accents which would make the humour so much funnier!)Kalix MacRinnalch series

1. Lonely Werewolf Girl (Kalix MacRinnalch, #1)
2. Curse of the Wolf Girl (Kalix MacRinnalch, #2)