Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint

The sleepy monster is starting to take me over, so this will likely be a short review. But not because it was a bad book and I don't have anything to say!! On the contrary, I absolutely loved it...I just wanted to get my thoughts up because it's been 5 days now since I finished it. What I will say is that this is probably my least favorite of the de Lint's that I've read so far. But that's like saying strawberry is my least favorite ice cream flavor...it really doesn't mean much :p I just love Charles de Lint's writing so much and I thoroughly enjoyed this story. As I said, it's my least FAVORITE. This is the story of a werewolf and a harper. But in this tale, Kern, the werewolf is the good guy. We meet him as he is being chased by a creature called a Feragh who is summoned by the music of a harper. After being attacked and thrown into a river, he washes ashore in his human shape by a local inn where he is taken in by the innkeeper's niece, a girl by the name of Ainsy, and her cousins. Kern feels safe here...loved, even - an emotion that he has not known in years. But he's afraid to show the residents of the inn who he truly is, a shapechanger...a wolf, for fear of rejection. And things are going well until the harper arrives in town and risks everything that Kern has come to appreciate in his new life. As I said, I really did just love this book....de Lint creates characters that you just fall in love with from page one. As soon as you meet them, you feel like you've known them for years and that's what I've always loved about his work. Another thing I love about de Lint's novels is that he makes magic seem so real. The fantastic nature of his books seems so possible as you just fall into and get lost in his worlds. Perhaps what I enjoyed more than anything about this book was the theme of acceptance. The theme of having a secret...of not fitting in..of being different and being scared that others won't accept you just because of who you are. Because of something that you can't change. De Lint says at the end of the novel:

I...thought it would be fun to read a novel in which the noble, magical harper turned out to be a cad, while the fearsome, monstrous werewolf was actually a pretty nice guy. I suppose it was the beginning of my interest in writing about marginalized people - outsiders, if you will. As is usually the case when I want to read something, but I can't find a published version, I wrote the story myself to see how it would turn out.

And it turned out just right, in my opinion :)