Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

I was picked for a copy of Kelly Armstrong’s Bitten in October’s LT ER contest. The novel is about a werewolf named Elena living in Toronto. Elena has made the choice to live in Toronto and try to lead as normal a human life as she can away from the ‘Pack’. She struggles more than other werewolves, having become one by being bitten and being the only female werewolf in her world. Now I have to say that vampires & werewolves are not my thing at all. So why did I try to win a copy do you ask? Bitten was one of Chapters Top 10 Beach Reads in 2007 and was also listed as number 34 in Chapters Canada’s Best 100 Fiction 2006. I was a bit curious so I thought what the heck!

I would say that I was expecting to dislike the content of the book and was biased to be negative about it but Armstrong wrote a very well developed, gripping, supernatural story. Elena’s background interspersed throughout the narrative rather than up front all at once worked well. I was very much engaged in Elena’s frustration and ineptitude in adapting to living mostly in the human world. I particularly liked the descriptions and expressiveness of the characters when they were werewolves, how they felt, what they saw, their sense of freedom and aggression. What I did not enjoy was Elena being in a relationship with Philip but still having strong feelings for Clayton and her being unable to choose…. I dislike some of the choices she made but on the other hand I suppose they made the storyline more realistic and were true to the werewolf world Armstrong created.

For a 550 page novel, the story progressed fairly quickly and was very engaging. I am confused whether this story is supposed to be classified as romance? I don’t think it fits into the romance category but firmly fantasy. I liked Elena and am interested in finding out more about her and Clay so I would probably read Stolen & Broken.

My Rating: 4.0

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