Wolfblight Review
Author: Simon Steele
Rating: 5.0 OKAY
What’s it About?
A Tale of Love, Horror and Werewolves...
After suffering a terrible loss, Ulva and John settle into the village of Gormstad, hoping to start a new chapter in their lives. But their dream of tranquillity is shattered when Ulva is bitten by a werewolf one fateful night. Consequently, she is afflicted by a wretched disease known as the Wolfblight, which will transform her into a vicious beast every night and ultimately take control of her permanently unless a cure is procured. With friends and family at her side, it is a race against time as Ulva sets off on a journey to reach a dark and mysterious forest known as Coldwood where a cure can be found, an ancient artifact known as Fenrir's Bane. But many horrors and nightmarish perils await Ulva and her companions. Will they triumph and reach Coldwood in time, or will it be too late?
The Review
I went into Wolfblight by Simon Steele with high hopes. I am a big fan of Werewolf movies such as Underworld and Dog Soldiers but have never found a really great Werewolf novel. Unfortunately, I will be continuing my search. Wolfblight provided me with many things that I look for in the Werewolf genre, but it didn’t all come together as the dark and adrenaline pumping experience I thought it would be.
“It’s going to be painful. More painful than anything you have ever felt before. It will be brutal, bloody, and grueling. It will make hitting your head feel like a holiday.”
Wolfblight’s simple premise of a husband and wife looking for a cure to a Werewolf affliction was enough to have me hooked and along for the ride. The author is able to successfully weave in a palpable love between husband and wife before it all goes to hell. It almost began as a dark fairy tale that I thought was really well done. The story was really well thought out and intriguing. The story really takes off once the Wolfblight takes hold. The first Werewolf transformation is utterly horrifying and is a highlight of the book. I felt myself cringing and recoiling in disgust and discomfort. In other words, exactly what you’d want from a Werewolf transforming. It’s bloody and repulsive and I commend the author for really pulling me in within the early chapters of the book. However, as the story went on, the plot began to meander and the protagonists found themselves without much urgency considering the timely and severe nature of their situation. The pacing of Wolfblight and it’s plot structure felt all over the place which unfortunately kept pulling me out of the story that was otherwise well conceived.
The characters within Wolfblight were clearly written with a lot of heart as you truly feel the love between the main protagonists John and Ulva. However, the depth of other characters are usually shrugged off with a conversation or quickly explained away. Even when these characters get a moment to grow, they frequently made decisions that went against their development. The author then chose their development time to be at a point in the story that wouldn’t warrant them slowing down at all. The lack of well developed characters made many encounters not nearly as nail biting as they should have been. Despite the palpable and unconditional love between John and Ulva, the characters all sadly fell flat for me.
Many of the issues I had with Wolfblight centered around the writing. The dialogue seemed basic and without any nuance to each character. There are modern expressions like “oh, snap” within this historic setting that continually pulled me out of the story. The author didn’t seem like he trusted the reader. There were many over explanations that were unnecessarily added. These redundancies made it tough to get invested and were more akin to a young adult novel, an audience that it seems the author isn’t catering to. These types of issues I can usually look past, but they were too frequent to ignore. There are also some very jarring tonal changes to the storytelling that felt out of place. These characters are going through some of the most horrific experiences one could endure. Yet, the next page could lead to them cracking jokes and taking the time to participate in a drinking contest. These changes in tone didn’t fit well and made the arduous quest they were on feel more like a side quest. This all may have worked for me in a B-Movie type of way, but Wolfblight takes itself far too seriously. With more editing, I feel that Wolfblight would have made a much better impression on me since I liked the initial premise so much. Although, I didn’t have an issue with all of the writing. Wolfblight is not for the faint of heart. It describes the utter brutality of a Werewolf attack in great detail. Nobody is safe in this unforgiving land. This is where the author is at his best and had the greatest Werewolf transformation scene I’ve ever read.
There is an amazing story inside of Wolfblight. It’s a shame it’s marred by its lack of editing. The author clearly has a lot of passion for the genre as can be seen through every gory, bone-crunching, and blood curdling Werwolf encounter. While initially hooked by the premise and the dark fairy tale style, I found myself uninterested to continue with the series moving forward.