Lonely Werewolf Girl

Title: Lonely Werewolf Girl
Author: Martin Millar
Published: 2007. This one's by Soft Skull Press
Genre: Urban fantasyyyyyy!
Pages: 558


I started reading this on my trip to London last July, but then got distracted by A Song of Ice and Fire. Now I decided to pick it up again, and finish it! Yay! So I did just that.

Like all Mr. Millar's books (at least the ones I've read so far), Lonely Werewolf Girl is written in shortish chapters which alternate between the many characters filling the book. Our title character is the laudanum-addicted teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch, a member of the ruling family of the Scottish clan of MacRinnalch werewolves, born in wolf-form on a full moon. She's living on the streets of London after she attempted to kill her father, the Thane, and is being pursued by not only the werewolves who are just a tad upset over this, but also werewolf hunters.

Once the Thane dies, the whole clan is pushed on the brink of war: Kalix's brothers Sarapen and Markus want the title, while their sister Thrix would rather just concentrate on the clothes she's designing for the Fire Queen Malveria and have this family business sorted out as soon as possible. There are many other members of the clan in the book -the cousins which the family does not talk about probably my personal favourites- and also two human students, Daniel and Moonglow, who end up rescuing Kalix from the streets and protecting her. Well, as far as two humans can, from powerful werewolves and a guild of werewolf hunters. They succeed quite admirably!

Oh, and there's a sequel! Curse of the Wolf Girl, if I remember correctly, which I just bought yesterday from that big internets bookshop.

It's most likely due to the fact that I started the book in July, and just glanced through the first 90 or so pages when I picked it up again, but I got to a bit of a slow start with this one. But soon enough I was swept up with werewolf politics though, and the lovely Millarish characters. Looking forward to the sequel, though I guess I have to find something else to read until it arrives...


"Kalix felt that she really should be moving on. She wasn't safe here. But she wasn't safe anywhere. She gazed longingly at the bath, white and clean, then nodded. While Moonglow ran the water Kalix slipped out of her rags and for the first time since Moonglow had met her, something resembling a smile appeared on her face. Moonglow went to hunt through her boxes for her shampoo and bath oils. Downstairs Daniel was finally bringing in the last of their possessions. He was very red in the face. As a first year English student he wasn't used to a lot of exercise. Two days a week his lectures started at nine in the morning and he always felt that this deprived him of a lot of sleep."