Post 356: The Abused Werewolf Group

The Abused Werewolf Group by Catherine Jinks. ISBN: 9780152066154 (eGalley- publihses April 4, 2011).

There were a couple of moments in this book that I really didn't like. I could talk about a number of them, like how Toby tuned out a doctor because he didn't understand how information about epilepsy was relevant to him, or the moment where Toby's friend asks why they don't just leave their dirty laundry for his mom to do, or how epilepsy and/or having seizures would be great because you could get away with anything...

Instead I'm going to talk about how Toby at least on some level thinks that certain groups of people are "asking" for harassment or bullying. Yep, Toby is just the greatest. Since the book isn't out yet I can't quote exactly, and keep in mind it may not appear in the final version, but the gist of the scene was Toby has just woken up in the hospital after being found in a dingo pen. The police have come to ask Toby questions about what happened, Toby doesn't remember anything, so the police suggest that maybe he has a enemy at school or someone who pulled a prank on him. Toby denies this, and then goes on in his narrative to say he's not a geek or a nerd or one of those other groups that is a "natural born target".

*Sigh.* I guess I can't blame Toby for thinking this way, because throughout the book he is a very self-centered 13-year-old boy, but I can be upset by his mentality and the problems surrounding it. No one is a natural born target. In order to become a target, someone has to be aiming at you and only assholes, murderers, and war criminals target people. I think I was particularly upset to read this little bit of victim blaming mentality because of the incident that happened recently in Cleveland, Texas. I just want to say something, because apparently people just don't understand:

Nobody. NOBODY wants to be raped, harassed, threatened, abused, beaten, or otherwise physically, mentally, or emotionally harmed no matter how they act, dress, who they love, or any other qualities or attributes they might have.

If you have ever caught yourself thinking that anyone deserved harm who had not first caused harm to others, then you need to seriously rethink exactly why you have those thoughts and feelings. Because you may not think you sound like a crazy person, but you are going down that path. And no one wants to end up sounding like this.* / **

My review can be found on Goodreads.
LibsNote: Free review copy provided by Netgalley.
*I don't have a problem with prayer, I have a problem with the idea that God KILLING PEOPLE because they are atheist somehow makes him a GOOD and AWESOME God and that it is something we should ask him to do. 
**edit: Supposedly this is someone who made a trolling video. Personally, I didn't think it was funny, and I find it suspicious that she was not upfront about her activities before being harassed. 

Post 355: The Abused Rescue Werewolf Group

The Abused Werewolf Group by Catherine Jinks. ISBN: 9780152066154 (eGalley- publihses April 4, 2011).

When I think of an Abused Werewolf Group I think of people getting together in a church basement, drinking subpar coffee, and whining about how much it sucks to be a werewolf. I envisioned people talking about how hurt they were when their spouse hit them with a rolled up newspaper after sniffing well...what dogs sniff. Or maybe how someone just couldn't help the urge to chase a car and ran after it for six blocks before the owner of the car pulled over and threatened to run the werewolf down.

Perhaps I watch too many bad movies. I mean, I grew up on stuff like My Mom is a Werewolf and Teen Wolf. I kind of expect camp from a title like this, and I was disappointed when it didn't have any.

Unfortunately, it seems the paranormal has been co-opted by the YA/romance brigade. Vampires and werewolves have to be sexy, or in the case of this particular novel they're presented as just being regular people...most of the time. In some ways I wish I could point a finger and blame one particular author for the demise of the monster genre, but it's just not true. Certain authors have done horrible things to the quality of writing in today's YA market, but that's a completely different bitchfest. Instead I would say that movies have actually done the most harm to the literary genre.

I know, right? Movies always ruin books. Well, not really; there have definitely been some adaptations that I haven't completely hated, and some that I've even preferred. But movies have made Monsters less scary over the years.

Much of this is due to the limited technical abilities: camera, lighting, make up, etc. It is hard to make a convincing and scary monster when you're limited to grandma's old fur coat, some grease paint, and a crummy camera. There are certainly some excellent early werewolf and other Monster movies out there, but let's face it, there aren't as many as there are cheesy Double Feature make-out movies. Those of course evolved into the campy monster movies and B-films. Now instead of running away from our monsters we're too busy falling in love to remember that the whole point of them is remind us of how monstrous humanity can be. We always did like the bad boys, I just wish we weren't so enamored with the man-eaters.

My review can be found on Goodreads.
LibsNote: Free review copy provided by Netgalley.