Book Review – The Bite by Z.W. Taylor

It’s a rare occasion when I don’t finish a novel. I’m not one of those people who loses interest unless either the writing is terrible or the story is something I find to be lacking in some way. I found both things to be true about this novel.

I made it through about 100 pages before giving up on this story where a woman escaping an abusive relationship in the wilds of Alaska finds herself turned into a werewolf. This story should be right up my alley. I love adventure stories set in Alaska and horror stories about werewolves and the like. So why couldn’t I get into this?

The majority of that first hundred pages is told through dialogue, something I am not a fan of (it’s the reason I don’t read more Agatha Christie). The way the narrator is written does not do the story any favors for she keeps referring to her abusive ex at every turn instead of dealing with the situation at hand. She is thrown so quickly into the werewolf end of the plot that I hardly know her or even care about her. I lose all descriptive details I’m used to in novels because of the excessive dialogue, so I am not drawn into the setting or the story. I just want the narrator to stop talking, and the same goes for the two men she ends up staying with. Not a single one of these people is likable, and everything she finds out about the werewolf lore is established in dialogue. For a character who just left an abusive relationship, she is awful trusting.

Two out of five stars for I could not immerse myself into the story because I could not get past the repetitive and poorly written dialogue.