Is September werewolf month? If I could go the rest of my life reading new werewolf content every September, boy, I\u2019d be happy. <\/p>
What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p> That said, I should say I\u2019m only slightly over halfway finished with this book. First and foremost, it is luscious<\/em>, overflowing with sensory detail. Plenty of it gory, too, but there\u2019s also tremendous beauty, don\u2019t get all bent of shape. Shouldn\u2019t go any further without a big ol\u2019 CW for a scene depicting and further discussion of sexual assault\u2014please take care of yourself if you pick up this book. Do read it, though, it totally rips. Remember last week<\/a>, when I was bemoaning \u201chow little werewolf content is in my personal canon\u201d and \u201cwerewolves don\u2019t have as much known lore?\u201d I don\u2019t feel that way anymore. This book has a beautiful werewolf history, bound up in books made out of human skin. I\u2019m talking, of course, about The Devourers <\/em>by Indra Das. <\/p> What\u2019s really getting me going so far, besides the lyrical prose and cool-ass werewolf chompin\u2019, is the attention paid to mythmaking and storytelling. Not in a worldbuilding sense, like \u201chere are the rules of the werewolves, now you are initiated into werewolf, we will bite people in Act III.\u201d No, the mythmaking here comes from religion and folklore, comes from fear of demons and fascination with the natural world and the wonders it contains, comes from the pure human desire to have your story told. There are passages of comparative monster studies from across cultures, scenes are set against the backdrop of Durga Puja and Diwali, and the goddamn opener? Where our frame story narrator meets the half-werewolf who gives him the manuscript that becomes the book? It\u2019s set in a tent where the bauls sing. Bauls, for anyone rusty on Bengali culture, are \u201cthe rural bards of Bengal\u2026[in this tent they] gather every winter to make music for city people.\u201d What a setting for an opener! Practically Green Room<\/em>, sans Nazis! I can\u2019t wait to finish this book. <\/p> p.s. lemme go ahead and admit something embarrassing real quick, because it\u2019s my blog, and we have fun together. There\u2019s a scene where the half-werewolf claims to have met the original proprietor of a cafe like a century ago or whatever, and it\u2019s the stupidest thing I go nuts for in books. Every time. \u201cOh, the Vampire Lestat knew [insert European nobleman from the 18th century]<\/em>? So cool,\u201d my infantchild-brain coos. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> But first: some tunes, dudes? My kid\u2019s obsessed with Thundercat right now, because of that video where he acts like a cat. I think I\u2019ve linked this Tiny Desk concert before, but what\u2019re you gonna do? Be mad about listening to Thundercat again? <\/p>![\"book:](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/c75ef977-e821-414c-b2ad-a49964f5c31d_3024x4032.jpeg\")
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