I was recently craving a werewolf story that took place in medieval times(I know pretty specific), so after a little searching online I found Clare B. Dunkle’s book By These Ten Bones. I feel conflicted about this book because I liked it, but I had one huge problem with it. Before I get to the one problem I want to talk about what I did like. First, and foremost, it scratched that itch I had for a medieval werewolf story, which in a book world over saturated with urban and/or erotic werewolf stories is hard to do. Secondly, I enjoyed the relationship between Maddie and Paul/Carver, specifically the fact that (spoiler alert) it ends happy! Sometimes you just need a good ending where everything turns out well for the characters and this book gives you that.
Now, my one problem is that I am annoyed that they called Paul a werewolf. In my eyes, if they don’t turn into a wolf or some type of wolf-man hybrid then it’s not an actual werewolf. And Paul only changed into some type of shadow monster that hissed and gurgled which is not a wolf FYI. So, in my opinion, it’d be more accurate to call him a shapeshifter. But even though the werewolf wasn’t really a werewolf I could still enjoy the story so I’d give it a 6 out of 10.
Nerd Thoughts 