Continuing with my recent trend of reading literary authors experiments into genre fiction, I just finished Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf. The book is different in that there just isn’t the same number of books being written about werewolves as there are about vampires and zombies (I’ve heard the Twilight books have both werewolves and vampires, but I have no desire to read them). The book touches on one of the reasons why werewolves don’t have the same literary presence as other supernatural beings. They only change for one night a month and while they are changed, they are wild incoherent monsters. Zombies are always zombies and vampires are always able to talk. The literary challenge of werewolves is simply higher than other such beings. So let’s check in on the last one.

Jacob (Jake) Marlowe  is the very last werewolf. He just found out that the only other one had been killed. The WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena) has done too good of a job and has hunted down almost all the werewolves. But the bigger problem seems to be some sort of virus has stopped werewolves from being able to create new werewolves. The victims are all dying and no new werewolves are being created. In this world, Jake is depressed. He sates himself with booze and women, but he knows there is no future. Since he is the last one, the great WOCOP hunter Granier will be hunting and killing Jake himself. Grainer is saving Jake for him self since he wants the honor of killing the last werewolf himself and the minor point that Jake killed and ate Grainer’s father.

Jake has a friend (groupie?) named Harley who helps Jake with disguises and escape routes. But the book shows Jake as a pretty incompetent hider. It seems like almost anyone who knows about Jake is able to easily and quickly find him. Generally I’m surprised Jake has survived this long, since he doesn’t seem that strong in hiding and moving quietly around. Harley offers to help Jake hide from Grainer, but Jake is despondent and resigned to his fate. Until the big plot twist in the middle that make Jake decide he wants to live.

And this is where the book starts getting disappointed. We get a rival WOCOP group that gets the finale between Jake and Grainer back on track. But this buildup that we’ve been waiting for just fizzles and the ending is very disappointing. The book does a decent job showing Jake as the last of his species, but from what I see of Jake, I have a hard time believing that he could have survived this long. And, while the twist in the middle livens the book up somewhat, it’s still a very slow plodding book that is always heading to an expected finale. And when that finale disappoints, it reflects badly on the story as a whole. I think the basic idea was sound and some of the story was really good. But overall it can’t be seen as anything but a disappointment. Not recommended.