Bitten – Book Review

This review contains a spoilers for Bitten. Spoiler sections marked below subtitles.

I lied about producing a review of Wind and Truth Day 5 next, because I got bored on page 600 and instead read the first entry in the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong.

This is an adult book with adult scenes! This isn’t the sort of book I typically read, although you can find a few other smutty recommendations in my 18+ reviews category…

Main Character of Bitten: Elena Michaels

Elena Michaels is angry and frustrated, an interesting combination for a female lead in a romance novel. She doesn’t feel in control of her life, and she resents her own unhappiness. In other words, she exudes self-loathing and displays a victim mentality, which unfortunately, I can partially identify with.

At times, I did find Elena difficult to connect with, but I didn’t mind this so much because I don’t think that relating to the main character is a prerequisite to enjoying this book. That said, sometimes, my failure to engage with a more alien first-person narration can throw me out of the story.

That didn’t happen with Bitten, which uses the device of a first person narrator to entertain the reader with Elena’s misconceptions of her own psyche, and this kept me very engaged!

It’s a Werewolf Book!

I love canines, and I’ve read a lot of wolfish books over the last twenty years (you can discover some of my favourites in my Best Dogs in Fiction reading list).

The opening of Bitten reminds me of Shakira’s She Wolf music video, with Elena abandoning her lover, skulking out into the street, and seeking a powerful freedom under the moon. It’s everything I want from a wolf book!

This opening was skillful and I love how it was mirrored in later scenes. Elena’s curiosity sometimes gets the better of her!

The transformation scenes were also great. They’re a must in a shifter book, and they felt appropriately horrifying!

Other Women in Bitten

The lack of women in this book was a shame, but well-explained by the set-up. It would be hard to introduce female characters in a setting where female werewolves are exceptional, and the main love interest has a disdain of humans.

That said, it still felt like a gap in the book, especially following the opening scenes where Elena is so happy to have been accepted by the women in Philip’s family. I expected some kind of follow up, perhaps a friendship with a different woman, but Philip’s family and their friendship are swiftly forgotten about.

It also makes Elena come across as a unique woman, which prevents her from appearing as a great representation of feminist values—not that Elena’s character should uphold these, but it’s true all the same.

Love Interests in Bitten

Eh meh.

Maybe I’m approaching this book with the eyes of a teenager—expecting the men of this book to be handsome, easily attractive himbos for my entertainment as opposed to the message of the novel—but I wasn’t hugely hot under the collar for the characters represented here.

I can’t deny that Elena and Clay have chemistry, but I just was not into it.

Women of the Otherworld – Connections

Spoilers for Armstrong’s The Darkest Powers trilogy.

From Sanderson’s Cosmere to Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld… I wasn’t expecting (or wanting) a connection to her YA series The Darkest Powers, but there was one!

I’m not a huge fan of books that are self-referential, as so much media is in the wake of the Marvel cinematic universe’s success. Maybe it’s because I’m reading these books outside of their publication order, but it wasn’t too intolerable going from The Summoning to Bitten. Discovering who the pack are and what they stand for was interesting, given how much the characters in The Darkest Powers feared the pack. I also enjoyed the end of Cain, which was pretty different from the rumours that Derek and Chloe heard in book three!

I also felt that Daniel’s desire to breed genetically perfect werewolves was an idea that returned in The Darkest Powers in the form of the Genesis II Project.

Summary

I didn’t enjoy Bitten as much as I enjoyed The Darkest Powers, but I still enjoyed it a lot and am quite likely to read Stolen, the sequel, before 2025 is over. One thing is for sure, this won’t be the last Kelley Armstrong book I read!