The Werewolf: Past and Future: Lycanthropy's Lost History and Modern Devolution Paperback – 27 Aug. 2021

This reads more like a college thesis than a folklore research book. For people who are already familiar with works in this field, It has quite a lot of familiar source material, heavily referenced. The writer seems keen to challenge and critique earlier works largely from a standpoint of seeking to defend the honour of werewolves on the basis they are hard done to in much of modern media. Some of the editorial comment is a bit sulky as a result. That said, it is written with an obvious interest and enthusiasm for the topic with a study of older historical works then efforts to give a modern context with reference to movies, books, TV shows and video RPG’s (roll-playing games rather than rocket-propelled grenades) It omits references to some worthy modern films and skirts around a limited number of works of literary fiction. For a short work, it had a lot to cover which might explain the gaps. All in all, an interesting study with references to some source material I hadn’t seen but will seek out as a consequence. Worth a read even if only as an introduction to the field.

Collects a lot of what many would consider disparate sources comcerning werewolves. Helped me immensely when writing about the evolution of the monster for a uni assignment.

I agree with the author that pop culture has taken hold of the werewolf and "modernized" it and in a disagreeable manner. However, I think the author does not have a nuanced view of what constitutes the themes in some of her mentions such as The Grey and Dogsoldiers. In these two narratives, the wolves/werewolves are filling a leucocitic niche. Its a question as to which organism is detrimental, humanity or the wolves. There is an almost literal sense of how the wolves or werewolves are portrayed in the author's opinion. While it is not in keeping with wolf behaviour, it does make use of the symbol of the wild and the natural world, which in The Grey is demonstrated to run in total opposition to the behaviours of humanity which are literally stripping away habitats. Of course, this has come to much more attention lately with water and land rights and oil spills on Native American lands. While I appreciate the citations from established and known accredited sources, I wish the author had taken more time to develop a sense of why the wolves or werewolves are portrayed the way they are in certain pop culture references even if I, myself, found those movies irritating just given the themes. Including the author's social media posts in accompaniment of this book, I think there is a great deal of motivated reasoning behind the way the book turned out. Its not a bad book! But I wish there were less literal sense of appearance and more about the holistic story that was being presented.

This is a thorough review of the legends and literature surrounding werewolves. The writer is obviously very passionate on the subject, which tends to get in the way toward the end of the book. That aside this is a well researched and thoughtful work. If you read only one scholarly book on this topic, this is the one to read.

Not bad with mostly interesting information but some of the conclusions drawn by the end I found hard to agree with and overall head-scratching. Also some noticeable omissions if you're familiar with werewolf stories and media.