Big, Bad Wolf
by Bridget Essex
Pages: 152
Date: February 1 2014
Publisher: Rose and Star Press
Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 4.0
Read: October 19 2015
This is a weird mixture of psychological terror, fantasy, romance, thriller, etc.
A woman grows up on a mountain with her grandmother. No mention is made of her parents. At least, I don't recall mention. And yes, that kept popping up in my mind, the - where the heck are the parents? question. She lives semi-wild and without much in the way of fear. Until, some event or series of barely remembered events changed her. These are remembrances of a woman grown, though, since the book is about the woman as a woman.
A woman who spends a good amount of time fearing wolves. Which is natural, since she spends seemingly every night dreaming nightmarish dreams about wolves. Wolves with blood dripping down their lips.
Somewhat magically, an unknown woman turns up in this small town. She's apparently gorgeous. And zeroed in on getting to know Megan better. On a personal and physical level. Her name is Kara. Which Megan calls exotic or something like that. Seriously? Exotic? I went to school with two people named Kara, and a third might have lived in my neighborhood, but of a different age group. Exotic? Hmms.
There were certain vaguely strange things like that that pop up. Like a gorgeous woman suddenly turning up in a town with, apparently, two lesbians. And she just happens to be one herself. And has a deep interest in the librarian (Megan, who works as a librarian). Then there's the incredibly weird living situation Kara eventually reveals but I won't go beyond this to detail.
Wolf Heart
by Bridget Essex
Pages: 70
Date: October 1 2015
Publisher: Rose and Star Press
Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: October 19 2015
I’ve read two stories back to back which are both completely different, and oddly similar. Well, certain elements are similar. I suppose that the only similarities involve: both involve lesbians, involve werewolves, both are drenched in sex, and both involve people who do not know that the other woman is a werewolf. One is written tightly, competently; the other seems to have a word or two wrong every sentence or every other sentence. It even mixes up people’s names here and there.
Here’s where I could show how much better one is over the other by saying something like ‘the less well written one was a better story’ or something like that. And that got reinforced by my reading both stories back to back. Fortunately or unfortunately that isn’t the case. The one written incompetently is in fact the lesser of the two stories. This one here, Wolf Heart, is the competently written story.
The story involves a woman going on vacation for the first time in two years. Needing rest and relaxation. She had a dream of being happy and content walking through a forest, the one her family owns a cabin in, so she takes her vacation there. Alone.
Immediately on arrival she checks in with the park ranger to say she’s there. Barbara, the park ranger, is super bitchy and growls at her that she shouldn’t be there. Abby, the main character, grunts at her and ignores the words. Or tries to ignore. They kind of frightened her.
In the darkening, gloomy, forest area, Abby drives up to her cabin and, instead of immediately carrying her things in; she turns and heads to the public shower and bathroom building. While showering, she hears the door open and close. She peaks around the shower curtain and sees . . . a wolf.
Essex seems to be fixated on the ‘normal human woman bumps into werewolf women, they fall in love, but there’s this initial ‘werewolves aren’t real’ moment that most be overcome’ storyline. It keeps coming up over and over again. Yeah, in real life, if I saw someone morphing/shifting between shapes, I’d probably freak out and flee. But still, it gets tiresome to read the exact same scenario play out over and over again. Woman sees wolf, wolf becomes a woman. Human woman falls into either lust or love with the woman. Woman shifts to wolf.
I probably could have taken that a lot better if it wasn’t an often reoccurring story-line by Essex. And even though it is, I still probably could have ‘taken it’ if Abby, in this story, didn’t keep disbelieving her eyes and constantly saying things, to herself ‘how is that even possible?’ (as a side note, one of those things I feel the need to note but not explain – if someone finds that two women have exited a building, disrobed, and left everything behind, and one had looked like she had some form of weapon before going outside – take a few moments to check to see if there was, in fact, some kind of weapon. Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t, but take a few moments. Then grab it, if it exists, and the flashlight. Abby in this story just gawked at the clothing and jewelry, and only grabbed the flashlight when she went further outside).
I’m tempted to give a lower rating because of that ‘but . . . but werewolves aren’t real!’ which also included a ‘wolves aren’t in this park!’ element. But I don’t. Because it was a good story. Pumped my adrenaline, it did. I just wish I could actually read a full story some day, instead of all these tastes, something that moved past ‘werewolves aren’t real! . . . well, maybe they are, maybe they aren’t, but I kind of like you . . .’ and got to the ‘pass me the salt, please’ stage (as in a couple stage).
