Benighted

Lola lives in a world where she is the minority. As a bareback she was born with a birth defect that results in her not changing into a wolf during a full moon. She and others like her have no choice but to work for DORLA (Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity), a government agency tasks with patrolling the streets during the change to make sure no one is out and about as wolves. One of her colleagues is maimed by a bad Lune and shortly after the man responsible was assigned to be advised by Lola someone kills her friend. Now Lola must find out if her client is responsible for murder.

Benighted is unlike any book I have read before. On the surface it looks like a typical paranormal fantasy, it is about a world show more where werewolves are the majority. But it reads much more like a police procedural or mystery novel. Whitfield uses the fantasy set up to examine prejudice and what it does to people on both sides. By making "regular people" the minority, she puts the reader in the place of those that are discriminated against. It allows you to see similarities and insights about how other minority groups are treated without having to single out one group. Overall it is how people react when put in tough situations. The main character has plenty of flaws and does a lot of unforgivable things, but I found myself pulling for her and hoping that she finds some internal peace. I recommend this book to anyone that likes books that make you reflect on the world, even they are not necessarily a fan of fantasy and paranormal stories. show less

Wow, this book was very, very dark, but interesting. The premise: instead of werewolves being unusual, they are the dominant species, with regular humans, or "barebacks," being the genetic anomaly, viewed as either a lower caste or crippled (or both). Themes of minority politics along with a healthy dose of mystery, this is a dark one. More "literary" than most paranormal or dark fantasy books. I'd put in more in the same realm of The Historian.

Lola May Galley is human. When the moon rises, she does not go lyco. Instead of growing fur and howling at the moon, she sets out with others from the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity (DORLA) to catch stray lycos and criminals who haven't locked themselves up properly. She is a human in a world run by werewolves. She is looked down upon for being born non-lyco (considered a disability by most in her world), and like all others with her disability, she spends her days and nights working for the lycos in a lyco run world.

During a full moon, a friend loses a hand when a lune goes bad and then he ends up murdered before the attacker is brought to trial. She finds herself wrapped up in a case that runs much show more deeper than she thought with societal implications that leave her terrified and almost numb.

I know vampire and werewolf stories are starting to run thin, and even I myself, who happens to like stories with these creatures, am getting a bit tired. Yet, after reading In Great Waters, I found I liked Whitfield's writing and wanted to read more. I found Benighted and became entranced with her world. She takes the normal werewolf story and turns it upside down. It is now the humans living in poor conditions, fighting prejudice at the hands of a world run by werewolves, and living degrading and horrifying lives. Being born a bareback (the negative term given to those children born head first and human) means living a life only to attend to lycos. They are given no other choice and for them it is a sad, scary, dangerous, and mostly short life.

Lola was the only non-lyco born in her family and she lived her entire life wondering what it would be like to turn with the full moon. When she finds herself in a relationship with a lyco, she ends up finding answers to questions that she never thought about. The devastating consequences make for a good, and sad, story. There are some, more like many, disturbing moments in this book. When Lola talks about her childhood I felt like she shared a bit too much and I wished she would take some of it back but it was already on the table at the point. It took me a while to like Lola even though I felt for her from the start. She does things that she hates, and begins to hate herself with good reason. It's unfortunate that she feels, and in many cases is right, that she has no other choice. For someone in her position, it is only a life of servitude and nothing more even if she is made to feel free. It is the life she was born into and nothing will change her. She becomes more hardened against the outside world and that's just to keep herself sane.

Whitfield is a good writer and I enjoyed this one much more than In Great Waters. Even if you're tired of werewolves, I'd say give this one a chance. It's an interesting, if sad and disturbing, world to get drawn into. There are a lot of themes at play, many of which I haven't even touched on here, that leave you wondering more about societal ramifications than actual werewolves. It's a dark world to get drawn into. show less

The premise: it's world that's almost exactly like our own, with one major difference: ninety-nine percent of the population is lycanthropic, which means on full moon nights, they fur up, go beastly, and cannot be reasoned with or tamed. The other one percent, who can't fur up and therefore are considered disabled, are called barebacks, and when the moon's full, it's the barebacks who are responsible for keeping the peace when certain lunes decide they don't want to spend the full moon nights cooped up in their own homes and go roaming.

Lola Galley is a bareback, and even though she's not even in her thirties yet, she's a veteran of the Department for the Ongoing regulation of Lycanthropic Activity. She's got the scars to prove it. Some show more of her co-workers have much worse. When one of them is mauled and loses his hand, Lola starts an investigation that takes her places she'd never imagined, especially when that friend ends up murdered. This isn't your typical werewolf story. Heck, it's not even your typical UF.

My Rating

Must Have: especially for those of you who love werewolf stories of any kind and/or who really want something DIFFERENT out of a werewolf book. It's not something I fell head-over-heels in love with, but the writing, the characterization, and the world-building, all of it is solid and the book gives you so much to think about in terms of larger issues. This isn't the kind of urban/dark fantasy that's meant to be addictive. In the end, it's going to make you think, whether you want it to or not. It'll surprise you, anger you, break your heart, and make you laugh. Whitfield takes the real world and splashes it all over these pages in all of its very ugly glory: she just makes the majority of humans lycos, and that creates an interesting and poignant tale. There's a part of me that hopes she might write another book in this world, maybe even featuring the main character as well, but then there's a part of me that hopes she does. This book is more than enough, even though I'm so invested I just want more and more details. No doubt, Whitfield is an author I'll keep an eye on in the future, no matter what she writes. I'm just glad I stumbled upon this one.

The full review, complete with spoilers and cover art commentary, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Kit Whitfield's BENIGHTED

Happy Reading! :) show less

This is one of the best novels I've read, especially of the fantasy genre. It's not *really* a fantasy book at all - more of an alternative history, which deals with romance, friendship, abuse, rape, and torture. Most of all, it probes the effects of discrimination and hatred on both the oppressor and the oppressed. A few portions, especially near the beginning, are a little "first novel". But Whitfield has not only bright ideas but a powerful grasp of language. There were phrases that took my breath away with their beauty and insight. I'd highly recommend Benighted for serious study or a weekend read.

What a refreshing, but dark, take on this new obsession with werewolves! In this world, 99.6 percent of the population are shape-shifters. Lola is one of the few "bare-backs". She charged with keeping order on those moon nights, and while her organization might be small, it has a lot of power. As a result, it is hated by most of the population.

Its an interesting world, more authoritarian than reality. It is slowly revealed through the story, as Lola goes about uncovering a murderer. The people she encounters are also quite interesting - from her sister who doesn't quite know how to handle Lola, to Lola's boyfriend Paul, who becomes involved with the case she is working on.

As always in books such as this, there are themes of them vs us, show more and might makes right. Lola had to do what she did, but she does not go unscathed.

The book does have a few weaknesses- mainly the world. When 99 percent of the population relies on .4 percent of the population to keep things safe for one night a month, you would think that this group of people would be held in greater esteem or things done differently. The author relies too much on history (the inquisition and such) and creates a world that doesn't work, logically. The other thing that bothers is the ending - the resolution came out of nowhere and it didn't work with the plot that was created early on in the book.

This is a great book to read - very dark, and at times, thought provoking. show less

Urban fantasy, where werewolves are substantially in the majority, and those born without the lycanthropic twist in their dna are known, derisively, as barebacks.

Whitfield takes a fab inversion of a uual idea, and does wonderful things with it. The Barebacks are drafted at 18 into governement agencies for the control of weres at full moon. A world with a self-imposed curfew and lockup for all were-wolves, it would have been tempting to take the pov of one of the many other characters in the book, but it's written from the pov of one of the bareback cops/prosecutors/investigators, who I think, from the outside, wuld be very unsympathetic. From the inside, you're drawn in.

Gloria's motives are dubious, her methods more so. There are a few show more moments when the plot twisted in a way I hadn't expected -- and really, wasn't convinced by. Not a particularly happy ending for anyone, but one of those ending that is satisfying, having come to know the characters and world during the book. As a character story, and a world, and a murder mystery, it was a riveting read, and I really liked the noirish style. show less