Lola May Galley's a bareback, one of the 0.6% of the human population born head first. As the result of a birth defect, she does not shift into a wolf during the full moon and that cuts her off from the majority of people. Unlike her lycanthrope sister, Lola was sent to a state creche every full moon, any scars forever mar her skin instead of being erased every month, and instead of having a regular education and getting to choose her future, Lola's been conscripted - like all her kind - into DORLA (the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity). Until injury, death or post-traumatic shock take her, Lola will spend the nights of the full moon patrolling the city for rogue lunes and the rest of her time as the DORLA equivalent of a lawyer.
Whitfield incorporates much of the standby werewolf lore (like the punishing effect of silver), while creating something wholly new in a genre dominated by very similar books by making the lycanthropes the dominant group. This could easily have failed in the hands of a less accomplished writer, but she does a brilliant job of creating a believable world, and beautifully portrays the tension between barebacks and the lyco majority.
And this aspect is key - as I was reading Bareback I was frustrated by Lola's understandable emotional constraints, and by a society that is manifestly unjust and unfair. Witfield portrays the fundamental chasms that lie between the world views of the majority and the marginalised minoritywithout telling or belabouring the point, gives hope that, at least on an individual basis, things can change, and weaves a number of interrelated subplots into a fascinating whole.
I don't think there's a room for a sequel with the same protagonist, though I'm open to persuasion, but hope Witfield does something else with this well imagined world. - Alex
To read Lynn's review of this book, click here
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