Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar

Kalix McRinnalch, a seventeen-year-old werewolf who belongs to a very powerful Scottish werewolf clan, has ran away to London after attacking her father, and is now being perused. Kalix is a troubled and lonely werewolf girl. She has absolutely no friends, and she lost her lover, Gawain, after their relationship led to his banishment. And on top of everything else, Kalix has to struggle with the werewolf equivalent of an eating disorder and with her addiction to laudanum.

Moonglow and Daniel, two human university students, rescue Kalix when she’s being chased by one of her brothers and some of his minions, who intend to kill her and/or drag her back to the family’s castle in Scotland. And though it’s not wise for humans to get involved in the affairs of werewolves, they are too kind to refuse to help Kalix (though she has no problems refusing their help), and end up being caught in the middle of a dangerous feud.

Meanwhile, Kalix’s older sister, a werewolf sorceress named Thrix, is also in London, where she is a successful fashion designer. Her biggest costumer is Malveria, a Fire Elemental Queen. Kalix’s other siblings are Markux and Sarapen, who not only want her dead for attacking their father, but begin to want each other dead as they fight for leadership of the Clan.

So what we have are fashion designers, aspiring bands in Camden Town, students, Scottish werewolf clans, elemental and fairy queens, troubled teenagers, doomed love affairs, violence and intrigue, and a group of people trying to understand one another. If this sounds complicated, don’t worry. It isn’t. Yes, there’s a fairly large cast of characters and quite a few parallel storylines, but they go together perfectly and the result is a book that is an absolute joy to read.

Lonely Werewolf Girl is absolutely hilarious. I just love Martin Millar’s sense of humour. Malveria, the Fire Elemental Queen with a penchant for pretty outfits, is one of the funniest characters I have ever encountered. And I’d explain why, but there’s no way I’d be able to do her justice, and “Dismal niece!” taken out of context isn’t half as funny as it is in the book.

But Lonely Werewolf Girl is as dark, sweet, tender and heartbreaking as it is funny. It’s a story about dysfunctional families, love, disappointments, and above all, friendship – the ability to cooperate and to trust one another.

There were bits in the books where I could really identify with Kalix. Because of certain things that happened in her life, she has a lot of trouble trusting others. Even though Moonglow and Daniel show her nothing but kindness, it’s hard for her to believe that somebody could actually be nice to her simply because they like her. And at the smallest sign, she automatically assumes she’s not welcome and retreats into her shell. In the book it’s easy to see how fallacious Kalix’s thought processes are, but it’s just as easy to see how to her they feel absolutely real, and how real the distress and anxiety they cause her is. Thoughts of this kind do have a way of seeming real when they go through our minds, even if an outside observer could immediately tell us they’re absurd.

The characters – Moonglow, Daniel, Kalix, and everyone, really, even the most quirky ones – are so completely human. And the way they interact and relate to one another is a big part of what makes this book so special. Martin Millar has a way of being sweet without ever even coming close to being sappy. And he often manages to be funny and moving in the same sentence. There were several passages in Lonely Werewolf Girl that brought tears to my eyes even as they made me laugh.

The ending was absolutely perfect. It was not miraculous, but it was hopeful and sweet. Certain wrongs cannot be made right, and what was lost cannot be regained. It takes time for relationships to mend, for wounds to heal, and sometimes not even time can repair the damage that was done. But at the same time, people carry on with their lives. They take pleasure in small things, understand that small things are perhaps not that small, and realize that they’re alive, that there are people who can be trusted, that there are things that can be done.

I know I’m not doing this book justice, so I’ll have to ask you to trust me that it’s an absolutely brilliant book, wise and funny and hopeful and sad. I loved it at least as much as The Good Fairies of New York. Maybe more, because Lonely Werewolf Girl is longer and therefore there is more of it to love. And despite its length, I was incredibly sad when I finished it, simply because I wanted to keep on reading it indefinitely. I miss the characters terribly already. This is a book I know I’ll return to again and again.

Even cats love Lonely Werewolf Girl, and you know that cats are always right.

Martin Millar is officially a genius. I need to read the rest of his books.

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