Strip Mauled (Supernatural Suburbia) [Mass Market Paperback]

Esther Friesner (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Werewolves and the suburbs are a natural go-together. Okay, so they’re not the Obligatory/Iconic Suburban Golden Retriever or Chocolate Labrador, but they’ve got a much better chance of taking home the Best in Show ribbon than their Undead rivals, the vampires. In some suburban households, if it brings home a trophy, who cares if it also brings home bloody chunks of the neighbors every time the full moon shines? And let’s not forget one more advantage to the suburban werewolf: If his lupine side does something nasty on your lawn, his human side can come by later with the Pooper Scooper. In your face, Dracula!

Therefore, welcome to the fur-sprouting, mall-browsing, moon-howling, latté-sipping world of Strip Mauled. You’ll like what you find.

Sit.

Stay.

Good reader.

Stories of suburban lycanthropy by Sarah A. Hoyt, Dave Freer, K. D. Wentworth, and more—including Esther Friesner herself.

About the Author

Esther Friesner is winner twice over of the coveted Nebula Award (for the Year’s Best short Story, 1995 and 1996) and is the author of over thirty novels, including the USA Today best-seller Warchild, and more than one hundred short stories. For Baen she edited the five popular “Chicks in Chainmail” anthologies. Her works have been published in the UK, Japan, Germany, Russia, France and Italy. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, and two rambunctious cats.  

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Baen; Original edition (September 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439133204
• ISBN-13: 978-1439133200
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #311,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Werewolf Turns, October 28, 2009

By	Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Strip Mauled (Supernatural Suburbia) (Mass Market Paperback)

Strip Mauled (2009) is the second fantasy anthology in the Supernatural Suburbia series, following Witch Way to the Mall. It contains twenty original stories, an introduction and an afterword.

Leader of the Pack by Esther M. Friesner is an introduction to this work. Although not really fiction, it does set the stage for what follows. Prepare yourself for a few puns and lots of fun.

Howl! by Jody Lynn Nye exposes a Customs agent to lycanthropy.

Special Needs by K. D. Wentworth introduces a Cub Scout den to a new -- and unexpected -- member.

Fish Story by Tracy S. Morris confronts a writer and her werewolf friend with a water hazard.

Blame It on the Moonlight by Tim Waggoner depicts the meeting of a werewolf and a new woman in the neighborhood.

Imaginary Fiend by Lucienne Diver divulges the case of the cop and an invisible creature.

Neighborhood Bark-B-Q by Daniel M. Hoyt recounts the weird experiences that happen to a computer programmer at a new job.

That Time of Month by Laura J, Underwood examines some difficulties of living next door to country werewolves.

Pack Intern by Berry Kercheval tells of a novice witch getting a job with mall security.

Support Your Local Werewolf by Karen Everson involves a teenage werewolf in an abduction.

Isn't That Special by Esther M. Friesner presents a suburban control freak with a werewolf problem.

Prowling for Love by Linda L. Donahue takes an unmarried werewolf to a furry convention.

Lighter Than Were by Robert Hoyt considers the costs and advantages of technology.

Enforcement Claws by Steven Piziks provokes the chairperson of the Home Owners Association with alternative points of view.

Where-Wolf by Selina Rosen changes the attitude of a teenager manning a suicide hotline.

Overnight Moon by David D, Levine puts a teenage witch into a strange role.

Wolfy Ladies by Dave Freer considers the case of a missing magician and shape-shifter.

Frijoles for Fenris by Kevin Andrew Murphy explains the aftereffects of magic beans within a werewolf fraternity.

The Case of the Driving Poodle by Sarah A. Hoyt illustrates the frustrations of an assistant to a psychic investigator searching for a missing man.

Meet the Harrys by Robin Wayne Bailey discloses the secrets of the Harry family.

The Creature in Your Neighborhood by Jim C. Hines is probably the last episode of the popular TV show Imaginationville. What! You never saw it?

About the Editor by Esther M. Friesner is a plug for the creator of this series.

These stories -- like The Chicks in Chainmail series -- has a large overlap in the authors. Twelve of these authors also appeared in the previous volume. And a third Hoyt is present in this work with a little tale of mall maintenance and werewolves.

If you are a werewolf -- or would like to be -- then study this book. You probably never knew all the problems you could have in addition to getting a little furry around the full moon. Read and enjoy!

Recommended for Friesner fans and for anyone who enjoys tales of preternatural creatures, suburban intrigue, and furry humor.

-Arthur W. Jordin

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strip Mauled, January 15, 2010

By	Sacramento Book Review "Sacramento Book Review" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strip Mauled (Supernatural Suburbia) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this anthology, editor Esther Friesner has collected twenty-one hilarious stories of werewolves in suburbia. Soccer moms, angst-ridden teenagers, mid-life crisis dads, annoying little boys, and even a hardboiled detective find their way into these very funny stories. Of particular note are: Jody Lynn Nye's "Howl," which gives a man in a dead-end job a new lease on life; "Blame It on the Moonlight" by Tim Waggoner, recounts a most unusual first date; Esther Friesner's "Isn't That Special" turns the tables on a manipulative soccer mom; "Prowling for Love" by Linda L. Donahue shows that finding love, for a werewolf, is not an easy prospect; Dave Freer's dwarf detective solves the crime in "Wolfy Ladies"; K. D. Wentworth redefines the term "Special Needs" in her tale, and Jim C. Hines takes a ubiquitous childhood TV show and writes a diabolically funny new script. //Strip Mauled// cleverly mashes up the funniest aspects of suburban life with the troublesome nature of the wolf. Each of these stories is entertaining and fans of paranormal or comic fantasy will want to be sure to add this book to their collections.

Reviewed by John Ottinger

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where the Werewolves Are, October 23, 2009

By	Christina Paige (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Strip Mauled (Supernatural Suburbia) (Mass Market Paperback)

21 stories about were-wolves and the like living in suburbia, this anthology is a follow up to Witch Way to the Mall, so the cover shows a well-endowed witch serving tea to a pixie, a were-wolf, and an even more well-endowed vampire.
Friesner introduces the stories with a truly funny essay that commences, "Alas, poor were-wolves, forever doomed to be Avis to the vampires' unassailable fang-hold on Hertz, Pepsi to their Coke, Burger King to their McDonalds!" The next two pages are full of alliteration and airy persiflage - a refreshing change from all the angst and hard-bitten cynicism that have inundated the SF genre. Most of the stories that follow are pleasant diversions. The emphasis is on humor, and even if it isn't laugh-out-loud-until-you-cry, this and an apple may help keep the doctor away.
K.D Wentworth's "Special Needs" is about a cub scout meeting for young weres in training that gets invaded by a pushy Mundane mom and her hapless son. But it turns out there is more to the misfit than meets the eye.
Lots of the stories represent the struggle to retain human semblance and self-direction under provocation, and all of them are set in the deceptively familiar blacktop-and-mass-production here and now. But the characters come in all sorts and sizes. There's the cop with a pixie companion in "Imaginary Fiend" who discovers that an obvious threat may not be the greatest danger. There's the U.S. Customs attorney who, in "Howl!" has to contend with a sly and smarmy adversary by day and midlife crisis at home, which proves to be ...transformative. In "Where-Wolf" Kevin is a suicide hot-line volunteer with an unusual challenge. In other stories, there are house moms, teens, retail workers, kids running amok, and strange neighbors. And "Enforcement Claws" is cathartic for anyone who has run afoul of their Home Owners' Association.
Ironically, Friesner's collection reinforces the very stereotypes she laments in her introduction. These weres have nothing of the glamour, danger, or sex-appeal of their rivals, the vampires. But they do seem to have more fun, and better family lives. Perhaps that's because vampires are inherently hierarchical whereas wolves are family and pack oriented; they survive through a carefully negotiated interaction of individual responsibility, cooperation, and coded ethics.
FurCons should get copies of this anthology to give out as prizes.
And in the good news department, editor Friesner is putting together the next Chicks in Chainmail anthology, to be titled, Chicks Ahoy! I'm guessing pirates.