Shapeshifter [Mass Market Paperback]

J. F. Gonzalez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2008

Mark Wiseman has been living with the curse for years. He thought he had it under control. He thought he had kept it secret from everybody. Until Bernard Roberts, a powerful, influential man, came into his life. Bernard knows about the curse that runs through Mark's veins. He knows how Mark's parents were killed eight years ago. And if Mark wants Bernard to keep these things secret he must do what Bernard tells him. He must use his curse to kill. Bernard Roberts wants to exploit Mark for his own purposes. And Mark Wiseman begins to lose control of the curse, threatening his own life, and the life of the woman he loves.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

I found the whole story to be fascinating. The idea of a werewolf in contemporary Los Angeles is a splendid one on its own! Anyone who likes Stephen King, Peter Straub, werewolves, or has ever had a boss they wanted to get even with will love this book! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author

The main character of the story, Mark Wiseman, was actually inspired by some nameless guy that worked at one of my former day jobs. I used to work for a very large national insurance company, and one time I saw this guy and one of my friends commented that he looked like a werewolf. From that moment on we refered to him as 'the werewolf guy'. I started wondering 'suppose he really is a werewolf? What would happen if somebody else found out, like his boss?' I kept thinking about all this, and since I was already working for such a large corporation I used that setting as the springboard, and the story just grew from there.

With the exception of The Wolfen by Whitley Streiber, every werewolf novel I've ever read has taken place in rural communities. The Wolfen was set in a big city--New York. I wanted to set Shapeshifter in the world I was most familiar with at the time, which was the upper middle-class suburbs. I also wanted to tinker with some of the werewolf myths. There actually is a theory of the therimorphs, as described in the book, which states that certain people identify strongly with the wolf, so much that the essence is deeply held within them and that they are capable of letting it out of them in times of deep anguish and stress. Some people believe they can tap into this part of themselves at will, literally shapechanging whenever the mood hits. I found this aspect of the werewolf fascinating, and wanted to address it in Shapeshifter. As it turns out it dovetails perfectly with Mark Wiseman's homelife, which was very dysfunctional, unloving, and abusive. It was only a matter of time before the beast awoke in Mark, and it does.

In the end, though, my only objective with Shapeshifter was to entertain the reader. That's all that matters to me. I'm a big fan of old fashioned, page-turning horror fiction, and that's what I wanted to write. I figured if it entertains me, it will be fun for other people. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 323 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (September 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843959738
• ISBN-13: 978-0843959734
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,683,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Werewolf of Orange County, April 4, 2010

By 

William B. Bebout "Acknud" (Morganfield, Ky United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shapeshifter (Mass Market Paperback)

I wanted to give this book a lower score and even considered quitting it a time or two. I did neither. I didn't quit because how do you know it doesn't improve later on and I didn't give it a lower score because there were actually a few really entertaining parts to it.

It could have been a good story but the conversations between characters and the explanation of Mark's illness border on the simplistic and ludicrous. I don't think that if I were trying to convince my girlfriend that I was a werewolf that I would start discussing or lecturing on ancient far eastern mythology and how it carries over into the modern era! Hell, I thought I was back in school!

The beginning was ok and the ending pretty good. It was that middle section that sank it for me.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More Crime Thriller Than Horror, June 24, 2008

By 

William M Miller (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shapeshifter (Mass Market Paperback)

While I usually love books by Gonzalez, this one was a step down for me. The opening setup was quite excellent by having a troubled man's identity secretly discovered by his superior at work and recorded on videotape. The boss then blackmails his employee to do his dirty deeds as a werewolf, killing off his competition. However, in almost every scene with the werewolf, you could easily substitute the name "werewolf" for "hitman" and you'd essentially have the same effect, only with a more grisly outcome. It reads more as a crime thriller than a horror novel. I wanted to delve into Mark Wiseman's world a lot deeper than was written, but it was a fast, fun read nonetheless.

My only other problem was the incredibly high amount of coincidences in the final third of the book where our villain discovers his ex-girlfriend and our hero, Mark Wiseman, have been seeing each other, run off together, and are easily tracked down. George Fielding's piecing together clues to the murders and the involvement of everyone also seemed like a bit of a stretch, especially after just coming out of a coma. But regardless, Gonzalez is trying a something new here and I'm glad he did. Personally, I prefer his book, "Survivor", a much more visceral plunge into horror. As long as you have the stomach for it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast read, entertaining, but not brilliant, April 7, 2008

By 

Ravenskya "Princess of Horror" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Shapeshifter (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my first Gonzalez book, and I have to admit that my opinion of it is slightly perplexed. I enjoyed the story; being a sucker for werewolves I was pretty happy to be reading a werewolf book to begin with. The lead character - Mark Weisman, was your standard werewolf, a tragic figure who fights to control his cursed life and deal with the carnage he knows he is causing. He has some control over his change, but not nearly enough.

The real monster of the story is a high level executive, under the gun for committing fraud and a few other nasty white collar crimes. Bernard discovers Mark's secret and decides as only a true monster could, to use it for his own gain. (By the way there are no spoilers in that little bit, it's written on the back of the book). Add in a love interest, quite a few dead execs and a corporate merger and we should be in for quite the evening of werewolf fun.

So why did I finish this 300+ page book in 3 hours? I know I read fast, but it should have lasted me a day and a half... The writing style was very simple, I don't know if that was good or bad. The characters are extremely quick in their emotions, falling in love is an almost overnight decision... there is very little sense of time passing; I know that this book took place in about a years time, but you never get that feeling. Also there are a couple of plot holes that I won't point out here, they aren't huge, but they are there. On the whole I enjoyed the 3 hours I spent blazing through this book. As I said the writing style is extremely simplistic. If it wasn't for the sex and hint at gore (I didn't find the book overly gorey, personally) I would almost consider this written in a "young adult" fashion. There isn't a lot of glowing prose, description is minimal, in fact it isn't until the end of the book that Mark is truly described physically, Bernard is only described as "Tall" and Mark in his wolf shape is left so open that I wasn't sure if we had an "American Werewolf" style or "Lon Chaney" style werewolf. In fact the only characters who are given decent physical descriptions are the women, and that is simply that they are all blond and all have perfect legs and huge boobs.

If you are looking for a fast simple read, pick this up at a used bookstore. If you are looking for something mind altering, mood changing, or eye opening... look elsewhere.