Wilderness [Paperback]

Dennis Danvers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1992

Bright, beautiful, and sensuous, Alice White dares to tell her new lover, Erik, her shocking secret--that at each full moon she turns into a wolf. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Once a month, at the full moon, the protagonist of this riveting debut novel--a Literary Guild alternate in cloth--locks herself inside her basement and turns into a wolf. Should she share her secret with a sensitive wildlife biologist?
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Beware the publisher's hype: it makes this lovely novel sound ridiculous. Primarily a story about the trials of love, Wilderness has as its heroine Alice White, a woman who has kept herself shut off emotionally because of a shameful secret. When she meets Erik, they fall in love and she decides to tell him who she really is--a werewolf. Of course he doesn't believe her, and their resulting soul-searching is painful to share. Alice's main concern was to be believed and, more important, accepted; so at Erik's rejection she decides actively to explore her animal half. Matters are complicated by Alice's inept psychiatrist and by Erik's ex-wife, who decides at this crucial time that she wants him back. Eventually, Erik realizes he loves Alice. The characters are all well rounded; we even get a glimpse of the pompous psychiatrist's empty home life. In no way a horror story, this book is as good as the publisher claims, but it is a pity that the promotion even mentions the "werewolf" theme. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/91.
-A.M.B. Amantia, Population Crisis Committee Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (June 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671728288
• ISBN-13: 978-0671728281
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,479,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully Lupine Love Story--Read It!, August 24, 2002

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wilderness (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a most amazing book, beginning with the premise that Alice White, a beautiful and talented young lady, turns into a wolf once a month like clockwork. Naturally this complicates her life and forces her into a lonely existence of superficial relationships. That is, until she meets Erik, her college course advisor, and against her better judgment, falls deeply in love with him. He is the first man she has ever loved, but what will he say when she tells him the lycanthropic truth? This is a love story that really gets complicated. And Erik's ex-wife Debra is trying to win him back. And her psychiatrist, who secretly lusts for her, is making things even more difficult.

Well, this was a book I could not put down. It is well written, wise and insightful. Danvers makes the strange premise of the book somehow believable. You begin to wonder--well, what if? After all, don't we all have an animal nature, a dark side that we scarcely know? The only part of the book I found hard to believe was the unprofessional behavior of the psychiatrist.

So, run out to the woods and howl--no, no--buy this book and read it, nooooooow!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classy werewolf novel, May 23, 2002

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wilderness (Mass Market Paperback)

Vampires tend to take centre stage in the majority of horror novels I see on my library and bookstore shelves these days,while novels about lycanthropes tend to trail a long way behind in both quality and quantity.I suspect it is all down to sensuality and sex, with vampires being inherently more erotic than werewolves whose destruction of their prey tends to be coarse and unrefined compared to the vampire's seductiveness and refined elegance."Wildernes"is that rarity-a tale of werewolves that is cool in tone and saturated with a delicate sensuality that is quite erotic--Anne Rice without the super saturated langauage she mistakenly feels is classy.

It is in essence a romantic and languidly elegant love story whose heroine,"Alice White"is a werewolf who in her childhood tore out the throat of a would be rapist.Now an adult she works in a travel agency,takes courses at the local University and manages to maintain her emotional distance from the world while enjoying an active sex life.She keeps her transformations into
werewolfdom a secret by a self-imposed solitude at key times.She then meets and falls in love with "Erik Summers"a biologist from the University and confides in him.Understandably he is sceptical ,thinking her in need of therapy.Alice leaves him and vanishes into the wilderness where he pursues her

The wilderness of the title is not simply the wilds of nature but also a reference to the untamed and hostile areas of the human mind and soul When love is involved ,and only when love is involved, can science and the forces which science cannot explain come to live together.This seems to be the message to this complelling book .It is a work low in gore and viscerality and its tone is cerebral and detached avoiding the usual genre cliches

Enjoyable and worth the time of anyone who likes the quiet horror of such as Grant and Wright

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay but not a romance, January 26, 2010

By 

Jacqueline (Lone Jack, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wilderness (Mass Market Paperback)

I got this from the romance section and even though it is basically a love story it is not typical of romance werewolf stories. Or even typical of romances in general. The hero is a beta hero. The writing was a bit pretentious in places. This was obviously written by a man. Examples are (keeping in mind I am talking about ROMANCES written by women not women writers in general) the heroine as a wolf takes a sh**. (His word, not mine). Never do women include this in romance novels as that just isn't romantic. Also the hero smokes pot. Women who read romance novels don't generally think pot heads are very romantic. That's just 2 examples. The hero and heroine spend very little time together and it is glossed over by the author saying basically 'they spend the week together.' The happy ever after bit at the end was barely there. So not a lot of payoff for sticking with it for 376 pages.

So a fairly good book. NOT a romance.