Wilderness (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Keeper of a terrible secret and resigned to a fate some might regard as worse than death, Alice White lives alone, has no friends and permits herself human contact only in the arms of men she picks up for one-night stands. Once a month, at the full moon, Alice locks herself inside her basement and turns into a wolf. In this riveting debut, Danvers gives suspension of disbelief a whole new meaning. Never for an instant does the reader doubt Alice's plight nor fail to empathize with her dilemma: Should she , for the first time in her life, risk loving someone enough to share the secret with him? She wants desperately to end her self-imposed isolation but fears the awful truth will drive Erik Summers away. Wildlife biologist Summers, a man with a keen sensitivity to the anmial world, seems the ideal counterpart for the troubled Alice. Complicating these already dark matters still further are Summer's ex-wife, who wants him back, and Alice's psychiatrist, who has fallen in love with her. Human complications notwithstanding, it is when we are with Alice the wolf--prowling her den, pawing the floor, confined, condemned, yet unmistakably alive--that this provocative novel is at its sensuous, page-turning best. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild alternate; paperback rights to Pocket Books; film option to Pathe Entertainment.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Eos; 1st THUS edition (June 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380806460
• ISBN-13: 978-0380806461
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,012,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 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 (REAL NAME)

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!

9 of 11 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)

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelled to Read, November 29, 2001

By	Paul (Arvada, CO USA) - See all my reviews

Stories about werewolf's have always been great stories. In the case of Wilderness, Alice White is the werewolf. She knkows who she is but does'nt want to be who she is. In hope to help her problems she visits a shrink. The shrink tells her what she is seeking. Her life is in confusion, but when she meets Erick Summers, a college professor her life changes. Danvers exploits the characters throughout the book, showing each characters true feeldings. The detail within the books is fantastic leaving the reader fulfilled. The book has two settings, the city and the Canadian wilderness. The two settings allow Danvers to further develop the situations and characters. Overall the book is compelling, making the reader want to continus page after page