Henry VIII Wolfman

Henry VIII Wolfman

by A. E. Moorat

Synopsis:

HENRY VIII: WOLFMAN. DIVORCED. BEHEADED. DIED. MAULED. SAVAGED. SURVIVED. Henry VIII was the best and bloodiest King ever to have sat on the throne of England. This fast-paced, exciting, gory, inventive and just plain gross retelling of his reign will bring to light the real man behind the myth. When it came to his size, Henry VIII was known for being larger-than-life, with a fearsome temper and bloodthirsty reputation to match; more beast than human, some might say... Be dragged kicking and screaming back 500 years into Tudor England.

  

My thoughts: 

First thing I will say is this is not my usual type of book but lately I have found myself eyeing all those classic mash-ups like “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, “Little Women and the Werewolves”, “Withering Bites”, and so on.  Henry VIII Wolfman is my first mash-up experience and while I can't say that I loved it; I definitely didn't hate it either.  In Moorat’s Tudor England demons are real but a treaty has been signed between them and the humans.  The Arcadians (werewolves) are about to destroy the peace that the treaty offers as they are not satisfied with their lot in life (being the lowest ranking demons and resent by everyone on both sides) and decided to do something about it.  Unfortunately this involves eating Henry’s much longed for baby son and then proceeding to bite Henry himself.  Finding himself turning into a werewolf however doesn't really seem to concern Henry too much especially when he discovers how very taste human flesh can be.  In the meantime members of the Protektorate (including one Jane Seymour), Sir Thomas More, and Cardinal Wolsey are trying to stop the werewolves from building an army to overthrow Henry and take England for themselves. For the most part I found that the story moved very fast but there were two or three parts that slowed right down and I had to push myself through them.  If you are looking for a serious read this is not the book; this story is silly almost bordering on downright ridiculous at times.  Some of the characters (Wolsey in particular) use some very colorful language and employs some interesting problem solving ideas causing some a couple good laughing fits from me.  I think the main reason I didn't enjoy this book more was the violence that was quite graphic in detail.  There is a decent amount of blood and gore to be found in this book to keep horror fans entertained but for me it was a bit much to process and I wouldn't recommend it to someone who wasn't a huge fan.