Still Life With Shape-Shifter (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Ten years old is pretty young to know you are the only thing standing between your sister and disaster, yet Melanie Landon knows. Melanie has lived every day since with the fear that Ann will not make it home and be hurt or killed like any other stray dog. Now that fear has, in a sense, become a reality.Writing about the lives of shape-shifters is what brings Brody Westerbrook to Melanie’s door, even though she vehemently denies any such knowledge. His persistence does not win him any favors, but he is unable stay away from someone who loves with her whole being.The deterioration in Ann’s health is terrifying for Melanie, especially when there is no way she can just stop in at the nearest ER. It is Brody, however, the man who could have torn her world apart, who becomes her rock as Ann gets weaker and weaker. With his extensive research into the shape-shifter world Brody knows of a doctor who may be able to help. Melanie will do anything to save Ann’s life; even if it means taking some extreme and drastic measures.You have never read a shape-shifter novel more real and human than these written by Ms. Shinn. These characters are not the super-human live forever, omni-powerful shifters mass produced by so many authors, but ones so remarkably real and fallible they are completely believable. The human perspective is a constant and wonderfully comprehensive, although there are times when I would love to know what is going on in the minds of the shifters. Even during the lightest moments there is a solemnity to this story that is undeniable and you feel for each and every one of these characters.Lototy Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More According to Wikipedia, the first story of men turning into wolves were written hundreds of years ago. In the Satyricon, written about 60 C.E. by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, a character transformed into a wolf. Europe has many legends of the were-wolf while North American Indians had tales of shape-shifters. The fear of werewolves and the evil they do is a fairly well known part of the legend. It is commonly thought that were-wolves have super human strength and speed, being only harmed by special "silver" bullets, and were able to heal themselves of injury. The were-wolf is thought to be most vulnerable as a human than as a wolf.Sharon Shinn's Still Life with Shape-Shifter comes at the story of were-wolf's from a completely different angle. Her shape-shifters, are almost all old before their time, scrawny, malnourished and die by 50 if they are lucky. Although some are cute little dogs when children, they eventually are almost uniformly abandoned by their families, who either cannot accept a werewolf or cannot live with one. They cannot control their transformation and so live troubled lives. Cannot go to school if you turn into a wolf every two weeks. How do you hold down a job. Its hard to meet others of their kind. But most importantly, Shinn imagines that the process of becoming a werewolf puts tremendous stress on the body. Although the actual transformation is magical and glowing, the were-wolves's organs are affected by the sheer fact that the body is transformed from small to large size. And if this story was more about were-wolves and the problems they face it might have held more interest.But that's just a subtext.Instead this is really a story about the power of love and fear-both the love of a woman for a man and the love of a woman for her child, and how the fear of dealing with our love's lives can transform all of us -- sometimes in good ways, and sometimes in bad ways. Melanie Landon is hiding from life in a small town called Dagmar. She lives in an old beat up house with a huge lot right in the middle of two big housing projects. She refuses to sell her house for big bucks because she is afraid for her half sister Ann, a shapeshifter -- who is "her whole life". Melanie raised Ann and cares for her like a parent, but lives in perpetual fear that Ann will be hurt or killed in her other shape or that the secret will come out. Melanie is paralyzed. But when Ann returns to Melanie its like the dawn of a new day. Grumpy Melanie's life is transformed into happy unscared Melanie.Then Brody Westerbrook appears. An ex-reporter, who witnessed the transformation of a wolf into a man, he wants to write a book about shape-shifters and believes that Ann is a shifter. Handsome, articulate and smart, Brody starts to win over Melanie's heart, while her brain and her fear for her sister try to keep him away. Its a battle for Melanie's soul. Melanie and Brody are good characters and have their moments, and Brody promises to stay away from the story of Ann. Meanwhile Ann has found a fellow shape-shifter who has noticed that Ann seems to be ill.But before we can explore these issues, boom, Shinn shifts to another story set in the novel -- a story we learn that runs parallel temporarily to this story. Its the story of Janet and Cooper. Janet, who lives with trying parents befriends Cooper, a young shape-shifter artist and learns to love him. Cooper would like to be human all the time, but cannot, and soon also feels the affects of his shape shifting process.Meanwhile in the Brody, Melanie, Ann triangle, Melanie must learn to let go of her Ann and live.I found myself skipping pages. The Janet - Cooper story was boring in parts, and so was the Ann, Melanie, Brody story. If Brody was so gung ho to write a story - why did his life seize up and stop as well. Besides the exploration of what it means to be a werewolf the story was really about what it means to be in a relationshp with one. In Melanie's case her life was a still life. Her sister was her whole world, and in Janet's case, she was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice merely to spend a few short months with her lover.I wanted a grittier urban fantasy. I got something else. And it was disappointing.
What do You think about Still Life With Shape-Shifter (2012)?
This was better than the first one. But it had sad parts too. I actually cried. So very good though.
—ggharrison9
I enjoyed this book, although I found the Peggy chapters unnecessary.
—bonj_xmen
