‘Like a hairier Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a a big-hearted novel about finding your \”pack\” in unexpected places’ Marie Claire, Best Books of the Year
Brian, an aimless slacker in his twenties, works double shifts at his waiter job, never cleans his apartment and gets black-out drunk with his restaurant comrades, Nik and Darby. He’s been struggling to manage his transition to adulthood almost as much as his monthly transitions to a werewolf. Really, he is not great at the whole werewolf thing, and his recent murderous slip-ups have caught the attention of Tyler, a Millennial were-entrepreneur determined to explore exponential growth strategies in the mythological wellness market.
Tyler has got a plan and he wants Brian to be part of it, and weirdly his brand of self-help punditry actually encourages Brian to shape up and to stop accidently marking out bad tippers at the restaurant as potential monthly victims. But as Brian gets closer to Tyler’s pack and drifts further away from Nik and Darby, he realises that Tyler’s expansion plans are much more nefarious than a little lupine enlightenment…
Big-hearted, goofy, anarchic and funny, Bored Gay Werewolf is a smart take on the doomsday logic of late capitalism and the complicated meeting point of masculinity and sexuality. More than that, though, and like Scooby Doo with Grindr or Stranger Things with sex and ennui, it’s a buddy novel about finding your pack, the power of friendship, and learning how to be comfortable in your own, shaggy werewolf pelt
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Imprint: Atlantic Books UK
Publication date: 06/06/2024
Bored Gay Werewolf
by Tony Santorella
Review by Alex
Brian is a 20-ish young man, bored out of his mind and working a dead-end job in a crappy restaurant. He is gay, with no money or romantic prospects. He is also a werewolf, who may have killed a man. But really, what gay in their twenties hasn't at some point? This book is fun.
A strange slice of life that despite its bizarre subject matter manages to be wholly relatable. It is no chilling horror, but rather a comedy that shows there really IS a bored-gay-werewolf in us all. It is also somehow a critique of social media and the toxicity of the current 'alpha male' content creators pushing their insipid brand of hyper masculinity. And, somehow, it manages to weave in themes of chosen family and the importance of friendship. But also… a situational werewolf comedy? It crams a lot in such a small book. Read or you're gay! Or IF you're gay!
