tinasimms

Four stars generally doesn't require this explanation, but here it goes: I really liked this book. The series overall is pretty great. I'm eager for the follow-up, Isle of Blood. Will Henry is a great narrator: emotional, precise, and vulnerable. He isn't completely reliable, but that's what makes him so interesting.
     This installment revolves around Warthrop and his background. Usually depicted as cold, his only love being monster-hunting, Curse of Wendigo opens with a long-lost love approaching him for help. In fact, Warthrop also stumbles across admiring colleagues, a best friend that got little to no mention in the first book, and even a (harmless) stalker. He gets more dimension in this story, though his underlining similarity of coldness to Kearns remains. Does Warthrop genuinely love Will Henry, or does he know that if Will leaves, he will truly be alone? Like I said, dimension abounds.
     That said, this is the goriest series I've ever read. I'm not one of gore, but Yancey spared no details on entrails, face-ripping (and wearing... ick), impalement, cannibalism--all, of course, in the name of science. I wished that Yancey could have gone into some of the other characters more: Riis, in particular, was neat blend of hermitic and genius. Hopefully some of them will make cameo appearances in the later books.
     Why isn't this five stars? This is my one issue with Yancey: I'm not a fan of how he write his female characters. Instead of being driven by intuition, like Warthrop or von Helrung, they are driven by bloodlust; those who aren't are helpless to their bloody fates. (Lilly is the former, and Muriel is the latter.) I know that this story is dated, and that Yancey isn't alone in this trope, but it does get aggravating when the women are only ever shrieking, dying, or lapping up the macabre. There are other options. But, who knows? Other female characters might appear in the following books.