Bitten (novel)
.jpg) First Edition (publ, Random House, Canada) | |
| Author | Kelley Armstrong |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Dominic Harman |
| Language | English |
| Series | Women of the Otherworld |
| Genre | Urban fantasy |
| Published | Viking Adult (United States), Little, Brown & co. (U.K.), Random House (Canada) |
Publication date | October 2, 2001 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) and audio book (cassette) |
| Pages | 400 (hardcover) 384 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-670-89471-0 |
| Followed by | Stolen |
Bitten is a fantasy novel by Canadian writer Kelley Armstrong, published in 2001. It is the first book in the Women of the Otherworld series, and her first novel.
Premise
[edit]Elena Michaels is the only known female werewolf, but she grows tired of spending her life pursuing rogue werewolves and trying to control her temper and violence. She decides to leave her Pack and live in Toronto as a human, but the Pack leader calls in a favor, which leads Elena to try to help quell an uprising.[1]
Concept and creation
[edit]Armstrong says Bitten was inspired by an X-Files episode on werewolves. She had the idea to portray werewolves as other than "bloodthirsty, ravening beasts" and quickly wrote a short story about a young woman who becomes a werewolf to present to her writing group. Eventually, Armstrong fleshed out the short story into a novel that became Bitten.[2]
Werewolf mythology
[edit]In the Women of the Otherworld series, unlike many modern horror fiction stories, werewolves transform into full wolves in a painful transmogrification, while maintaining their hair colour and body mass, making them extremely large wolves. Although transformations have to occur regularly, Armstrong's werewolves are not affected by phases of the moon, can shape-shift at will and can learn to transform a single part of their body. Werewolves can be killed by anything that can kill a human and have no extra sensitivity to silver. They age slower than humans. For example, Antonio and his son Nick, despite an age gap of 17 years, pass themselves off as brothers in human company. In fact, Pack sons are raised referring to their fathers as 'uncle' while amidst humans, in order to avoid questions.
While in human form, werewolves have wolf-like characteristics, better hearing, a keener sense of smell and a wolf's instinctive reactions, while in wolf form they maintain their intellect but cannot talk and are more driven by instinct. In both forms, they have greater strength and reflexes than a normal human or wolf and heal significantly faster. Hereditary werewolves acquire these enhanced abilities gradually, following puberty, and have their first change in their late teens or early 20s. Non-hereditary werewolves start changing shortly after they are bitten, and not all survive the process; the bitten Mutts took around a month to recover. In the case of Clay, he could transform and had the enhanced abilities from when he was bitten at around age five.
Release details
[edit]- First released in the U.S. by Viking Press in September 2001, in hardcover.
- Released in trade paperback in January 2003 by Plume.
- Released in mass market paperback in August 2004 by Plume.
Awards and nominations
[edit]- Nominated Best First Novel by the International Horror Guild
Screen adaptations
[edit]For a while, there was discussion of making a movie adaptation of the novel. Angelina Jolie was approached to play the central role of Elena. A script is still floating around for it.[3][4]
On 23 August 2012, Space announced that a full-season TV adaptation of Bitten would commence production in spring 2013. On 9 March 2013, it was announced that Laura Vandervoort would be cast as Elena Michaels.[5] The 13-part series was scheduled to premiere in fall 2013[6] but was pushed back and premiered in January 2014.[7] On 12 August 2014, the full first season was released in the United States on Blu-ray and DVD.
References
[edit]- ^ From "Bitten" website Archived 13 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ White, Claire E. (January–February 2005), A Conversation With Kelley Armstrong, Writers Write, Inc.
- ^ Entertainment News at Gay.com
- ^ Movie News at Werewolf-Movies.com Archived 7 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Christy Sullivan (9 March 2013). "Laura Vandervoort Gets BITTEN: Canadian-Born Actress to Star in New Space Original Series". Bell Media. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
- ^ SPACE orders new original Canadian drama Bitten
- ^ Male Leads Added to the BITTEN Pack as Production Begins in Toronto on New Original Series for Space
External links
[edit]- "Frisky... Tells a rather sweet love story, and suggests that being a wolf may be more comfortable for a strong, smart young woman than being human." – New York Times review
- "[Does] the same thing for werewolves that Anne Rice did for vampires in her Interview with the Vampire."- Rocky Mountain News
- Author's Official Website
- Bitten title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Review of "Bitten" at rpg.net
- Review of "Bitten" at sfsite.com
- Author's page at agent's website