A little web research told me that Vivian Vande Velde IS her real/legal name. I’m impressed; many writers are not lucky enough to marry into such a euphonious — and writerly — name. Anyway, VVV has written about thirty books, if I can count correctly, including the previously-reviewed Heir Apparent. They range from a picture book to several works generally classified as YA, including this novel.

Weiland starts the book rather like Marion Zimmer Bradley’s infamous advice: with his fanny in a bear trap. Well, actually his leg is in a wolf trap, but close enough. He’s somewhere between a possession and an employee of a sorceress named Daria, who can turn animals into humans. Weiland was a wolf at one point, but Daria has raised him as mostly human, so unlike the other wolf-creatures, he can function better as a human. However, Daria decides to move to town, into a house right by the cathedral, so all her semi-animal employees must learn to function in town. She’s getting more and more abusive, though: she kills a human and has plans to kill more on her way to the top. Weiland has always displeased her to a level, so he’s in danger. However, if Daria dies or he strays too far from her magic, he reverts to wolf. How can he escape her without losing his humanity?

Weiland and Daria’s world is a medieval world, generically England, a step removed from ours. The (Catholic) Church exists, and holds a good deal of power; magic exists, though it isn’t terribly prevalent. Ms. Vande Velde doesn’t give that many details about the physical setting, but Weiland does notice that the houses in town are made of wood, which is obviously flammable. The changelings are supposed to tell people that they have recently returned from the Holy Land (where there is a war), so the time is during the Crusades.

The story is intended for YA audiences, but it’s awfully violent and bloody. Weiland, as I mentioned, starts the book with his leg in a trap — and not just in the trap. It had originally been up by his knee, but he’d gotten it down as far as his ankle, with the accompanying bloody furrows, described. Later on, someone is sacrificed to consecrate the new house (I forget the exact wording, but that was in essence what the death was for). Also, a human is killed by a pack of wolves under Daria’s control, and at the end, someone’s head is bitten off. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s just run-of-the-mill fantasy-horror violence, but for a book that is supposedly fantasy and not horror, I found it a little extensive. Actually, it wasn’t so much that it was extensive in a fantasy book — it was that I found it extensive for a YA fantasy book.

Until the pivotal event wherein Daria kills a human, I wasn’t entirely sure what the book was actually about. The situation seemed a bit dire, but I couldn’t remember if VVV had introduced another element for conflict (I read the book originally about ten years ago). It’s not a perfect book — the setting is not very well described, and most of the characters are pretty shallow. However, her prose is clear, the story is generally straightforward, and if you can stomach the violence, I’ll recommend it. 3.5/5 stars.