#reading it while watching the tudors meant wolf au more was clearly jeremy northam

[thisbluespirit]

I assumed this would be one of those gore-is-funny books but I was curious & I need daft things for when I've too little brain for something serious. And there I was, watching The Tudors and just in between reading Bring Up The Bodies and The Mirror and the Light, and it seemed like the moment. XD)

Anyway, it was that, with bonus werewolf sex (tw, I deeply, deeply wish I'd had: that it would start off with Thomas More getting raped by a female werewolf.)

Tbf Author did dedicate it "For Granny, with apologies for all the rude and horrid bits." (about which i also have questions) But still. I didn't know that was what they meant!

Anyway, it's Tudor England, but with werewolves (wolfen) and also witches and demons, which means there are also some self-appointed witchfinder characters (Agatha and Hob Hoblet) wandering about. There is a fair bit of violence/gore as expected, and the main plot is Henry being wolfed and trying to use that against the werewolves (via hate as they killed his baby son, so, like I said: gore warnings.)

But basically:

Henry VIII - business as usual, except werewolf, and getting wolfier by the day. (Bonus points for complaining about everyone around him being called Thomas at one point.)

Thomas Wolsey - has to deal with the Vatican anti-werewolf squad and semi-supernatural ambassadors. On the plus side, no downfall, on the minus side, he accidentally misplaces Thomas More for most of the book and ends up killed by a werewolf.

Anne Boleyn - also wolfed. Better or worse? idk.

Jane Seymour - On the upside, badass Jane the Werewolf Slayer. (On the downside, gets devoured in coda. whoops.)

Thomas Cromwell - Mr Nearly Not Appearing In This Book. While everyone else is stuck in the werewolf plot, he's off with Cranmer arranging a quickie divorce in mere months off-screen. (seems legit.)

Thomas Howard (Norfolk) & Thomas Boleyn - busy doing much werewolf hunting and also when the Hoblets arrest Thomas More for being out in the woods with a lady werewolf and a peasant are just. No. we don't know this guy, obv he's not Sir Thos More, lolol, what a liar. feel free to kill him, byeeee.

which means:

Thomas More - gets stuck with the Hoblets who want to execute him for consorting with werewolves, but once they realise he is More, they want to do it in a big town and make money out of it, and drag him about while going to great lengths to keep him alive so they can execute him properly later. Agatha's extreme determination on this front = finding a for cure the sweating sickness when he gets sick, except by that time the whole executing thing is an embarrassing faux pas they don't mention, they're all family now ok.

Big upside: gets to escape and live with his family in Paris and not be executed thanks to the Hoblets' now deep lifelong committment to people not executing Thomas More unless its them.

So, yeah, the whole Hoblets & Thomas More thing was pretty fun It was daft, but easy going. And I've read more supposedly serious things that have a more cavalier attitude to history. Just take the author's warning to their granny with all the seriousness it deserves. Not really for the squeamish, like me.

Top marks for the cover, though, lol.

Thing I found staring at me on the local supermarket charity bookstall one day. Obviously, it looked so amazingly terrible I had to pay my 50p and take it home with me.