Pre-Owned Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures (Paperback) 1410758095 9781410758095

All the commissioned artwork is the sort of character illustration done at fan conventions for ten dollars at an artist's table. They're rather good examples of their genre, but still clearly amateur. Perhaps she was unwilling to lean too heavily on the work of the past, but there's no shame in borrowing from the masters, and it would have added greatly to the feel of the book. For the devoted fan of shapeshifter lore, Half Human, Half Animal is worth buying for the resource list alone. New fans to the genre could do worse than to start with this book, which covers a wider variety of myths and legends than the usual Euro-centric werewolf-exclusive fare. It's not the most elegantly written volume on the subject, as Hall seems to be finding her feet in this first literary excursion. Still, I'm looking forward to the second volume Hall claims to be assembling; with luck she'll have fully overcome her first time writer's foibles without losing her fan's enthusiasm for the subject. Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures will help round out any folklore fan's shelf.