Benighted, Kit Whitfield.
A compulsively satisfying browse pickup from the horror section of the public library, Benighted is easily the best Were novel I've read all year, possibly because it takes itself seriously enough to masquerade as Literature with a capital L. Whitfield's premise is that on an earth similar to ours, 'luning' is the rule, rather than the exception, and the occasional human with a birth defect that prevents turning furry every full moon is conscripted into a government agency to police Moon Night roving.

It could have been just another paranormal mystery, cops and robbers, with a spot of bland romance, but the politics in this book are well thought out and truly stunning. Much like some careful constructions of post-zombie outbreaks, the author's thought through the implications of a parallel society that's both shunned for their defects, and feared for their lack of due process, and isolated from both. It's one flaw is its length, but given the scope of her world, Whitfield can be forgiven. It doesn't feel like the kind of book that begets a sequel, but it's a uniquely complex universe I wouldn't mind visiting in future.

Read April 2006