The Wolf Gift: The Wolf Gift Chronicles (1)
Kindle
$11.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$15.11
Paperback
$14.05
Audible Logo Your audiobook is waiting!
Enjoy a free trial on us
$0.00
  • Click above for unlimited listening to select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts.
  • One credit a month to pick any title from our entire premium selection — yours to keep (you'll use your first credit now).
  • You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
  • $14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel online anytime.
Learn more about membership
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
List Price: $24.08
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.
Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

The Wolf Gift: The Wolf Gift Chronicles (1) Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Anne Rice (Author), Ron McLarty (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 4,948 ratings
Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
See all formats and editions

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “Vintage Anne Rice—a lushly written, gothic … metaphysical tale. This time, with werewolves.” —The Wall Street Journal

A daring new departure from the inspired creator of The Vampire Chronicles (“unrelentingly erotic . . . unforgettable”—The Washington Post), Lives of the Mayfair Witches (“Anne Rice will live on through the ages of literature”—San Francisco Chronicle), and the angels of The Songs of the Seraphim (“remarkable”—Associated Press). A whole new world—modern, sleek, high-tech—and at its center, a story as old and compelling as history: the making of a werewolf, reimagined and reinvented as only Anne Rice, teller of mesmerizing tales, conjurer extraordinaire of other realms, could create.

The time is the present.

The place, the rugged coast of Northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.

A young reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Observer . . . An older woman welcoming him into her magnificent family home that he has been sent to write about and that she must sell with some urgency . . . A chance encounter between two unlikely people . . . An idyllic night—shattered by horrific unimaginable violence, the young man inexplicably attacked—bitten—by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness . . . A violent episode that sets in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation, as the young man, caught between ecstasy and horror, between embracing who he is evolving into and fearing what he will become, soon experiences the thrill of the wolf gift.

As he resists the paradoxical pleasure and enthrallment of his wolfen savagery and delights in the power and (surprising) capacity for good, he is caught up in a strange and dangerous rescue and is desperately hunted as “the Man Wolf” by authorities, the media, and scientists (evidence of DNA threatens to reveal his dual existence) . . . As a new and profound love enfolds him, questions emerge that propel him deeper into his mysterious new world: questions of why and how he has been given this gift; of its true nature and the curious but satisfying pull towards goodness; of the profound realization that there may be others like him who are watching—guardian creatures who have existed throughout time who possess ancient secrets and alchemical knowledge. And throughout it all, the search for salvation for a soul tormented by a new realm of temptations, and the fraught, exhilarating journey, still to come, of being and becoming, fully, both wolf and man.

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    17 hours and 18 minutes
  2. Author
    Anne Rice
  3. Narrator
    Ron McLarty
  4. Audible release date
    February 14, 2012
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B0078XQZAQ
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
Next page

Read & Listen

Switch between reading the Kindle book & listening to the Audible audiobook with Whispersync for Voice.
Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $9.49 after you buy the Kindle book.

Product details

Listening Length 17 hours and 18 minutes
Author Anne Rice
Narrator Ron McLarty
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date February 14, 2012
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0078XQZAQ
Best Sellers Rank #17,667 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#456 in Paranormal Fantasy
#538 in Paranormal Romance (Audible Books & Originals)
#1,199 in Supernatural Thrillers (Books)

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
4,948 global ratings
Some banal thing turned into magical
5 Stars
Some banal thing turned into magical
I read a lot of reviews how bad this book is. But I finally have read it by myself to make my own opinion. And I strongly disagree with the ones who says it's bad.I give five stars because I really liked plot of story. Anne Rice changed my opinion about many things in life. So she did same with werewolves. I can confess I hated werewolves, thought they were just "stupid dogs", but this book changed my opinion. Anne Rice showed these mythical creatures in other spotlight. As loving creatures with their own story and philosophy of life. She showed they aren't some heartless beasts. Anne as always turned some banal thing into something magical.Well, first half of book was...quite boring. But another half was amazing! In the end of book Anne came back to her incredible story telling and revealing secrets. I can say I usually "know" how book gonna end, but this time I had no idea it will end so good.So, in the conclusion I must say it wasn't as bad as people were reviewing everywhere, I wasn't disappointed. It is good book, interesting plot. But...one "but", this book doesn't have that charm Anne had in Vampires Chronicles. It's just...something's missing... Something is gone... But of course, it's different story, different plot. I can feel this book is very mature, calm. There are action scenes, but in all and all, it's calm book, relaxing. This type of book that you can just read and enjoy simple reading.Any way, I enjoyed every single page of this book. In 2014 March 6th it was translated and published in Lithuanian, so I got that book. Maybe it is because Lithuanian editions are bad and I really hate reading in my native language... But any way, I never believe what people review, I always read books and make my own opinion. Five stars and that's it. Good book for me.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Kelly Burkett
5.0 out of 5 stars Not at all dissapointed
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2012
Verified Purchase
I am not Anne Rice's number one fan, I have not waited with baited breath for each and every book she has written, as a matter of fact, I have only read Interview with the Vampire. I remember reading interview when it was first published, in it Ann Rice had taken something mythical and brought it into the modern age like no one had ever done or could ever do. Vampires were more believable after interview and I began to see the author as being one of the best I had ever read. Why didn't I continue to read her work? Because I felt that she had reached perfection with interview and that any sequel would only water down her perfect vision. When I first heard that Ann Rice was writing a werewolf story, that story moved to the top of my to read list.

I opened The Wolf Gift expecting the author to do with werewolves what she had done with Vampires, I expected her to rejuvenate them, to add new life to an old tale, She did not accomplish this with The Wolf Gift. This is neither a retelling of the original myth or "new and improved" version. This story ( in my opinion) could have been told without any mention of a werewolf. We could have just as well read about young writer Ruben as he purchases an old mansion and discovers it's hidden secrets. The story could have been about a new vampire in which case the story may have been better received.

The author attempted to create a new species or werewolf that while not on the scale of "Sparkly Vampires" had a very similar effect on me as I read. There didn't seem to be any transformation between the happy youth and the killing beast, Ruben excepted the beast and it's murdering rage too easily. The werewolf in this book drives a car at one point and even uses a cell phone, this sounds idiotic but it works as well in this story as music from Queen and David Bowie worked in a Knights Tale. There was nothing in the story that didn't seem to fit other than the fact that everyone on the story has blue eyes without a tie in or explanation. The Characters weren't as well developed as I had hoped and I couldn't really identify with Ruben who seemed too young and yet acted too old to be very interesting, simply put, he was boring.

As I expected, Anne Rice's writing is better than I would have thought and her descriptions placed me right at the scene as if I were watching the events unfold before my eyes, I still feel that she is the most talented author that I have ever read. I can almost feel the mist on my face and smell the redwood as I stand on the balcony on my own room within the mansion. The descriptions of the creatures actions were magnificent but a little too short, I would have enjoyed more time with the beast and less time with Ruben. The mysteries within the house were enjoyable an I can imagine spending time in the secret rooms. The story ties up almost everything in the last two chapters but I didn't particularly enjoy the ending and I felt that the history of the werewolves to be a last minute add in.

In an earlier review someone refereed to this as a comfort read, I have never understood what a comfort read was before reading The Wolf Gift but I did find it a relaxing and comfortable read. This book is not an action packed horror with a werewolf killing everything in sight, it is a story about someone becoming a werewolf like creature who wants to use his abilities for good. The story draws you in, gets you comfortable and then slaps you in the face before offering you a nice Iced tea and a bit of Belgian Chocolate.

The Wolf Gift is a wonderful story about a werewolf who wants to do good, it is an adventure, a mystery and a romance all tied together. I am sure that the authors fans will enjoy it as well as true werewolf fans like myself but horror fans should probably move on to something else. Altogether I feel that this is worthy of Anne Rice and although it might not be the werewolf story I had hoped for, it is among the best I have ever read and deserving of the highest ratings and praise.
19 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Joshua Converse
4.0 out of 5 stars Read this book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2012
Verified Purchase
On finishing Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift I had to step away. I had questions. I've read much of her fiction and asked myself if this was different. These werewolves are not just vampires who walk in daylight, nor are they a sort of shamanic Mayfair redux. They certainly aren't angels, or the Christ. Had she invented something new with Reuben Golding and his Man Wolf? To be sure there are echoes of past ideas, past books and past discussions.
It is a beautiful story. Almost saccharine in some places and brutal in others. The stylized Anne Rice dialogue remains, as ever, something both romantic and modern; natural and yet, paradoxically, it always leaves me saying to myself "No one talks this way in real life." There is action in this story, and myth-making, and beauty. There is love, and sex, and certainly violence. There is also a subtle kind of activism, a gentle observation of Rice's personal causes and perhaps her politics, such as gay rights, the environment and the stem cell debate.
I think the answer to my question is yes. Yes, this is something new. It is a considered, interesting, engaging approach to a genre. It is a meditation on the human condition, as all her books are. Perhaps all literary engagement with the supernatural is a method of engaging with the human condition. The story, and Reuben himself, is concerned with Good and Evil, Heaven and Earth (though perhaps not Hell) and in the existence of G-d. The Man Wolf is drawn to people crying out against malice and cruelty in The Wolf Gift. He is drawn to acts of violent evil and the stink of evil permeates those who perpetrate it. The question of whether this is a metaphysical judgment of innocence and guilt or merely hormonal response to the pheromones released in moments of aggression, fear, and hatred is never fully settled, but rather remains an open question and perhaps it should. The book doesn't preach or moralize, really, and at any rate not near any terribly controversial ground except perhaps among theologians and philosophers.
I found the climax a bit anticlimactic. The denouement was, perhaps, a bit forced. The ending definitely insinuates a sequel. There were moments where I found things to be just a bit too easy, a bit too convenient. Occasionally, sticky matters seem to be handled a bit too handily. Despite that, it's a fun and interesting book that captures the imagination and any flaws are very forgivable. The characters are rich and interesting, particularly the characters that haunt the book but whom we really only meet towards the end.
I will spoil nothing here, but the creation story of the "morphenkind" as they call themselves, is original and fascinating and every bit as seductive as Akasha ever was. What makes it different may be what makes Rice's writing different in this book: Akasha, when she rose to destroy all but a few of the men in the world in Queen of the Damned, was full of certainty and roiling gender feminism and violence. The Wolf Gift, on the other hand, is a book where those with the most knowledge are filled with the deepest doubts personally and metaphysically. It reminds me of Yeats' "The Second Coming", "the worst are filled with passionate intensity while the best lack all conviction." That may be a result of Rice having converted to and then walking away from the Catholic Church. It may be a discussion of what we all grapple with when we, as thinking people, examine beliefs that require faith alone. Reuben Golding's brother, Jim, is a Catholic priest and the interplay between them is, for me, cause for rumination. The rituals of the Church function almost legally, rather than mystically, during the course of the narrative. Jim's priesthood is a calling, to be sure, but perhaps to ethics rather than to a living G-d. This is a complaint often leveled at the Church which may be embodied in the sympathetic but ultimately tragic Jim Golding.
There is a heroine in this story, Laura, and her motivations are a bit of a mystery to me. She is painted as beautiful, scarred by tragedy, intelligent, strong and loyal. It never becomes clear to me why she responds as she does to otherwise frightening or horrifying situations that arise in the book. When first encountered she lives alone in the woods, the last survivor of a family tragically cut short. Her instant and complete love for Reuben is hard to understand and left me scratching my head. It is never explained, but at some point it must be taken for granted by the reader. Accepting her love and devotion to Reuben makes her decisions at the end of the book all the more puzzling, as is the tantalizingly unanswered question regarding her ultimate fate. I assume this is a matter with which the next book will concern itself, but I can't help but wonder if it's simply that Anne Rice has never really embraced her female characters as she has her men. She has, I think, loved them from a distance. Even Pandora, the vampire who got her own book of the same name, is not as vibrant as Marius, her maker. Gabrielle, Lestat's mother, disappears into the primeval forest and never again really assumes any narrative strength (though we can always hold out hope for another book). Perhaps Merrick was as adored a female character as Anne Rice's supernatural fiction has known, but I digress.
It was occasionally jarring for me that internet websites like Youtube and Facebook, technology such as Reueben's iPhone and television news featured so often and by name. This seemed out of place for something as gothic as werewolves. In time I got more comfortable with it, and in retrospect as we consider the project of the novel, these contemporary trappings with which most of us negotiate every day are really just a necessary element to telling a modern werewolf story.
Movies like "Wolf" with Jack Nicholson and "Teen Wolf" with Michael J. Fox, even "The Howling" were invoked directly. The old cliché of the werewolf having his first change and marveling in the bathroom mirror takes place early on. All this surprised me because it seemed so self-conscious of the author, aware that she was entering into something already a part of the popular culture and canonized by various other books and forms of media. Nevertheless, as obscure (and not so obscure) werewolf legendry and literature is mentioned during the progression of the story it feels more like these old ideas and images must be acknowledged if progress is going to be made in crafting a new mythology.
Finally, no review of this book would be complete without a discussion the house. The house in this story is another character. It is as mysterious and beautiful and perfect a house as any literary character in the history of good houses could ask for. Reuben Golding is supposed to be a very good-looking man and I suppose that means something a bit different to all of us but the images of the house were so clear and vibrant that it's the features of the house I'm left with at the end of the story, much more than any other physical description of any other character. The big beautiful house by the cliffs and set deep in the redwood forest is the place for werewolves. If I didn't think so before I do now, but it seems now so obvious that I must always have though so and not realized it. That's good writing.
I say read The Wolf Gift.
P.S. I had the good fortune to get my copy of The Wolf Gift signed by the author in San Francisco (appropriate for this book, I thought) during her book tour. She was concerned about any children that might be cold in the San Francisco evening and despite the line around the block asked that people with little ones come to the front of the line so the kids wouldn't catch a chill. Let it be known she is a kind, considerate person even when she doesn't have to be and I think that counts for a lot. I think it's something people should know about the artists they choose to support.
48 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Tamara Conrad
5.0 out of 5 stars This was an awesome book
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2024
Verified Purchase
It was exciting And very well written. The supernatural element to this book What's a perfect mix between good and evil. I thoroughly enjoyed it
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
ms Carol Walden
5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading
Reviewed in Australia on October 7, 2022
Verified Purchase
A good light read from Anne Rice again. I have only finished the first book in this short series but fully intend to read the 2nd!
The characters are interesting with enough depth to get drawn in. The old mansion comes to life with her descriptive powers.
Report
Kyau
5.0 out of 5 stars 狼男
Reviewed in Japan on February 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
謎の動物にかまれて狼男になったリューベンの話。他の狼男や狼男を捕らえようとするロシア人科学者がでてきて、面白く読めました。
Report
J.H. Lergenmuller
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous
Reviewed in France on September 18, 2016
Verified Purchase
Old library book. In good condition.Another marvellous book by Anne Rice. I can recommend it to everybody. Nothing better than turning a real page.
Report
Belén Algarra
3.0 out of 5 stars Un baño de sangre
Reviewed in Spain on February 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
Me ha gustado el detalle en la descripción de los ataques de lobo, la distinción que hace entre lo que no es ético para los seres humanos y lo que es simplemente natural en los animales. Me ha gustado cómo va empujando la historia hacia adelante, pero me ha desilusionado el final.
Report
Robin Hartman
5.0 out of 5 stars Partial Review Of An Amazing Novel With Awesome Characters !
Reviewed in Canada on February 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
I haven’t finished the entire novel, but so far I absolutely love every aspect of it.

I would like to start off saying this is the first Anne Rice novel i have had the pleasure of reading. The characters are extremely well written, and seem to take on a life of their own. The interaction between them is fluid and somewhat imperfect at the same time. Almost like their holding back from divulging what the other wants to hear, which is a good thing because a dialogue between two people; in real life, is not a linear thing that flows together with the goal of mutual interest. This is something alot of authors do. Their characters speak too perfectly allowing each party to interact together in a linear way, each saying exactly what is on their minds. Something normal humans do not do, they hold back, and keep pieces of information from the other for personal reasons that are affected by life experience and personality.

Miss Rice seems to take this into consideration when writing her characters. They hold a conversation together, but they hold back from speaking their minds, each not knowing the others intentions. The author then gives the reader insight into the minds of the characters. Altogether it makes the interactions between them authentic, adding to the exquisite experience that is The Wolf gift.

Something that i truly admire from Anne Rice is the way she describes so perfectly the scenery, emotions, thoughts of the beautiful universe she created while setting a vivid mood. This is something that i have trouble with while working on my own self published novella Children Of The Moon. It truly does create a very visual aspect to the words. Imagination is a big part of reading a book. The fact that Anne Rice has such a strong imagination and is able to apply it to the novel, allowing her readers to visualize almost exactly what she see’s while creating this universe is simply delightful. Some reviewers say that this is simply to fill up word count and thicken the novel. I personally believe that this is her style, it’s what lets all her readers be able to visualize the same universe, it creates a constant base visual that any reader can follow but allows each to have a variation of the same universe while maintaining the basic structure that Miss Rice depicted.

Since i purchased this novel from the Kindle store. I fell in love with every aspects of it. I cant wait to finish it, and be able to start reading the second installment! For Christmas I’m going to ask for a physical copy of the book, and hopefully get it signed by Miss Rice once she visits Montreal once again.
2 people found this helpful
 Report