![]() First Edition (publ, Random House, Canada) | |
Author | Kelley Armstrong |
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Cover artist | Dominic Harman |
Language | English |
Series | Women of the Otherworld |
Genre | Urban fantasy |
Published | Viking Adult (United States), Little, Brown & co. (U.K.), Random House (Canada) |
Publication date | October 2, 2001 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) and audio book ( cassette) |
Pages | 400 (hardcover) 384 (paperback) |
ISBN | 978-0-670-89471-0 |
Followed by | Stolen |
Bitten is a fantasy novel by Canadian writer Kelley Armstrong, published in 2001. It is the first book in the Women of the Otherworld series, and her first novel.
Elena Michaels is the only known female werewolf, but she grows tired of spending her life pursuing rogue werewolves and trying to control her temper and violence. She decides to leave her Pack and live in Toronto as a human, but the Pack leader calls in a favor, which leads Elena to try to help quell an uprising. [1]
Elena Michaels stood at the edge of the forest, her senses heightened as the moon cast an ethereal glow over the landscape. She could feel the wolf within her, restless and eager to break free. But Elena was determined to keep that side of her locked away, buried beneath layers of human rationality. She had worked hard to build a life in Toronto, to blend in with the humans despite the primal urges that simmered beneath her skin. Yet, the call of her Pack could not be ignored, pulling her back to Stonehaven, to the heart of the werewolf world.
Arrived at the sprawling estate, memories flooded back - of Clayton Danvers, the man who had bitten her and changed her life forever. Clayton, with his rugged charm and dangerous allure, was both her greatest weakness and her deepest regret. Their complicated past hung between them like a shroud, a tangled web of love and betrayal that Elena struggled to unravel. And now, with a rogue werewolf on the loose, their fragile peace was shattered, forcing them to confront their shared past and uncertain future.
The scent of blood lingered in the air, mingling with the musky scent of fur and pine. Elena joined forces with the rest of the Pack, a diverse group of werewolves each grappling with their own inner demons. Antonio Sorrentino, the enigmatic leader with a steely gaze; Nicholas Sorrentino, his son, fierce and loyal; Logan Jonsen, the brooding lone wolf; and Peter Myers, the jovial jokester whose laughter masked a deep pain. Together, they formed a formidable alliance, bound by blood and duty to protect their kind from the growing threat of the Mutts.
The rest of the final showdown loomed on the horizon. The clash between Pack and Mutt, between tradition and rebellion, would test their bonds and their beliefs to the breaking point. Elena found herself at the center of the storm, torn between loyalty to her Pack and the stirrings of a new world dawning. In the heart of the forest, under the watchful gaze of the moon, she would discover the true meaning of family, of sacrifice, and of the untamed power that pulsed through her veins. And in that moment of reckoning, Elena Michaels would embrace her destiny as the only female werewolf in the world, a force to be reckoned with in a world where the line between man and beast blurred into shadow.
Armstrong says Bitten was inspired by an X-Files episode on werewolves. She had the idea to portray werewolves as other than "bloodthirsty, ravening beasts" and quickly wrote a short story about a young woman who becomes a werewolf to present to her writing group. Eventually, Armstrong fleshed out the short story into a novel that became Bitten. [2]
In the Women of the Otherworld series, unlike many modern horror fiction stories, werewolves transform into full wolves in a painful transmogrification, while maintaining their hair colour and body mass, making them extremely large wolves. Although transformations have to occur regularly, Armstrong's werewolves are not affected by phases of the moon, can shape-shift at will and can learn to transform a single part of their body. Werewolves can be killed by anything that can kill a human and have no extra sensitivity to silver. They age slower than humans. For example, Antonio and his son Nick, despite an age gap of 17 years, pass themselves off as brothers in human company. In fact, Pack sons are raised referring to their fathers as 'uncle' while amidst humans, in order to avoid questions.
While in human form, werewolves have wolf-like characteristics, better hearing, a keener sense of smell and a wolf's instinctive reactions, while in wolf form they maintain their intellect but cannot talk and are more driven by instinct. In both forms, they have greater strength and reflexes than a normal human or wolf and heal significantly faster. Hereditary werewolves acquire these enhanced abilities gradually, following puberty, and have their first change in their late teens or early 20s. Non-hereditary werewolves start changing shortly after they are bitten, and not all survive the process; the bitten Mutts took around a month to recover. In the case of Clay, he could transform and had the enhanced abilities from when he was bitten at around age five.
For a while, there was discussion of making a movie adaptation of the novel. Angelina Jolie was approached to play the central role of Elena. A script is still floating around for it. [3] [4]
On 23 August 2012, Space announced that a full-season TV adaptation of Bitten would commence production in spring 2013. On 9 March 2013, it was announced that Laura Vandervoort would be cast as Elena Michaels. [5] The 13-part series was scheduled to premiere in fall 2013 [6] but was pushed back and premiered in January 2014. [7] On 12 August 2014, the full first season was released in the United States on Blu-ray and DVD.