This week’s Short Story Club entry is a Tor.com story, “The Cage” by A. M. Dellamonica. This is a story about a general contractor and the Most Adorable Werewolf Pupppy Ever.
In the world of the story, supernatural monsters are “out,” known to the general public (though I don’t think it mentions anything other than werewolves directly), with varying reactions– mostly hostile in the US, more ambivalent in Canada. The story is set in Vancouver, where a woman whose werewolf sister was shot by an American fortune-hunter hires the narrator to build her a soundproof and indestructible room on the eve of the killer’s trial.
This is a pretty light story, given that it’s literalizing the supernatural-as-alternate-lifestyles metaphor to a greater degree than usual. Jules, the narrator, meets and falls for Paige, the sister of the murdered werewolf, and together they thwart the killer, his redneck accomplice, and some prejudiced cops with wacky hijinx. It’s practically a sitcom plot.
Initially, I thought the story was going to be building to the revelation that Jules was also supernatural in some non-werewolf fashion. That probably would’ve been more interesting than the actual resolution, in which the only real revelation is that “Jules” is short for “Judith” and not named in honor of Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction (I hadn’t noticed the narrator’s gender until the cops showed up).
The story gets points for a clever conceit– the (literally) devastatingly adorable werewolf baby is great– and for gender-flipping one of the romantic leads. I have to say, though, I liked “urban fantasy” a lot more when it meant Borderland and Wizard of the Pigeons than My Awesome Werewolf Boyfriend, and this is still a little too much in the vein of the recent stuff that has put me off most of the subgenre (Harry Connolly’s Child of Fire and Game of Cages are a pleasant exception. OK, “pleasant” might not be the best word, as they’re slightly dark and very bloody, but at least nobody falls in love and angsts about it for dozens of pages.).
The closest thing to a Serious Point in this is having the innocent werewolf saved by Vancouver’s lesbian community banding together to throw a wild party, about which the best thing I can say is that it doesn’t hammer home the parallel between gay rights and supernatural rights as hard as it might. It’s not a story you can hate– it’s a little too insubstantial for that, plus there’s the adorable werewolf puppy– but there’s not a lot here to love, either. It’s cute and clever, and that’s about it.
Interesting review! In my opinion the story isn’t insubstantial at all. It makes a very serious point about the risks of getting emotionally involved with someone who has kids, which is pretty darn relevant in our age of serial monogamy. The emotional content there slayed me.
Maybe that point doesn’t hit home if you’ve never been burned in that way? In any case, the story worked for me, and I enjoyed your review.