Penguin has put a lot of muscle into promoting “Nightshade.” It’s one of five novels the publisher is touting as “Breathless Reads,” which premiered on an MTV website earlier this month. What makes this book different from many others is that Calla takes charge of her own destiny.” “I loved a ton of things about this book - the originality of Andrea’s mythology, her diverse cast of characters, the sensual and sexy love triangle. “I was excited by the idea of a paranormal novel in which the female protagonist acknowledged and reveled in her power,” Santopolo said. Philomel executive editor Jill Santopolo says she knew she wanted to edit Cremer’s book by the time she had read 100 pages. It’s important to me that the story be about the discovery of her own self-awareness.” She revels in her ability to fight and to take care of herself, but she’s being held back by the rules of her world and she’s angry. One of the messages society sends is that it’s not good for a girl to be aware of sexuality. “When you are a teen, romance and sexuality are part of life,” Cremer says. But there is no overt sexual content in this story Calla must remain pure until she is mated to Ren, although Ren sows his wild wolf oats with other willing females. For one thing, Calla realizes the other wolves give Ren more authority, even though she’s a natural leader who has bravely led her pack for years.Ĭremer makes no apologies for Calla’s confused feelings for sexy Ren and equally sexy but mysterious Shay. But when Calla is drawn to Shay, a human boy whose life she saves, she questions everything she has been taught and believed. They also need to beware of the dangerous Searchers, whose motives aren’t clear.Īmong the young wolves, Calla Tor is alpha for the Nightshade pack, and Ren leads the Bane pack.Ĭalla and Ren have known since they were born that they would be mated when they graduated from the high school all the young wolves attend. They guard a wide territory and are ruled by witches known as Keepers, who give the packs everything they want as long as they obey the rules. In “Nightshade,” the first in a trilogy, that hierarchy is made up of shape-shifters who are fully human and fully wolves. I thought they were a good metaphor for a human relations hierarchy.” They are intelligent, social, forming incredibly tight packs. “I grew up in the middle of the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin, a magical wilderness where wolves were an essential part of that mystery. “Werewolves have been depicted as ugly, cursed mutations, half-animal, half-human, beastly and horrid,” said Cremer, an assistant professor of history at Macalester College. Now, Cremer brings a new approach to these shape-shifters in “Nightshade,” her debut young-adult novel that’s creating big buzz among booksellers and on readers’ websites.
Andrea Cremer always disliked the way werewolves are portrayed in books and such movies as Lon Chaney’s “The Wolf Man.”
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