A review by mousie_books
Running with the Pack by Carrie Vaughn, Laura Anne Gilman, C. E. Murphy

3.0

1. Wild Ride by Carrie Vaughn - 3/5 - Kinda random.

Spoiler

TJ tests positive for HIV, which leads him to seek out Alex, a miraculous survivor of a motorcycle crash. For some reason, this causes Alex to recruit him into the pack on the promise of curing his HIV. TJ doesn't like the restrictions of being in a pack, and fights instincts to leave. He confirms he's now HIV negative.

2. Side-Effects May Include by Steve Duffy - 3/5 - Made no sense.

Spoiler

A business man in Hong Kong gets some black market tooth gel that turns him into a werewolf. I have no idea why the hotel bellhop thought he wanted such a thing, nor why the old apothecary man gave it to him. Especially since he ended up murdering him to get more. He then tells his story to a real dentist hoping to score, and then murders him when the dentist refuses.

3. Comparison of Efficacy Rates for Seven Antipathetics Employed Against Lycanthropes by Marie Brennan - 4/5 - Pretty amusing. A scientific paper, with terrible ethics and science, on testing various methods to kill werewolves.

Spoiler

The only successful kill was made by the author to the second (failed) participant hunter in her study using a wolfsbane tea.
4. The Beautiful Gelreesh by Jeffery Ford - 3/5 - Weird.

Spoiler

A werewolf therapist gets his meals by convincing his patients to commit suicide.

5. Skin in the Game by Samatha Henderson - 3/5 - Again, weird.

Spoiler

New girl joins a ladies dice game night, and cheats for fun and profit. They're all werewolves who get offended and eat her.

6. Blended by C. E. Murphy - 3/5 -

Spoiler

Marketa realizes her suitor's father killed her family. She kills him, and a competing suitor sees what she is. He is entranced, and they run away to be together.

7. Locked Doors by Stephanie Burgis - 4/5 - I liked this one.

Spoiler

A son keeps his father's werewolf-ness a secret for fear that he will end up in a lab, but his father grows more dangerous as time goes on. He realizes he might too become a werewolf, and decides it's worth the risk because with study might come a cure.

8. Werelove by Laura Anne Gilman - 3/5 -

Spoiler

Apparently, weres murder instead of divorce.

9. In Sheep's Clothing by Molly Tanzer - 3/5 - I have no idea what just happened.

Spoiler

People turn into animals via an illness from corn? The narrator seems unreliable and a conspiracy theory nut. Civilization has collapsed due to a fatal plague? The narrator turns into a wolf and eats her kid, who turned into a lamb.

10. Royal Bloodlines (A Lucifier Jones Story) by Mike Resnick - 3/5 - lol

Spoiler

A doctor? priest? (missing context here) convinces a suicidal werewolf to enter a dog competition to win a 10K prize. The werewolf ends up meeting his future love, and both woman and her dog are pregnant at the end. eee.

11. The Dire Wolf by Genevieve Valentine - 3/5 - All the jumping around was distracting.

Spoiler

A woman fears loving a human because [long living] dire wolves mate for life, and tend to commit suicide when their mates die.

12. Take Back the Night by Lawrence Schimel - 3/5 - wat.

Spoiler

A werewolf comes into a lesbian woman's feminist all night bookstore, and the woman decides she too, wants to be a werewolf. They have sex (in human form), then go out as wolves and murder some dude.

13. Mongrel by Maria V. Snyder - 4/5 - I liked this one. Interesting and sweet.

Spoiler

A homeless runaway who takes in stray dogs saves a werewolf fighting off a challenger for his pack. He repays her by turning her into a werewolf and making her part of his pack.

14. Deadfall by Karen Everson - 3/5 -

Spoiler

A teenage werewolf confronts racist bullies who beat up her black friend. She decides not to murder him, but his cowardice facing the wolf taints his hold on his minions

15. Red Riding Hood's Child by N. K. Jemisin - 4/5 - Really well written, but also, wat.

Spoiler

A orphan son of an unwed woman becomes the focus of unwanted attention from the blacksmith. After running from the blacksmith, who tries to attack him in the night, he stumbles across a werewolf, who has much the same intentions, but less unwanted? The old woman who shelters him dies defending him, so he runs into the forest and let's the werewolf fuck him and make him into one.

16. Are you a Vampire or a Goblin? by Geoffrey H. Goodwin - 3/5 - wat.

Spoiler

Some people have to decide whether they are a vampire (drink blood for darkness) or a goblin (eat people for souls). Yvette decides she wants to be a werewolf, who is suppose to help people? But, the change brings about hunger, and she ends up eating them instead.

17. The Pack and the Pickup Artist by Mike Brotherton - 3/5 -

Spoiler

A pickup artist falls in love with a werewolf and joins her pack.

18. The Garden, The Moon, The Wall by Amanda Downum - 3/5 -

Spoiler

Not really sure what happened. A woman shows a bunch of ghosts, including the werewolf boyfriend she murdered, to Hades? She decides not to stay.

19. Blamed for Trying to Live by Jesse Bullington - 3/5 -

Spoiler

Outsider black kid moves in with his father when his mother dies. His father lives in a much rougher neighborhood, and does not approve of his gentler son. Charles becomes obsessed with becoming a werewolf, for unclear reasons. He succeeds at the end, but thinks maybe this wasn't the solution to his problems

20. The Barony at Rodal by Peter Bell - 3/5 -

Spoiler

Weird story of a woman trying to investigate an old family, who turns out to be werewolves, and crimes during the Nazi era. She ends up killed for her troubles. Her father is a witness.

21. Inside Out by Erzebet Yellowboy - 3/5 -

Spoiler

Woman turns into a werewolf, and her sisters sacrifice their lives to keep her safe. She spies a woman, who seems to be an inverse werewolf (woman during the full moon), being kept in a cage and abused by a man in a cabin. Over *months* she stalks them, until she comes up with a rather elaborate plan (you know, instead of just biting him as a wolf), to murder him and rescue the wolf/girl. Her sisters and the cops find her curled up in the cage around the wolf, but finally accepting her wolf-self.

22. Gestella by Susan Pauwick - -

Spoiler