In-human

by Anna Dusk

In Tasmania’s Oatlands, teenager Sally Hunter is becoming painfully aware of her new body and blossoming sexuality. But this is not an everyday tale of adolescence: Sally’s form and world is stretched and changed by her transformation into a werewolf, something unexpected, beautiful and bloody. The antithesis of Twilight’s sparkles and whimsy, Anna Dusk’s visceral writing style captures the reader like no other, with all the gore and brutality of death and murder coming to light as Sally unleashes her new self on the town.

Both poetic and gritty, the characters’ laconic speech and the way time and reality are twisted with Sally’s new outlook come together and bring you immediately into her life. In her dysfunctional family, her mother is drinking herself blind to Sally’s changes. Her friends are saturated with desire, and some are possibly hiding secrets of their own. Dusk’s talent for immediacy vividly portrays Sally’s initial confusion and sickness, and later, the eventual acceptance and love she has for her new form. Visually striking and undeniably confronting, In-human is an incredible read.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is genuinely horrifying. It's obscene, violent and revolting, which is just what it should be. Monsters are awful; teenagers are awful. I don't think there is another single book like this one in existence. It's brilliant that Anna wrote it and that there are still people like Barry at Transit Lounge who will publish fiction as unrelenting as this. I kind of wish I'd read this when I was 16: I wonder what I would have thought of it...

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better werewolf novels that have been recently released, this book is a fantastic and disgusting read. Graphically written, In-human has a slight resemblance to the film Ginger Snaps except that it is basted in Tasmania. Unlike a majority of some of the novels parading under the ‘paranormal’ title, this novel does not romanticize the transformation of its protagonist Sally as she rapidly looses her humanity. She is in no uncertain terms a monster, and she narrates her story in disgustingly high detail as she fucks and kills her way through the unwitting Tasmanian population. The story is both sensual and violent, with the simple echo that we are all just animals underneath the pretence of sophistication. The style of prose that Dusk has adopted compliments the plot as it is both jarring and highly emotive throughout the transformation of Sally Hunter. Defiantly worth reading!

[Mel Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d had this on my to-read list for ages but I had the impression it was really obscure and impossible to find. Then I found a copy in the Moat cafe under the Wheeler Centre. (Don’t worry; I’ll put it back now.) I have hoarded it on my bookshelf for at least a year but after reading The Wolf Border I was up for more female-centric wolfy adventures, so here we go, awooooo!

At first I found it really tough going. The prose is in regular English but the dialogue is rendered phonetically in a way that made me cringe at the broad Australian accents. It was never explicitly mentioned, but it feels like this is set during the 1970s: the clothes, the permissive parenting, how cheap the prices are, the white-bread blandness that goes beyond just Tasmanian country-town conservatism.

As a result, I kind of approached this like Puberty Blues: Werewolf Edition. I found the body horror pretty full-on and distasteful at first but eventually I built up a tolerance for it. The book is pretty unremitting about Sally Hunter’s (geddit? Hunter) hunger for human flesh (very Tasmanian!) and her physical metamorphosis, but most of all her unrepentant delight in her werewolfness and the way anyone who isn’t a fellow werewolf is prey.

It’s hard to stay mad at Sally, though; she’s only acting according to her nature. And this is an intensely sensual book: flooded with vivid details of what Sally smells and tastes and feels. It’s an ambitious, uncompromising book and makes no concession to mainstream appeal, so kudos to Transit Lounge for publishing it

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up In-human to read as I had just left Tasmania and wanted to revisit the specific feeling that comes from the landscape and the people. There is a subtle undercurrent of violence that inhabits these two things, or my perception of them, and I hoped to see this through the eyes of new characters.

It was not exactly subtle, but the themes that are explored are. The often explicit violence is worth more than it's abject qualities, much more. I love it. Perhaps it's my own personal connection to the setting, the place I was in when I read it, or the love of discovering something that hasn't been presented to me from a 'must read' list; but whatever it is I couldn't recommend this novel more wholeheartedly

I think about In-human quite often. Every 6 months or so I look to see if the sequel How Much a Human Body Contains has been published, but it looks as though we'll have to keep waiting.

[Kimberley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not get passed the writing style unfortunately. I wanted to love this soooo badly

[jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Human is one of my absolute favourite books. It's an experience, and an eye opening look at what prose can be. It's raw and vicious and sensual and gross, it's so many things all at the same time.

Growing up as I did, in a rural town in Australia, so much of this book resonated with me. And Sally, the main character gets to do something that many teenagers, dream of. She gets power, strange, sweet, alien power. Her body becomes monstrous and beautiful, like the transformations of adolescence.

But this time, she's a beast, a wolf like creature. And she kills.

I don't think I've ever read a werewolf book that could compare to this. This is a standard above fiction that I have read in so long.

With this book, Anna Dusk claims the spot in my heart as favourite Australian author.

I was lucky enough to go to a reading of this book by the author and caught mention of the sequel.

I can honestly say, a sequel to this book is my most anticipated release of the next few years. (Hopefully it doesn't take that long!!!)

[Gemma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't like sorry. Not going to finish it.
I have plenty more books to read that I know I will like.