The Werewolf Asylum
Self-published novelette from Gareth Barsby of The Otherworld Anthology and Daryl and Susie. Set in Victorian London, this story revolves around the titular asylum, where two men, an unnamed narrator and his assistant Dr. Harlston, work to help lycanthropes suppress their nocturnal transformations, while also searching for a more permanent cure. One evening, they find a special type of werewolf - one permanently stuck in a wolf/human hybrid form - and take her back to the asylum to study and treat her. 'Martha', however, believes her form is due to her being a Messiah to her brethren, and wishes for the other werewolves to embrace their condition, which could be a hindrance to the two doctors' goals.
Available at [lulu.com].
Tropes used in The Werewolf Asylum include:
- A God Am I
- Bedlam House - Just guess where.
- Black and White Insanity - Martha certainly seems to have this.
- Creepy Monotone - Martha tends to talk in this.
- Deadpan Snarker - Harlston
- Diary
- God Is Dead - Your God, maybe, but not Martha's.
- Half-Human Hybrid
- Humans Are the Real Monsters - Martha and Harlston hold this view.
- Insane Equals Violent
- The Lord Needs Werewolves Badly - 'The Lord' will die sooner if more people are not made into his image.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
- Murder Is the Best Solution - Martha kills criminals to help her 'Lord' create his perfect world.
- No Ending
- Our Werewolves Are Different - The werewolves in this story transform at night per se, rather than just at the full moon, but their transformations can be repressed with enough willpower. The condition can also be inherited at birth, and Martha is apparently the way she is due to a birth defect.
- Pinocchio Syndrome - Most of the werewolves [1] just want to be normal again.
- Shout-Out - The book's style is deliberately modeled after Dr Seward's journals in Dracula.
- Spiritual Successor - To the Otherworld Anthology.
- ↑ maybe even Martha herself