Reviews for Shapes

The average rating for Shapes based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-20 00:00:00 Chris Todd FBI Agents Mulder and Scully travel to rural Montana to investigate a fatal shooting on a ranch bordering a Native American reservation. The shooting victim, a young Indian boy who was mistaken for a wild animal, may have possessed the ability to shape-shift into a lycanthropic beast—that's right, a werewolf—a phenomenon that was documented back in 1946, in the very first X-File. Shapes is, more or less, a garden-variety werewolf tale blended with a heaping saltspoon of Native American folklore. The story is hardly original by today’s standards, and feels like an obligatory attempt at paying homage to one of the definitive stock monsters. No new ground is covered and, with the exception of silver bullets, most of the familiar werewolf tropes are safely accounted for. What's more, the story never bothers to subvert expectations. As soon as readers are made aware of Lyle Parker's wounds, the end-result of a werewolf attack, the realization is painfully obvious to anyone (except for the protagonists, of course) that Lyle is the new werewolf on the block. The Native Americans’ suspicion and deep-seated acrimony toward Mulder and Scully proved more compelling than the unintentionally campy werewolf plot. Given the U.S. Government’s history of misconduct with respect to Native Americans, it’s no surprise that the locals are quick to mistrust our well-intentioned agents. Mulder is not oblivious to historical injustice, either, and proves successful in breaching the gap left from past bloodshed between our meddling Guv'ment and Native Americans. Mulder's repeated overtures to Tskany and Ish in the course of the investigation, his willingness to dispense with scientific rationale and westernized beliefs in favor of magic and mysticism, serves as an olive branch that is reservedly accepted. One frustrating aspect of this story is the uncharacteristic depiction of Scully. Her dialogue near the beginning suggests that she’s out of touch with the common man as she apparently doesn't recognize such a commonplace term as “the creeps”. Additionally, her bullheaded insistence that the savage culprit was the caged mountain lion rather than the legendary Manitou is exasperating. Sure, one can attribute this to the darkness of the house and her disorientation from the attack, but let’s not forget how she disregards all of the obvious evidence throughout the story—the shed skin, the inexplicable tracks in the mud, and the animal fangs in Joe Goodensnake’s mouth that she laughably attributes to calcium deposits. Although fans are accustomed to Scully's token resistance to Mulder's outrageous theories, but here it seems entirely forced and unbelievable. While Shapes is rather stale around the edges and lacking in bite, this moody werewolf tale is still a roadworthy venture for any young readers of monster fiction.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-29 00:00:00 Danielle Gaskin This books is a literal write-up of the nineteenth episode of season 1. It was easy to read and told the story accurately. I would say this is a 'bare bones' write-up in that there is little to no embellishment upon what was shown on screen. There may be a bit more clarity regarding what a character is thinking at any particular moment, but nothing that couldn't be inferred. The only advantages to reading the book rather than just watching the show is that the dialogue is easily readable and not muffled by mumbling actors and it can be read on and off anywhere. At barely over 100 pages it can even be read in the time taken to watch it.