Small town with werewolves, crazy people wanting to kill the werewolves, and a murder-mystery involving EVERYONE? Yes please.
Mackenzie and Amy were best friends.
Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer:
A white werewolf.
Lupine syndrome–also known as the werewolf virus–is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.
Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boy-friend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.
I loved the small town-whodunit setting of this story. It was fantastic. If felt like watching Wild Things…except with less sex. I think I suspected everyone at some point and I disliked everyone at some point. Every page revealed how many secrets everyone had been keeping from each other.
I also really loved the world the murder took place in. The idea that werewolves were real and everyone knows about them is not something I see in YA a lot…or ever before this. I loved that a lot was taken into consideration and Kathleen appeared to give some real thought into how this would present itself in the real world.
Werewolf hunters and hate groups, with a strong resemblance to the KKK, are accepted and welcomed, despite the fact that “killing a werewolf,” is really murdering a human. And I loved seeing how all the characters felt about this. And how the murder affected everyone in the small town and how it is clearly shown that you do not have to be a rampaging beast to be utterly evil.
I did not at all like the love triangle in this book. I’m just so sick of love triangles and this one is very typical. It adds nothing to the love triangle dynamic. And for the first part of the book, Mac kept insisting that she and Kyle were just friends and I got so frustrated when that changed. I hate the utter lack of male/female friends in YA fiction. According to most books I read a if a guy isn’t already attached, or gay, then he MUST be a love interest. And this is just not true and I don’t understand why we can’t ever see a main girl who has a friend who is a boy and nothing more.
It just bothers me.
So, that kind of dragged the book down for me. I liked everything else about it. But the very, very typical love triangle made an original, gripping book feel a bit like every other book out there. It wont stop me from reading the next book but I’m not overly eager for it either.
Really though, Mac was great (when not thinking about her boy troubles) and I loved the mystery. Very well done. And I absolutely loved the world it all took place in.
So, if you don’t mind love triangles, I’m sure you’ll love this one.