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drmccoy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
grae's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ezismythical's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
badseedgirl's review against another edition
5.0
I am very familiar with SGJ, having read several of his books, but this is by far and away my favorite book by him I have read so far. This book gets all the stars!
eavers's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
gabalodon's review against another edition
5.0
This was an incredibly written, unique take on modern werewolves struggling to survive day-to-day. I wasn't sure I'd like it at first. The unrepentant, visceral, gross horror (a genre I don't often wander into) and layers of tragedy made me tread lightly and the idolization of violent behavior (especially from the POV of the MC modeling after his uncle) made me nervous. But everyone does werewolves slightly differently, and in this case those components ended up being so essential to flavor of this story and these werewolves in particular. The style and format were so captivating and by the end I cared so much for these characters and their everyday and supernatural struggles and I was gleefully anticipating some sweet, sweet werewolf-esque vengeance. The family dynamics kept getting me in my feels and the story structure just blew me away. Every chapter could almost stand on its own as a werewolf short story/vignette, but also perfectly fit into the larger mosaic of the novel.
This book has so much teeth and heart. Everyone who loves werewolves and especially anyone who has ever dreamed of being a werewolf needs to read it ASAP.
This book has so much teeth and heart. Everyone who loves werewolves and especially anyone who has ever dreamed of being a werewolf needs to read it ASAP.
stellarian's review against another edition
4.0
I kept having to take breaks from this book, because it was sometimes difficult to read. It’s about a young boy living with his aunt and uncle, waiting to see if his werewolf blood will run true and let him turn. The life they lead is on the edges of society, robbery and violence a common thing. They move from state to state, changing their names. The adults take temporary jobs while the boy goes to school when he can. There is a clear parallel to real, actual people and the problems with being ostracized from society in general.
The center of being a werewolf seems to be the stories they tell each other – stories that always change. They’re all lies, except for the things they skirt around. There are several especially brutal stories that the boy’s grandfather tells him before he dies, which the boy eventually figures out the probable truth of. This is the main cause why I have to take breaks. Their lives are so incredibly hard, and the choices they make are even harder. It’s sometimes hard to stomach, the way violence and injustice in the real world is. Feels important, though.
As you’ve probably guessed, this is not at all a classic take on a werewolf book. But if you like stories about real problematic people and their problematic choices and actions, this is for you. It helps if you like a bit of horror, but that is not the focus of the book. This is about growing up in a hard world and finding your place in it.
The center of being a werewolf seems to be the stories they tell each other – stories that always change. They’re all lies, except for the things they skirt around. There are several especially brutal stories that the boy’s grandfather tells him before he dies, which the boy eventually figures out the probable truth of. This is the main cause why I have to take breaks. Their lives are so incredibly hard, and the choices they make are even harder. It’s sometimes hard to stomach, the way violence and injustice in the real world is. Feels important, though.
As you’ve probably guessed, this is not at all a classic take on a werewolf book. But if you like stories about real problematic people and their problematic choices and actions, this is for you. It helps if you like a bit of horror, but that is not the focus of the book. This is about growing up in a hard world and finding your place in it.
reaperreads's review against another edition
5.0
"He's not a bad wolf either," he went on, shaking his head side to side. "That's the thing. But a good wolf isn't always a good man. Remember that."
It made me wonder about the other way around, if a good man meant a bad wolf. And if that was better or worse.
Feeeeelllliiiiinnnngggsssss!
I haven't read a single book by Stephen Graham Jones (SGJ) that I haven't liked. Mongrels does not break that pattern--it instead cements SGJ as possibly my favorite author writing today. This book perfectly captures the coming-of-age horror of such movies as Ginger Snaps (2000) while affording the reader the time to truly engage with the nameless main character. While that is the benefit of the novel format, it is my belief that SGJ's unique imagination truly gives exceptional depth and breadth to a narrative that spans geography, time, and the shifting identity of the main character.
Let me put it to you this way: I know a coming-of-age story is good if it makes me recall small things about my own youth that I've long-since forgotten. Like, remember when you used to get your hand pinched in the seat belt as you were trying to buckle it? SGJ remembers.
Since so many great reviews have already been written about Mongrels, I'll just use my time here to focus on my two favorite elements: the chapter organization and the werewolf lore.
The novel follows a nameless protagonist who travels with his aunt and uncle across the southern United States (the furthest north they go is North Carolina). For some reason or another, they always have to skip town, never spending enough time in one place for them to get settled in or for the protagonist to get a consistent education. The core tension of the book is whether the protagonist will grow into the werewolf he wants to be or if he'll be human forever.
The chapters are divided between his childhood, around 9-11 years old, and his adolescence, spanning 15-16 years old. The childhood chapters are always brief, sometimes nostalgic snapshots of his memories, and they don't follow the first person perspective of the teenage chapters. Instead, they refer to the protagonist by some type of occupation that tells us his state of mind at the time: the mechanic, the prisoner, the reporter, etc. Some readers didn't like this, evidently, but I loved it. It reminded me of how I thought of myself growing up through different phases of being: the musician, the thief, the poet, the patient. Because these phases were all mini-transformations, a werewolf state of mind, I thought it was a brilliant balance to the longer chapters dedicated to the late-blooming protagonist. We got to see him transform all throughout his life while he worries whether he will get to transform into exactly what he wishes to be. I think that's magic.
Now, regarding the werewolf lore, SGJ must have read as many books on the topic as he could and seen every movie there is to see because Mongrels has it all. Every single little bit of werewolf lore you can think of is in here, and it all has an explanation and a time and a place.
SGJ doesn't lore-dump. He's not that kind of writer. Instead, the werewolf lore is integrated into the narrative as a parallel to the stories adults tell kids to help them make sense of the world. (Or to make the world make even less sense. Depends on who you're talking to. My dad would always come up with semi-plausible lies just to see if I'd believe them.) All the lore we read in Mongrels is wrapped up in a story the protagonist's aunt, uncle, grandfather, or even acquaintances tell him to help him understand what it means to be a werewolf as well as what it means to be a person, an adolescent on the cusp of adulthood. These stories can and often do conflict with one another, and some of them are soft-boiled to hide ugly truths. Every chapter has the protagonist stating some axiom about being a werewolf that often both gets challenged as well as upheld depending on the situation.
[D]og's eyes can water, sure, but they can't cry. They're not built for it.
Neither are werewolves. (p. 47)
Then:
"Remember when you used to think werewolves couldn't cry?" Darren asked.
"I never though that," I said. (p. 100)
There is so much more that I want to say, like how much I loved the emotional growth of the protagonist, and how much I adored the moments of beauty SGJ gives the beast, but those are the sorts of connections I make with a novel that are hard to put into words. You'll just have to read it for yourself.
I'll leave you with the first moment I knew this book would be a new five-star read for me:
Grandpa smiled for the audience, for his family being there, I think, and he went on about her [grandma's] pot roasts then, about how he would steal carrots and potatoes for her all over Logan County, carry them home in his mouth, shotguns always firing into the air behind him, the sky forever full of lead, always raining pellets so that when he shook on the porch after getting home, it sounded like a hailstorm.
Now, if that doesn't make you read this book immediately, I don't know what will.
For fans of: Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers, The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock, Beulah by Christi Nogle, Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, Chlorine by Jade Song, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, The Indian Lake Trilogy by SGJ (of course), Ginger Snaps (2000), Scream (1996), The Lost Boys (1987), The Seed of Chucky (2004 (this one is mostly a joke, but I couldn't not insert it here))
It made me wonder about the other way around, if a good man meant a bad wolf. And if that was better or worse.
Feeeeelllliiiiinnnngggsssss!
I haven't read a single book by Stephen Graham Jones (SGJ) that I haven't liked. Mongrels does not break that pattern--it instead cements SGJ as possibly my favorite author writing today. This book perfectly captures the coming-of-age horror of such movies as Ginger Snaps (2000) while affording the reader the time to truly engage with the nameless main character. While that is the benefit of the novel format, it is my belief that SGJ's unique imagination truly gives exceptional depth and breadth to a narrative that spans geography, time, and the shifting identity of the main character.
Let me put it to you this way: I know a coming-of-age story is good if it makes me recall small things about my own youth that I've long-since forgotten. Like, remember when you used to get your hand pinched in the seat belt as you were trying to buckle it? SGJ remembers.
Since so many great reviews have already been written about Mongrels, I'll just use my time here to focus on my two favorite elements: the chapter organization and the werewolf lore.
The novel follows a nameless protagonist who travels with his aunt and uncle across the southern United States (the furthest north they go is North Carolina). For some reason or another, they always have to skip town, never spending enough time in one place for them to get settled in or for the protagonist to get a consistent education. The core tension of the book is whether the protagonist will grow into the werewolf he wants to be or if he'll be human forever.
The chapters are divided between his childhood, around 9-11 years old, and his adolescence, spanning 15-16 years old. The childhood chapters are always brief, sometimes nostalgic snapshots of his memories, and they don't follow the first person perspective of the teenage chapters. Instead, they refer to the protagonist by some type of occupation that tells us his state of mind at the time: the mechanic, the prisoner, the reporter, etc. Some readers didn't like this, evidently, but I loved it. It reminded me of how I thought of myself growing up through different phases of being: the musician, the thief, the poet, the patient. Because these phases were all mini-transformations, a werewolf state of mind, I thought it was a brilliant balance to the longer chapters dedicated to the late-blooming protagonist. We got to see him transform all throughout his life while he worries whether he will get to transform into exactly what he wishes to be. I think that's magic.
Now, regarding the werewolf lore, SGJ must have read as many books on the topic as he could and seen every movie there is to see because Mongrels has it all. Every single little bit of werewolf lore you can think of is in here, and it all has an explanation and a time and a place.
SGJ doesn't lore-dump. He's not that kind of writer. Instead, the werewolf lore is integrated into the narrative as a parallel to the stories adults tell kids to help them make sense of the world. (Or to make the world make even less sense. Depends on who you're talking to. My dad would always come up with semi-plausible lies just to see if I'd believe them.) All the lore we read in Mongrels is wrapped up in a story the protagonist's aunt, uncle, grandfather, or even acquaintances tell him to help him understand what it means to be a werewolf as well as what it means to be a person, an adolescent on the cusp of adulthood. These stories can and often do conflict with one another, and some of them are soft-boiled to hide ugly truths. Every chapter has the protagonist stating some axiom about being a werewolf that often both gets challenged as well as upheld depending on the situation.
[D]og's eyes can water, sure, but they can't cry. They're not built for it.
Neither are werewolves. (p. 47)
Then:
"Remember when you used to think werewolves couldn't cry?" Darren asked.
"I never though that," I said. (p. 100)
There is so much more that I want to say, like how much I loved the emotional growth of the protagonist, and how much I adored the moments of beauty SGJ gives the beast, but those are the sorts of connections I make with a novel that are hard to put into words. You'll just have to read it for yourself.
I'll leave you with the first moment I knew this book would be a new five-star read for me:
Grandpa smiled for the audience, for his family being there, I think, and he went on about her [grandma's] pot roasts then, about how he would steal carrots and potatoes for her all over Logan County, carry them home in his mouth, shotguns always firing into the air behind him, the sky forever full of lead, always raining pellets so that when he shook on the porch after getting home, it sounded like a hailstorm.
Now, if that doesn't make you read this book immediately, I don't know what will.
For fans of: Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers, The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock, Beulah by Christi Nogle, Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, Chlorine by Jade Song, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, The Indian Lake Trilogy by SGJ (of course), Ginger Snaps (2000), Scream (1996), The Lost Boys (1987), The Seed of Chucky (2004 (this one is mostly a joke, but I couldn't not insert it here))