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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Stephen Graham Jones is masterful. I adore his prose—it’s sharply honed and modern and absolutely rips. This is a novel about a family of werewolves, and Jones’s stories are horror, but not just: it’s the horror of poverty, of racism, of trying to survive when your dollars are dwindling, there’s no more gas in your tank, and all you want is to find somewhere you belong. This is a gripping, heartbreaking, and achingly human novel.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A boy roams the American Southeast with his indigent uncle and aunt who are werewolves.
I believe I understand what Stephen Graham Jones was going for and I think he's a good writer but overall the book was a bit too episodic for my taste. The last few chapters were quite good and, for me, redeemed the book a bit in the end.
I believe I understand what Stephen Graham Jones was going for and I think he's a good writer but overall the book was a bit too episodic for my taste. The last few chapters were quite good and, for me, redeemed the book a bit in the end.
Perhaps I'm just not that into werewolves...
The exploration of lore was interesting, and the fierce loyalty was a bit intimidating.
I found Darren unlikable, and our protagonist felt flat and unformed.
The exploration of lore was interesting, and the fierce loyalty was a bit intimidating.
I found Darren unlikable, and our protagonist felt flat and unformed.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed the characters, and the central metaphor was hard hitting without feeling unsubtle. I enjoyed the vignettes from these characters lives deeply, and appreciated the growth shown through prose. My only complaint was the stakes and tension felt uneven at times. I think it would have felt more cohesive to me had the larger stakes introduced in late chapters been building throughout the novel. As is sometimes it felt like “woah a lot is happening all of the sudden.”
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
On the one hand I like how they applied real world science to make it feasible for werewolves to exist. That really caught my interest the most, but the rest was mainly told as a series of vignettes that are very loosely connected. The plot is practically nonexistent and the characters didn’t quite hit it for me. This one just wasn’t for me.
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes