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A review by livpasquarelli
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
5.0
I thought the Only Good Indians would be peak horror writing for me but Stephen Graham Jones proved me wrong. Mongrels was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, cementing Jones as my favorite author.
I feel like the story could be a metaphor for so many things, but for me, it resonated with my family’s history of alcoholism. Growing up, I always thought I’d never be alcoholics like them, but at the same time, weirdly felt envious of the adults and their drinking. Sure enough, I became an alcoholic myself, now in recovery, almost at 4 years without a drink. I took to the chaos and violence of alcohol and drug addiction like a fish to water, or a wolf to the moon.
Through all the negative aspects of being a werewolf, the constant moving, the chaos, the violence, the death of his own mother, it’s still so clear that our protagonist wants nothing more than to be like his aunt and uncle.
The way the main character never had a name made it so easy to put myself in his shoes and really become him in the story. How Jones is able to create such vivid imagery with so few words is beyond me.
The end of the story truly moved me. I never thought I’d be crying at the end of a werewolf novel but here we are. I felt the soaring sense of pride, the relief, the apprehension, the fear of the MC finally shifting in those last few pages. I read them over and over. I could see myself looking back in the mirror, pressing my muzzle to the cold glass to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I almost flipped the book over and started again from page 1. If it wasn’t for my massive TBR list, I probably would.
Really excellent. Jones will one day be up there with Stephen King and Anne Rice as one of horror’s greatest writers. I don’t know if I’d ever want to see a film adaptation, because as SGJ said in an interview, it would be like seeing the zipper on the monster costume, spoiling all the magic. His books make a movie in my head that’s better than anything Hollywood could make. Either way, I’m off to read My Heart is a Chainsaw. Keep making these new killer classics Stephen Graham Jones, and I’ll keep reading em.
I feel like the story could be a metaphor for so many things, but for me, it resonated with my family’s history of alcoholism. Growing up, I always thought I’d never be alcoholics like them, but at the same time, weirdly felt envious of the adults and their drinking. Sure enough, I became an alcoholic myself, now in recovery, almost at 4 years without a drink. I took to the chaos and violence of alcohol and drug addiction like a fish to water, or a wolf to the moon.
Through all the negative aspects of being a werewolf, the constant moving, the chaos, the violence, the death of his own mother, it’s still so clear that our protagonist wants nothing more than to be like his aunt and uncle.
The way the main character never had a name made it so easy to put myself in his shoes and really become him in the story. How Jones is able to create such vivid imagery with so few words is beyond me.
The end of the story truly moved me. I never thought I’d be crying at the end of a werewolf novel but here we are. I felt the soaring sense of pride, the relief, the apprehension, the fear of the MC finally shifting in those last few pages. I read them over and over. I could see myself looking back in the mirror, pressing my muzzle to the cold glass to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I almost flipped the book over and started again from page 1. If it wasn’t for my massive TBR list, I probably would.
Really excellent. Jones will one day be up there with Stephen King and Anne Rice as one of horror’s greatest writers. I don’t know if I’d ever want to see a film adaptation, because as SGJ said in an interview, it would be like seeing the zipper on the monster costume, spoiling all the magic. His books make a movie in my head that’s better than anything Hollywood could make. Either way, I’m off to read My Heart is a Chainsaw. Keep making these new killer classics Stephen Graham Jones, and I’ll keep reading em.