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A review by faydflowright
The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks
1.0
Couldn't do it. Couldn't finish it, even with a couple chapters left.
I looooved the first story. This one also had a lot of promise, but it just dragged too long in parts and that ending is just terrible.
For a series about werewolves, there was only a lot of mentioning about werewolves. The cover also is deceiving because the character is 13. I assume that they're trying to represent Reuben with the cover, but even then they should have represented that younger character.
There's mainly just some really bad pacing with this story. So many great ideas throughout it and I was perfectly fine with the beginning and middle pacing wise. You've got a few characters from the first novel coming into view trying to convince the main character and his family that this is what's up, and then Toby and his friends try to prank Reuben, more info comes from this, and then they meet again later.... but then it just keeps dragging. Frankly I saw the problem leading up to Toby getting kidnapped. There was just a filler chapter that could have been completely removed, jumping to he meets some people trying to kidnap him... but then what should have happened was that he skipped forward a month. Let him turn into a werewolf once more and live with that realization that YO THIS HAPPENED. It would have made that escape sooo much better, and even the wolf gang idea was an interesting twist. But when the last third of your book takes place in one location... there's a bit of a problem here.
I just think the main things that could have fixed the book are:
1) Just age up Toby to 14... seriously, it wouldn't have changed anything except that high school age to make the story not feel like it should be a Middle Grade. I know a 13 year old and that kind of ruined the story for me.
2) Change the story for over 2 month time. Actually show him change into this monster instead of implying. Cuz frankly... I agreed with his mother. He was just being indoctrinated instead of proving a point.
3) Give Nina that same voice she had in the first novel. I was a little happy to see her back again (why I wanted to read the book really, to see her cameo) but she felt so much more like a kid in this than a 50 something year old back talking vampire who is seen as the kid from all the other vampires. I loved Nina and didn't enjoy seeing her just exhausted and talking about someone being sorry for what they did. Just a few of her lines felt really kiddy. But it was a fun hilarious idea to make Toby talk about the girlfriend thing.
4) Actually dive into learning more about the world. The first book felt special because they framed being a vampire not only as a "disease" but they opened up this big underground werewolf thing the characters didn't know existed. This one I think they were trying to play with zombies... but no understanding from the characters were there, so it fell into a "WHATS GOING ON?!" freaking out moment (with too many guns). They could have met up with this big American underground person mentioned in the first book and really dove into more of where werewolves came from. Or maybe Toby and Sergio escape and Danny could have been that person to explain more or even open them to that world of mystery a bit more.
There's a lot of options of how to grow this world and they could have framed it with "Is there actually a cure?". Cuz really... is there? That could have been a fun lead into another book or series of the younger Vampires and werewolves seeking out a cure for their conditions. Even if it's not a fruitful cause, they could frame it then like researchers trying to cure cancer or any other disease. "We haven't found anything yet... but we are one step closer."
Overall, there was so much potential in the book and just better pacing could have made me root for the characters more than siding with Mom.
I looooved the first story. This one also had a lot of promise, but it just dragged too long in parts and that ending is just terrible.
For a series about werewolves, there was only a lot of mentioning about werewolves. The cover also is deceiving because the character is 13. I assume that they're trying to represent Reuben with the cover, but even then they should have represented that younger character.
There's mainly just some really bad pacing with this story. So many great ideas throughout it and I was perfectly fine with the beginning and middle pacing wise. You've got a few characters from the first novel coming into view trying to convince the main character and his family that this is what's up, and then Toby and his friends try to prank Reuben, more info comes from this, and then they meet again later.... but then it just keeps dragging. Frankly I saw the problem leading up to Toby getting kidnapped. There was just a filler chapter that could have been completely removed, jumping to he meets some people trying to kidnap him... but then what should have happened was that he skipped forward a month. Let him turn into a werewolf once more and live with that realization that YO THIS HAPPENED. It would have made that escape sooo much better, and even the wolf gang idea was an interesting twist. But when the last third of your book takes place in one location... there's a bit of a problem here.
I just think the main things that could have fixed the book are:
1) Just age up Toby to 14... seriously, it wouldn't have changed anything except that high school age to make the story not feel like it should be a Middle Grade. I know a 13 year old and that kind of ruined the story for me.
2) Change the story for over 2 month time. Actually show him change into this monster instead of implying. Cuz frankly... I agreed with his mother. He was just being indoctrinated instead of proving a point.
3) Give Nina that same voice she had in the first novel. I was a little happy to see her back again (why I wanted to read the book really, to see her cameo) but she felt so much more like a kid in this than a 50 something year old back talking vampire who is seen as the kid from all the other vampires. I loved Nina and didn't enjoy seeing her just exhausted and talking about someone being sorry for what they did. Just a few of her lines felt really kiddy. But it was a fun hilarious idea to make Toby talk about the girlfriend thing.
4) Actually dive into learning more about the world. The first book felt special because they framed being a vampire not only as a "disease" but they opened up this big underground werewolf thing the characters didn't know existed. This one I think they were trying to play with zombies... but no understanding from the characters were there, so it fell into a "WHATS GOING ON?!" freaking out moment (with too many guns). They could have met up with this big American underground person mentioned in the first book and really dove into more of where werewolves came from. Or maybe Toby and Sergio escape and Danny could have been that person to explain more or even open them to that world of mystery a bit more.
There's a lot of options of how to grow this world and they could have framed it with "Is there actually a cure?". Cuz really... is there? That could have been a fun lead into another book or series of the younger Vampires and werewolves seeking out a cure for their conditions. Even if it's not a fruitful cause, they could frame it then like researchers trying to cure cancer or any other disease. "We haven't found anything yet... but we are one step closer."
Overall, there was so much potential in the book and just better pacing could have made me root for the characters more than siding with Mom.