RED MOON
by Benjamin Percy
Available in all good book stores now
Werewolves are not the stuff of folklore or legend, here they are your neighbours and, for the most, your friends, but as in all things there are those who take a dimmer view of our hairy friends.
We kick off the story with Patrick being driven by his father to the airport to stay with his mother. The flight is one to forget as events aboard result in Patrick being the only survivor. His face is on every newspaper and TV show and news reports label him the “miracle boy”. This newfound, unwanted celebrity status results in Patrick being treated with unease by the kids of his new high school, shown kindness only by a girl called Malerie and group of lads headed up by Max, a lad with just a couple issuses.
We cut to Claire, our happy go lucky high school werewolf heroine who, on her way home, finds her neighbourhood being invaded by what appear to be government agents rouding up and killing any Lycan who offers up any resistance, her own parents taken/ killed? Claire runs to the only place she can, her Aunts – a lady with her own mysterious past who prepares her for what lies ahead.
This wouldn’t be complete without some politics so enter Chase Williams – Ex-soldier now congress man on the verge of becoming President and then some. With a war on the horizon, he faces some very tough and conflicting decisions.
With the culmination of all these characters and the addition of the unrelenting Tall Man (government agent) and the ever elusive “One” (the first Lycan), this can only be heading one way…an apocolyptic race war!
Werewolf books are not ususally my thing. I love a good whodunnit but that’s not to say I haven’t read a few. This book puts me in mind of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series albeit this is geared toward a slightly higher age group. The story telling is like that of Simon Kernick as, like Kernick, Benjamin Percy captures the gritty depths that make a great page turner. I would strongly urge readers of all genres to read Red Moon as this is how a supernatural/horror story should be told.
Like Stephen King, Benjamin Percy has written characters within a story that you love the more you learn about them. Unlike King, Benjamin Percy knows how to end a book with style. Too controversial? Maybe, but I draw your attention to Tommyknockers, The Langoliers and more recently, Under the Dome – truly amazing stories and characters but with very lame endings.
I really liked this book. It’s very fast paced and the relationships between the characters were very cleverly written. The relationship between Patrick and his Mother is raw and powerful and his relationship with Claire is as strong as it is doomed, as both have families with telling pasts. I liked how every character develops over the years, they never loose sight of their beliefs and hold strong to them no matter how misguided some are.
I’m asked to write a negative about this and almost always this would give no greater plesure but I find myself at a loss. I love this story. I have no doubt that, like me, the ending will leave you howling for more! I guess that is the only negative…it ends.
This could be the next Hollyood blockbuster or it could be one of those that has a small cult classic following. Whatever or wherever this story is going it has one more fan on board.
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