Red Moon: A Novel by Benjamin Percy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Every so often I venture into the horror side of fantasy, even though it makes me squirm. RED MOON is a werewolf story (and I love me some werewolves!), but with a twist, and rather squarely in the horror genre. There are the traditional elements here (moon-influenced transformation, biting makes one a werewolf), but lycanthropy has been found to be a virus. It’s been around for decades, centuries, even, and the populace have learned to deal with it. There’s a medicine that deadens the symptoms, but lycans are still shunned. All of this AU stuff is folded into the narrative, never seeming like too big of an infodump. The author has really thought through the consequences of having a violent minority population, giving it an entire history and finding completely plausible ways to change people’s lifestyles. All of that is very interesting, but then there’s the horror side of things. People die in horrific ways, and the story delves into a post-apocalyptic setting (and if you know me, I try to avoid all things post-apocalyptic. That’s why I haven’t read The Hunger Games). Families are torn apart, brought together, survival tactics become hugely important. All the characters go through transformations, not just the ones with the virus. The author manages to make lycanthropy normal; eventually it’s just another identifying characteristic, like being blonde or Asian. There is very little romance. Perhaps that’s why the relationships between characters feel real. This was one of those books that I wasn’t particularly invested in, but I wanted to know what happened, so I kept reading. I was a little disappointed with the (terrifying to think of) epilogue; it clearly opens things up for another book, when it seemed like everything had wrapped up in one go. The story is action-filled and well-written, though, so if you like your post-apocalyptic fiction with a side of teeth, check this out.
Received as a digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.
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