Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer: A white werewolf.
Lupine syndrome—also known as the werewolf virus—is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.
Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.Kathleen Peacock’s thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spellbinding urban fantasy series filled with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love. (From Goodreads)
If you hang around my blog at all, you've probably gotten the message that I'm a werewolf kind of girl. They're warm, fuzzy, dangerous, and they have so much life in them it takes on two forms. I really love what wolves are and what shape shifters represent. So I went into Hemlock fully expecting to love it and I got everything I expected.
Kathleen Peacock's world is one where werewolves are common knowledge, but to be a werewolf is to be afflicted with a disease (by society's standards). Because a person bitten by a werewolf is no longer considered human, or is a second class human - there were a lot of parallels to gender or racial struggles and human rights movements. Once bitten a person is locked up in a camp, the rights of werewolves are the hot topic debated in politics, there are vigilantes, calls to citizens to turn in their neighbors, and werewolves hiding out pretending to be something their not. All these things make the common person so much more dangerous than the thing they are supposed to fear. In this sense Peacock takes a werewolf story and hooks it back into history and social convention and deepens the meaning behind each word.
Also, it's just a great story. It's very cinematic. I could actually see things happening - and I stopped every once in awhile to close my eyes and watch the things I just read replay in my mind. I kept thinking that this should be a movie or a TV show. I'd definitely watch that. The writing feels effortless, so it's easy to just get wrapped up in the movement and the snapshots. Everything about this story, the characters, the places, the actions, just feel so real.
The world is great, the writing is wonderful, and I really feel like I came to know and care about the people who live in these pages. Mac is your typical YA heroine, but it's the people around her who make her into something else. The images of Amy haunting her dreams are some of the most vivid and telling parts of the novel. Kyle and Jason are two great points on a love triangle (don't run away screaming if you hate love triangles - this one isn't just girl can't choose - it's so much more complicated than that - plus if you throw Amy in there, it's really more of a love square). I loved Kyle and I am rooting for him, but Jason was a richer character and I'm just fascinated by him.
I loved Hemlock so much. It got my pulse racing and it defintitley left me wanting more. I'm so nervous and excited to see where these characters are headed next.
