Weird, I know. I just updated a few days ago and boom, here I am again.
Well, this time I am bringing you my favorite book, Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand.
I will gush a bit about this book, but please understand I will give reasons as to why it's my favorite as well as criticisms of it. Well, that last part is a lie cause I really don't have anything to complain about in it. It's still a 5 star novel that you seriously need to read if you enjoy werewolves, monsters, thrillers or the best dialog in written form.
Seriously, this guy writes the best dialog I have ever seen. It's natural, it's funny, it flows smoothly, it's not stilted or overly long explanations of whatever the author insert in the book wants to say, it's literally just great dialog. I think this could easily be turned into a movie with minimal loss to the book and it would be amazing.
So, basically the plot involves a werewolf. 2 mobster leg breakers are given an assignment, and that assignment is very simple. Bring the man in the cage to a location.
What starts out as an easy assignment quickly becomes very complicated, very dangerous, and very very entertaining.
Gonna sidetrack for a moment here, so please bear with me. I seriously HATE the ideas that werewolves and vampires are all these emo, woe is me monsters. "Oh, I am so sad, I am immortal and a perfect killing machine and I eat people but I can't handle sunlight/silver/the full moon, OH WOE IS ME FOR MY IMMORTAL LIFETIME WILL BE FILLED WITH PAIN AND EATING PEOPLE" is not something that garners my sympathies. 99% of the time in the books these things are not only insanely rich, they are insanely good looking and have pretty much nothing to complain about other than needing spf 900000 sunblock or a seriously good bottle of shampoo once a month. Granted, I can say something hand-wavy like "Oh, being attractive is a trait of predators that would allow easier feeding so yea I can sort of understand why the changes would happen to make someone look better" but I shouldn't have to. The plot of the book in a monster novel should be "Hey, it's a monster, and it's killing and eating people", not "Hey, it's a monster! Let's talk about feelings and how important it is to not judge people that eat other people."
They are monsters, they eat people. This attitude of "Oh, I am doomed to be alone because I am a rich, sexy being of the night in my castle/apartment and if I get close to someone I might kill them and eat them" is just boring as hell to me. Granted, I am not a woman and I don't read romance novels often, but I just cannot wrap my head about what might be sexy about a guy who might snap and kill you and drain your blood for food. It'd be like me moaning about how I can't stand to look at a cow because I would someday snap and want a steak. They are predators, they live to eat people, much like humans are predators and we eat anything made of meat or butter.
That being said, the werewolf in this story is a complete and utter bastard. He is an asshole, and he acts like one. He is NOT supposed to be this sexy beast that women throw themselves at. He is a killing machine and a sociopath, and he revels in the bloodshed he causes. I love that. Jeff Strand wrote a werewolf like it SHOULD be written. Big, hairy, crazy, mean, psychotic, etc.
It's a self contained story, which is also nice, because I kind of hate books that end with a DUN DUN DUHNNNNN ending with the hopes the author comes back to it one day. It's rare to find a book that ISN'T a setup for some trilogy or pentalogy or whatever you call those 18 book sets of cliffhangers and plot. I think Jim Butcher calls them "My new house and yacht".
Not dissing Jim, he's awesome and I own autographed copies of all of his books and even autographed dvd's of the show, plus an autographed map of Alera and maybe a lock of his hair and maybe a webcam pointed towards his house an... ANYWAY THIS ISN'T ABOUT ME.
This is about books, and how I like them to be self contained stories sometimes. This book is a self contained story, and I dig that. It has amazing dialog, and I dig that. It's an amazing story, and I dig that. Pretty much any and all of Jeff Strand's books are well worth picking up, even his romance novel Kumquat. I read it, and hardly got any cooties from it.
Now, as much as I mentioned I love self contained stories, there IS a sequel teased for October and I will be pre ordering it or buying it day 1 because I am pretty convinced that this man cannot write a crappy book. If he can, I'd be surprised. Even his earliest work, while being a little too try hard with the humor, was still at least entertaining.
So, do yourself a favor. If you like thriller/horror style books, check out Wolf Hunt. If you like dark comedy, check out Wolf Hunt. If you like thriller/dark comedy/horror books in general, read Jeff Strand. If you don't mind cooties, read Kumquat because it's seriously the best romance novel I have read and I'll be doing a review of that one later on.
I rate this here Wolf Hunt book 5 full moons out of 5. Go forth and read, you will not regret it.
Obligatory goodreads link so you can find a copy somewhere!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8649882-wolf-hunt
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