Werewolves Overtake the West in Percy’s Newest Literary Thriller
By Benjamin Percy
Grand Central Publishing, $25.99, 544 pages
Claire Forrester and Patrick Gamble are two teenagers growing up in Oregon, trying to make sense of the world, when their paths cross and their lives are forever changed. Their attraction is immediate and deep, but two facts get in their way – Claire is a lycan, also known as a werewolf, and Patrick has just barely escaped a brutal lycan terror attack.
In Benjamin Percy’s Red Moon lycans are a politically explosive minority of the population and in this America, where lycans take pills to control their transformations and school is canceled for a full moon, Percy explores the politics of fear and implications of trying to control entire groups of people. Though these two kind-hearted teenagers want nothing more than to go to college and live out the American dream, readers witness them scramble just to stay alive and do what they believe is right while America’s political and nuclear state crumbles around them.
Percy does an excellent job at writing a gripping plot, keeping the reader immersed in this richly imaginative American dystopia while creating believable, dynamic characters. It’s hard to put Red Moon down once you’ve picked it up. His alternative, werewolf filled, America is fascinating. This horror novel is the perfect beach read. It satisfies the need for easy-to-read fiction while still delivering the gorgeous writing for which Percy is known.
Reviewed by Kristin Leigh
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