Mongrels

LoveReading Says

Highly Recommended.

Mongrels is a gripping and unsettling novel and a fresh and contemporary take on the Werewolf myth that is rooted in the hound-to-mouth experience of working class America as much as it is in moonlit nights and woods.

The story follows the coming of age of a boy being brought up by his grandfather, his aunt and his uncle. As we follow his episodic story, the family moving from one temporary house to another in a series of beat-up cars, we learn that this is no ordinary family and that it is something far bloodier than brute economics that separates from the good life.

This is a sometimes gruesomely violent story, but Jones’ real skill is to weave the visceral nature of werewolf existence into everyday sensations and realities. And he does it with a wonderfully laconic prose, rich in the tones and styles of the America of the West and South. And we end up feeling empathy for his family. Yes, there are monsters within but they are harried and desperate people chased by hunters and their own nature.

Stephen King’s fans will love this but also if you love Cormac McCarthy there is much here to enjoy. A reimagining of werewolves and America every bit as startling as Toby Barlow’s Sharp Teeth. Praise doesn’t come much higher in my book.

Simon Spanton

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