I want to thank Parafantasy for allowing me to be a part of the ARC tour for Hemlock
Mackenzie “Mac”, Amy, Kyle and Jason were all best friends
until Amy was killed by a white werewolf. Since then the remaining friends have
been trying to piece together their lives but it is slow going and nothing is
the same. When the white werewolf strikes again it brings a group of werewolf
hunters to town called, the Trackers, and this causes even more problems. The
story follows Mac as she tries to piece together her friends’ murder and
determine who the white wolf really is.
The world building in Hemlock is absolutely fantastic! I
loved the idea that the government discovers and goes public with Lupine
Syndrome and rounds everyone infected into camps; leaving those who are
infected to go into hiding. It seems like something the government would do,
and that made the storyline all the more realistic for me.
The other thing I loved
about Hemlock was that it totally reminded me of Veronica Mars! The best friend
in both shows dies, the friends are never the same, the ghost of the dead girl
pops up semi-randomly when the protagonist needs some help, and in both series
the main character is trying to solve the murder of her friend. Also add to
this a similar kind of romance situation and my brain kept inexplicably linking
the two! This was not at all a bad thing though, I absolutely adored Veronica
Mars and any book that can keep me as hooked as that show did is definitely
worth a read.
I also liked all of the characters in this book Mac was a
great narrator and there was never a dull moment as she kept searching for
answers to the murder of her friend. I also liked both Jason and Kyle as
possible love interests, and the love triangle wasn’t terrible. I will admit to
not really liking it but I can’t decide if that’s because I didn’t have a clear
preference for which “team” I would be on or just because I dislike love
triangles in general. One of my favorite characters, but who I though was a bit
overlooked though, was Mac’s sister. She took in her younger sister, dealt with
all of the issues, and still was there when everything started to go downhill.
I liked what a strong independent person she was and hope to see more her in
the sequel!
Overall, I really enjoyed Hemlock it was an interesting take
on werewolf lore and that ending *whew*! I am not usually genuinely surprised
by a book but this one had me guessing right until the end. Needless to say I’m
crazy excited for the sequel but with a possible change of publisher, no
release date, and no title yet it looks like we will be waiting a long time!
I love a book that keeps me guessing! Plus I haven't read many books based on werewolves (only Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater) so this seems like something I'd enjoy :) Lovely review!
ReplyDeleteI only finished this one yesterday. I loved it too. I couldn't really decide between Kyle and Jason either. It was Kyle but then Jason kind of redeemed himself. I hope we're not too long waiting on a sequel.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to read this, but now that I see you've compared it to Veronica Mars I'm NEED it. V. Mars is one of my favorite tv series of all time. Hemlock just moved to the top spots of my TBR list.
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-Kait @ YA Vixens