I don’t know that I’m ever going to be an out-and-out horror fan but I’m beginning to settle into the kind of horror I like and it’s similar to the kind of mystery/crime I like: give me characters, give them purpose. Why am I investing my time reading about this person, whether they’re doing something I find interesting (solving a murder) or not (turning into a werewolf)? If it ain’t got that purpose, it can’t hold my attention.
Rachel Harrison does these kinds of character/theme-focused horror books with aplomb. This one in particular is about a woman going through literal changes (she’s bitten by a werewolf and keeps morphing into one) and metaphorical ones (she’s returned to her hometown and needs to change her life). The changes she’s enduring physically mirror those she’s enduring emotionally: she knows she needs to change, she is resisting to change but change is going to happen no matter what and she has no choice but to adapt.
This was another strong entry into Rachel Harrison’s wonderful body of work, however, I place it much lower than Black Sheep and The Return. The MC wasn’t as interesting as the other two respectively, the story didn’t feel as streamlined as the others did and the book totters too much between the supernatural and the natural, never finding the right balance the way she did in her other works.
But it’s a bit of a curved grade. I’d have loved this if it was my first with her. It’s still very good and I hope she continues to write these kinds of stories.