Review
“So you've had a bit of a rough night, eh, Toby?” - Tino Toby Vandevelde knows he is in trouble when he wakes up in Hospital with no memory of what he did the night before. It gets worse when he discovers he was found unconscious in the Dingo pen at Featherdale Wildlife Park. Doctors fear the thirteen year old might be suffering some form of epilepsy, though Toby's friend, the manic Fergus, thinks this could be the coolest thing ever. Toby is contacted by Father Ramon and the put upon Reuben, who think that Toby's condition might have other causes. Unfortunately for Toby other, less savoury, elements are also interested in what Toby's condition might just be. When Toby is kidnapped he founds the nightmare his life has become is going to get steadily worse, what with psychopathic werewolves, emotive Vampires, and Zombies. Mount Druitt is about to take a walk on the wild side and Toby's life is never going to be the same again. Well here it is folks, the first review of 2011 and it's another Young Adult novel. Why exactly people are creaming their knickers over those deplorable Twilight books remains a mystery when far superior novels are waiting on the Country's bookshelves. I hadn't run across Author Catherine Jinks previously to receiving The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group (AWRG) so was going in blind, though the cover looked cool and the book title, while slightly unwieldy, promised some dark delights of the lycanthrope kind. So was I howling at the moon or seeking a silver bullet? First up you have to say Catherine Jinks builds her novel strongly from a Sydney perspective. Yes the suburbs Mount Druitt, Strathfield, and Surry Hills, exist in that City. This is going to be a requirement of the novel as Toby and his doubting Mother come to terms with the paranormal actually existing, werewolves and vampires camped out in the burbs, and a whole “werewolf fight club” thing going down. So Jinks bases it in reality in a sort of Stephen King fashion before gradually leaking the forces of chaos onto the page. Full respect for that approach rather than just throwing things that go bump in the night into the mix and hoping the Readership will rock along with the more far fetched notions. What works for AWRG is Jinks ability to straddle both worlds in her novel, the normal reality of everyday life out in the Western Suburbs of Sydney and the slightly under the radar paranormal one that threatens Vampires and Werewolves in abundance. Helping is the inexhaustible ability of Capitalism to derive a dollar from all things. The idea of werewolf pit fights is one that you kind of think should have been around the dark genre world for ages, yet it doesn't appear to have been. Author Jinks here throwing a concept on to the table that is so obvious that it makes you wonder why someone hadn't thought of it before. I also liked the way the Author managed, through some bloody fine prose, to bring in the idea of lycanthropy as a “condition” akin to epilepsy and in one glorious scene the idea of werewolves hunting as a pack. The Author's ability to mesh the ordinary with the extra-ordinary is one of the strengths of the novel and shows a mighty fine Author at her craft. Toby's Mom stands in for the reader I believe, regardless of evidence it's going to take a lot to convince most people to believe what they are seeing. Reuben of course stands in for long suffering dark genre voyagers who are probably left wondering during some books and movies exactly what it would take to make some sceptics into believers. The old, if half this shite took place in my house I would be out of there in well under 28 days screaming and at full pace, rather than hanging around finding rational explanations. I would really like to see Joel Anderson (Lake Mungo (2009)) grab the film rights to AWRG and make the commercial hit that we all know is just an advertising campaign away for the dark genre Downunder. Sorry Joel but I would also like to see Catherine Jinks write the screen play. So where was I before sidetracking into film, okay maybe the technical aspects of the novel. Like a lot of Young Adult fiction in this country the story is told in first person narrative form from the viewpoint of our protagonist Toby. Excellent character choice as Toby is cocky, has a good sense of humour, and some wry views on life as one would expect from a privileged North Shore teen suddenly finding himself living “out west”. You get the notion that no matter what life throws at Toby he's nearly always going to find that silver lining. Catherine Jinks writes in convincing style, with the book melting away as you are drawn into a pretty fast paced narrative. It's excellent stuff, and for sure I'm going to be hunting out Jinks' earlier works. Like most Downunder Young Adult or Paranormal Romance writers Jinks avoids the teen angst and overtly Emo nature of supernatural entities that seems to have creeped into the North American output, notable exception of Charlaine Harris. Alrighty well over the old word limit, there goes New Year resolution one. I totally enjoyed AWRG and had a hoot with the novel. The reading was easy, just what I needed on a New Year's day, and I look forward to checking our Chatherine Jinks earlier works. Well recommended book, yes you will be howling at the moon. For further details check out the Allen & Unwin page right here. You can also check out other titles Allen & Unwin are carrying by Catherine Jinks. Once our budget starts flowing for 2011 I'm nabbing a few from the website. Catherine Jinks maintains an Author website, click through.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... The human side of the werewolf.
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Disclaimer: Please note this review reflects the opinion of the team at ScaryMinds and should in no way be construed as
representing the views of the AHWA Shadows Award Judges. This review is for the edification of ScaryMinds readers and does not constitute a
“literary criticism” or any other criteria the Shadows Judging panel may take this year.