Author: Emily Jane
Publisher: Hyperion Avenue
ISBN: 9781368116039
A young woman looking forrevenge runs into a man with a dark secret: he’s a werewolf.Although terrified at first, the woman realizes he may be the key togetting justice for the countless who have died horrible, mysteriousdeaths—or suffered worse.
Author Emily Jane is back with a novelthat sparkles with her trademark wit, astute observations, and herstellar writing of children characters in American Werewolves.
In San Francisco, NatashaPorter is facing unexpected homelessness. Her roommate, MarieBabineux, a young woman from France, was brutally murdered recently.
Natasha is heartsick about losing one of her only friends in the cityand can’t afford the rent on their home anymore. She’s angry thatsomeone could cut Marie’s life so short without thought orhesitation. She’s also terrified that Marie’s murder didn’thappen by normal means.
Desperate for answers anda hot shower, Natasha turns to her only other friend. In collegeNatasha and Lee were a thing, but they’ve moved comfortably into aneasy friend zone that leads Natasha to believe Lee will welcome herand he does.
As a stay-at-home dad, having Natasha around means abreak in the monotony of caring for little ones. In a decision thatonly makes sense within the context of grief,
Natasha takes the jobthat used to be Marie’s: being a hostess at the swanky OlympicCountry Club. She needs the cash, yes, but maybe she’ll also beable to figure out what happened to Marie.
The country club caters tothe richie-rich of the city, including the partners of BarringtonEquity. The venture capital firm is known for taking on smallercompanies and turning them inside out for insane profits.
That lureof money is exactly what keeps Shane LaSalle, associate, on the hook.He wants to be a partner at Barrington and fly around on private jetsand swagger into a room and have everyone kowtow to him. Now all thatfeels just within reach.
When the partners atBarrington invite Shane to an exclusive retreat in Pennsylvania, itseems like the stars are finally aligning in his favor. He doesn’trealize that it isn’t the stars he should worry about; it’s themoon.
Strange whispers of werewolves follow Barrington Equitywherever they go. The trip to Pennsylvania is meant to be a newbeginning, and for Shane it is; just not the beginning he wanted. Nowhe wants nothing more than for everything to end.
Eventually, Natasha andShane meet and form a friendship. Both of them are itching to makethings right, even if Shane’s itchiness follows a more lunar cycle.
They’ll have to figure out how to work with celebrities, unlikelyfriends, and even a precocious child who is convinced Natasha is aghost if they ever want life to get back mostly to normal.
Author Emily Jane settlessquarely into the groove of the genre of speculative fiction withthis, her third book, that is just as self-assured as her debut, thewonderfully wacky On Earth As It Is on Television.
Here, as in thatbook, Jane’s youngest character shines. Her knack for balancing theinnocence of children with their ability to be sassy, speak plaintruths, and not incur society’s side-eyeing is spot on.
Despite thefact that Lee’s daughter is only in a handful of scenes, she’llhave readers chuckling every time.
The other characters alsoshine, a hallmark of Jane’s writing strengths. From her book’sopening pages, she writes with depth and an interiority that willmake readers believe these people live next door or around the block.
With such a solid foundation in characters, Jane makes it easy tosuspend disbelief in whatever out-of-this-world concept she mightpresent to readers.
In American Werewolves,the titular creatures are at the heart of the plot. In the hands ofany lesser-skilled author, the idea of werewolves would have comeacross as grossly exaggerated.
At the very least, it would be hard totake them seriously. Emily Jane has crafted a thoughtful tale thatdoesn’t tread new ground when it comes to the issues it covers butdoes present them in a way that deserves another thought.
If the book can be faultedanywhere, it’s that some of the story real estate that went toShane could have been given over to the side plot of Natasha’scareer implosion or even the “historical” passages about Bit inthe 19th century.
Bit’s part of the story feels so lived in thatreaders may end up wishing they could have lingered with him a littlelonger and not with Shane quite so much.
Nevertheless, readers wholove books that surprise them and fans of any sort of speculativefiction will absolutely want to check this out. I recommend readersBookmark American Werewolves by Emily Jane.