Bad Blood

Review by: A Book Vacation on July 29, 2012 :
This was an interesting story dealing with lycanthropes. If you like werewolves, I suggest taking a look into this novel, especially if you’re partial to young YA and MG reads. Basically, the novel begins around a campfire and a battle between good and evil ensues. Val Sherwood is bitten, and it then becomes her job to protect her friends as the evil werewolf in question attempts to kill everyone in the Ecology Club. At the same time that Val must attempt to protect her friends, she must learn to live with her new condition, and her interactions with others while she’s attempting to do so provide enough humor to make the story comical.

I thought the characterization within the story was very well done, though the story moved very quickly, making it difficult to connect on a deeper level with the characters. I liked Val well enough, and her friends were interesting, though that fact that they couldn’t just listen and take orders irked me a tad bit. Overall, though, this is a pretty good read and I think those who enjoy werewolf tales will enjoy it.

Review by: Byron Gordon on Nov. 1, 2011 :
Review of Bad Blood
By James D MacDonald

This is a highschool werewolf novel, which is a category of literature that I'm normally not interested in. The young foolish highschoolers, the raging hormones, the slow painful realization that the world does not exist for their pleasure, the incorrigible romantic slant towards everything, all colored by the middle aged authors nostalgia for their youthful past. Just writing that sentence is about enough to make me sick. I almost didn't read the book at all for that reason. However, Mr. MacDonald is reputed to be an excellent author and I was dying to read some of his work, so when I saw the 100% coupon code, I couldn't resist.

I loved Bad Blood. I couldn't put it down (figuratively speaking, because I read it in electronic format) once I started. The action was crisp and believable, the dialogue was snappy, the characters were real and believable, and all of those things that make teenage novels sickening were (mostly) absent. I say mostly because there were some “drama queen frustration” scene's that were in the book BUT they were mercifully brief, utterly understandable, and fit quite naturally. That type of thing never dominated the book, it didn't have a chance to.

The only gripe that I have is how long it took the main character to realize what was going on. However, in all fairness, it was a very realistic portayal of the human tendency to refuse to believe the facts because we simply don't want to face the truth. While this book contains werewolves and highschoolers, it is really about a far deeper theme: the acceptance of personal responsibility and the struggle that every human has in taking control of themselves. Sound familiar? Watch/read Spiderman again ;)

I haven't read the next book of the series (Sorry Mr. MacDonald, I'm on a budget where pennies are like hen's teeth) but I hope to in the not so distant future. If you are looking for an entertaining read that holds deeper truths within it, I highly recommend picking a copy of this book up