Review: The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group

THE ABUSED WEREWOLF RESCUE GROUP

by Catherine Jinks

Buy it 04/04/11

The riveting and highly anticipated sequel to The Reformed Vampire Rescue Group.

"When Tobias Richard Vandevelde wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the night before, his horrified mother tells him that he was found unconscious. At Featherdale Wildlife Park. In a dingo pen.

He assumes that his two best friends are somehow responsible, until the mysterious Reuben turns up, claiming that Toby has a rare and dangerous "condition." Next thing he knows, Toby finds himself involved with a strange bunch of sickly insomniacs who seem convinced that he needs their help.

It’s not until he’s kidnapped and imprisoned that he starts to believe them—and to understand what being a paranormal monster really means."

How often can you say that a book you've been so eagerly anticipating for years actually lives up to all that built up anticipation? Or how often the summary of a novel is infinitely more thrilling than the actual novel itself. Time and again I have fallen victim to my own expectations and been completely let down. Let's not even start on sequels to amazing novels or especially the final installments to series that were juggernauts right up until that final flop.

This is not that kind of book.

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group far exceeded all my expectations. It wasn't as if the author wrote The Reformed Vampire Support Group 2.0, AWRG has a tempo and a life all its own. In it are young men of reckless danger and clever invention. They are straddling conflicting worlds in which the paranormal exist, and where certain people refuse to accept that they are real. Toby, our young protagonist and narrator, has a hard time coming to terms with his newly discovered werewolf "condition". And coming to the reality of the situation is a jarring crash coarse in the bloody reality of his new life. Doing he utmost to make Toby see the truth of his situation is Reuben, my favorite character from RVSG and one of the über heroes of this book. For me, it was Reuben who stole the show yet again in AWRG. Reuben had a thankless and intensely difficult job with Toby and he had to make some hard decisions and take serious action. But he was more than able to step up for all the abused werewolves in the series!


Reading AWRG I was so relieved that the author doesn't try to insert a "teenage" narration or dialog into the book. There is a maturity and a coolness to the story that makes this book and RCSG transcend the YA genre. The series is full of characters you come to love and have a hard time saying goodbye to once you turn that last page. I think and I hope that any reader who loves not just "paranormal" or "urban fantasy" fiction, but who are searching for a great story, would love The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group. Jinks has said that AWRG will be the only sequel to RVSG, I hope she reconsiders because I cannot recommend this book enough!

Published  by Harcourt Children's Books

Hardcover (ISBN13: 9780152066154)
Read at NetGalley.com