Posts Tagged: YA

I’ve got a great guest on the blog today, lovelies! Kathleen Peacock is here today as part of the Thornhill blog tour to talk to us about Werewolves vs Vampires in the most hilarious – and realistic – way! First let’s have a look at what I thought of this gorgeous sequel!

I received this book for free from HarperCollins Canada in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Mac can’t lose another friend. Even if he doesn’t want to be found.

The ripple effect caused by Mac’s best friend Amy’s murder has driven Mac’s new love, Kyle, to leave Hemlock and disappear from her life forever. But Mac knows that Kyle plans to enroll in a rehabilitation camp, where he can live with other werewolves. She refuses to accept his decision, especially since the camps are rumored to be tortuous. So she sets out in search of Kyle with a barely sober Jason—and Amy’s all-seeing ghost—in tow.

Clues lead Mac to find Kyle in a werewolf den in Colorado—but their reunion is cut short by a Tracker raid. Now Mac and Kyle are trapped inside the electric fences of Thornhill, a camp for young werewolves. As she devises an escape plan, Mac uncovers dangerous secrets buried within the walls of Thornhill—and realizes that the risk to the people she loves is greater than ever before.

The long anticipated sequel to Hemlock arriving at my door was no doubt the highlight of my week. I greedily tore into it a few days later, bringing me back into the turbulent lives of Mac, Kyle, and Jason. As usual with sequels, I think I would have loved it more had there not been such a large gap of time between reading this book and its predecessor. Things did eventually come back – mostly – although the dark, action packed thriller that it is removed any chance of ever becoming bored regardless.

Hemlock introduced us to a world where being infected by Lupine syndrome means you’re now a threat to society, and thus no law applies to you anymore. You’ll be hunted until you’re found and sent to rehabilitation camp. In Thornhill, we see exactly what these camps consist of, and it’s not pretty! This is what I was craving to find out in the first book; it’s safe to say I was instantly enthralled by the grim setting of this book. Plus, Mac and Kyle are now trapped into this facility brimming with morbid rumors. It turns up the suspense, multiplies the conspiracies, and opens our eyes to some very interesting, very dark secrets. My point: the setting is A-1! It’s even more dystopian-like; all oppressive surroundings and claustrophobic feelings. The advancement in world building and plot is significant for the series and I surprisingly never got a middle-book feel from it.

Even though we grow to side with the werewolves, I found it realistically constructed from a societal standpoint. Thornhill’s biggest villain is shown as this cruel, heartless human being when really it’s all fear-induced. It doesn’t make it right, but it makes us understand. Just think about it – if on the street could be a walking weapon… What makes it worse is prejudice against werewolves is not only cruelly witnessed, but enforced. You can be arrested for being a werewolf sympathizer, for instance. This divide between those infected and regular humans makes it so society becomes okay with shooting a werewolf for the sole reason of that person being a werewolf, no matter how unthreatening they’re being. It’s realistic, which makes it all the more disturbing.

The romance, at least from what I remember, is a little bit more pronounced in this sequel. The plot surrounds Mac and her need to rescue Kyle with the help of Jason who’s obviously infatuated by her. There is some development in regards to the love triangle, but Mac’s feelings don’t seem to stray from Kyle so it’s still not your cliché back and forth love story – I kind of heart Jason, though, so it’s bittersweet. I do have one character qualm – albeit a minor one, but it’s one that surrounds this sequel’s plot as a whole. It’s my doubt in regards to Mac’s reasoning for getting herself in unnecessary danger by staying in the camp. I think a smarter decision would have been getting out and getting help from the pack. As such, I was not convinced by her motive to stay; it didn’t feel like a very logical solution any way I turned it. Unrelated, but more uncertainty showed its head during the Amy chapters. I’m not sure of the significance yet but anything regarding such a portrayal of the afterlife has the tendency to become a bit too spiritual/religious for my liking. So we’ll see how it goes.

With unrelenting suspense and the same wonderful characters we grew to love, Thornhill is sure to be a winner among fans of the series. If you’re new to Hemlock, you’re missing one heck of a ruthless, intelligent, and original werewolf mystery!

*Find my review of Hemlock, here!

Guest Post by Kathleen Peacock

Werewolves vs Vampires

If there’s one thing more awkward than high school, it’s being a werewolf.

Being a vampire is easy. It’s all crushed velvet and lurking in shadows and nibbling on necks. Thanks to Angel and Edward, girls expect vampires to be brooding and sexy. They’re even prepared to deal with centuries of baggage and stalkerish behavior—just as long as you swear they’re the one you’ve been waiting for.

Being a werewolf, on the other hand…

It’s hard to be brooding or sexy when you’re running around on all fours and howling at the moon. Even after you’ve changed back, you know your date is going to worry about lingering dog-breath and whether or not you still have the remnants of a tail.

No: if you want a relationship, you’re going to have to Clark Kent it—at least for a few months. And good luck with that. It’s hard to convince someone you’re on the level when you randomly disappear for long stretches of time, frequently don’t answer your phone, and refuse to explain those mysterious claw marks on your arm.

And relationship problems? They’re just the tip of the iceberg.

At all self-conscious about your body? You’d better get over it. Fast. Clothes don’t shapeshift when you do, and I guarantee there will be more than one mad, naked dash in your future. You can’t effectively run for cover or steal clothes off of clotheslines if you’re agonizing over how much your butt does—or does not—jiggle.

Speaking of clothes, I hope you’re not a slave to fashion. Those designer jeans won’t be much more than a pile of rags after your body tears itself apart. Thrift stores and hand-me-downs are your new best friends.

And how are you at handling pain? If you thought menstrual cramps were bad, just wait until your kidneys switch places and your spleen explodes.

Okay, sure: There are some perks.

Super strength comes in handy—especially when it comes to changing tires or opening stubborn mayonnaise jars—and we can heal just about anything. And we’ve got a few points on the fangsters. We can go out in sunlight, we don’t sparkle like a jumbo container of body glitter, and people don’t have to worry about getting paper cuts when we’re in the room.

Maybe neither condition is all it’s cracked up to be—no matter what Hollywood says.

In the battle between Team Vamp and Team Wolf, maybe the most we can hope for is just to stay as human as possible.

*I love Twilight. Please don’t hurt me over the glitter and stalker jokes.

About the Author

Kathleen spent her teen years crushing on authors and writing short stories about vampires. She put her writing dreams on hold while attending art school, but tripped over them when office life left her feeling restless.

Kathleen is Canadian and likely to perish in the first wave of the zombie apocalypse.

This post is part of the Thornhill blog tour:

Sept. 9th: Maji Bookshelf
Sept. 10th: Booking It With Hayley G
Sept. 11th: Xpresso Reads
Sept.12th: OMFG books
Sept. 13th: Me on Books