Review – Hemlock

TITLE: Hemlock

PUBLISHER: Katherine Tegen Books

SYNOPSIS: Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.

Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer:

A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome–also known as the werewolf virus–is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boy-friend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.

Kathleen Peacock’s thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spell-binding urban fantasy series filled with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love.

REVIEW: Hemlock takes place after the murder of the main character, Mackenzie’s, best of friend, Amy. It is set in a world where becoming a werewolf is a disease, kind of like rabies. A world where there are extremist groups trying to get rid of all the infected, all the werewolves. The story is centered around Mackenzie, also known as Mac, and her other two friends, Kyle and Jason. In desperation to find some conclusion, Mac decides to start looking for Amy’s killer herself, but uncovers some secrets along the way.

Hemlock is by far one of the more interesting and original books about werewolves that I have ever read. It was a new spin on an old subject which was appreciable. It didn’t hurt that there were some mystery and drama, not just romance. There was some sort of a love triangle, but it didn’t cause as much drama and was well written.

The plot was really good. It kept throwing me new twists and turns. Mysteries are sort of my specialty. I read a lot of them. I’ve gotten good at predicting who committed the crime. I didn’t get even close to figuring out this one until the end. Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, I learned something new that steered me in a totally different direction, but yet it all maked sense at the end.

The characters all had their own demons, and to me, that explained the reasoning behind some of their actions. The trio of Mac, Kyle, and Jason were all really close to Amy. And her murder hit them hard. Her death causes they to feel both guilt and grief, and I think a lot of their actions were motivated by that. Which would sort of justify why I sometimes felt like yelling at them. Grieving people aren’t exactly known to act wisely…

The only thing this book was missing was a deeper back story. I got to see how the friendship of the characters came to be, but I kept feeling like I was missing key information. I feel like a lot of the book focused on the present, not the past, which could have helped explain some things. I just kept wanting to ask the characters all these questions. Hopefully, the sequel will have some of the answers I’m looking for.

Overall, Hemlock was a really good read. Something I would recommend to people looking for a new twist on werewolves and to those who love mysteries. I am looking forward to reading the next book… if only I can find the time.