The Frenzy (review)

Liv has been keeping secrets for years about a change that occurred when she was thirteen, when she realized she was a werewolf. Her loving, if suffocating, parents and her perfect, adoring boyfriend don't know a thing about her other life, and she longs to keep it that way. The appearance of a mysterious woman threatens Liv's uneasy balance with the information that Liv's mother years ago killed a member of another wolf family and that blood vengeance is all that will heal the local werewolf clan. Liv, forced either to murder her mother if she wants to join with the clan or to reject the only allies who understand her life, must gather all of her internal strength to make the right choices in a time when absolutely nothing is clear. Block's usually ethereal, lyrical prose feels leaden here, bogged down in telling rather than showing and in long descriptions of family dynamics. In addition, the werewolf clan Liv encounters is underdeveloped, leaving its members' motivations and social structure clouded in frustrating mystery. Klause's Blood and Chocolate (BCCB 7/97) remains the classic in this genre, with Pearce's Sisters Red (BCCB 9/10) a strong recent entry. Nevertheless, Block fans will find her celebration of sexuality and female power proudly displayed herein, and horror fans will appreciate the relatively rare girl perspective on becoming, and adapting to life as, a werewolf.