It isn’t easy to find a good werewolf book in this post Whedon/Rice world, most of the books involving vampires and werewolves are laced with romantic bullshit these days. So when a book like Ravenous hits the shelf, it is truly a treat. Ray Garton’s Ravenous is relatively new book but the story will remind some horror enthusiasts of what was rather than what is. It brings back memories of classics like The Howling and American Werewolf in London. But it is a lot more graphic than those two movies because in Ravenous, the curse is not passed on by being bitten, and the werewolves hunger for more than food.

The story starts off simple enough, a woman, who Ray describes as being somewhat fat, is driving home late one night when she encounters what she thinks is a homeless man, he rapes her and during the struggle, she kills him, or so she thinks. But things only get worse for her as well as the town she lives in. There’s another rapist running around town and some of the victims begin to develop a hunger, a type of a hunger a big mac won’t solve.

Garton does a marvelous job describing each characters physical characteristic, so it’s easy to get a mental image of each character. He isn’t as descriptive when it comes to the environment around the characters, which is something Stephen King is a master of. But character description comes first; it’s easy to picture a lawn without having it described. Garton also seems to have been influenced by 80’s slasher flicks, there’s strong moral metaphors floating around in the book. Now they may be unintentional, but they are there.

So for those who love good ol horror and werewolves that are just totally barbaric, Ravenous is a must get. However, if reading a story that involves rape and small children being eaten sounds disturbing and not up your alley, you’ll want to avoid Ravenous. Especially since the kill bits are described very vividly.

Last edited by Deviancy (2008-06-02 01:07:28)