Low Red Moon

Hey folks,

Hope you've had a great weekend. Here's my book recommendation for the week...

Low Red Moon
by Ivy Devlin
amazon - paperback £4.42

Blurb

The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans. As breathless as Twilight and as spooky as Shiver, this is a book to be devoured in one sitting—by an acclaimed YA author making her paranormal debut under the pseudonym Ivy Devlin. (taken from goodreads)

My Review
**** Great Read

Low Red Moon is not your typical fantasy about werewolves. I've read quite a few reviews for Low Red Moon and been surprised by the average ratings it's received considering it was a highly promoted novel in a popular genre. I get it, though. Reading the blurb, even going by the beautiful cover and gorgeous stylised format of the book inside, I was expecting not urban fantasy but at least modern fantasy along the lines of Maggie Stiefvater, Meyers etc.

But Low Red Moon isn't modern fantasy, it's modern gothicism. Lyrical, like an epic poem of the surreal and macabre, Low Red Moon is a dark fairytale, utilising popular fiction to try and integrate gothicism with modern morality - in particular the message is about the evils of destroying our forestry for economic gain.

For the most part for me Devlin's modern gothicism worked. When you think of Low Red Moon in the terms of a fairy tale, as a long poem, the quickness with which everything happens doesn't agitate as it seems to have done with many readers. I've read many reviews saying the romance between Avery and Ben developed too quickly, that the story was too rushed. However, Low Red Moon isn't the length of the average fantasy novel, it isn't written in the traditional prose of an average fantasy novel, and so I don't see why it should be understood or absorbed in the same manner as other fantasy novels. The surrealism of the relationship between Avery and Ben emulates the entire story. We move through the novel with Avery in the heady fog one finds themselves in when grieving. Everything about this book is carefully thought out. And for me, for the most part, it works. My only complaint is Devlin's dialogue. She utilises the word "said" almost every time characters are speaking - "I said" "He said" "Renee said" etc, and I'm positive it's supposed to emphasise the state of Avery's mind... she's not quite in the moment with people. I think this because the only time the dialogue use changes is when she's remembering talking to her parents - words like "asked" "whispered" etc are used. It's clever but for me it was also just annoying, I found it too monotonous.

Other than that, however, I think this is a beautiful addition to the genre, and a great example of modern gothicism.

Not what I expected. Four Stars.



Sam x