Low Red Moon - Ivy Devlin - 2010

Title: Low Red Moon

Author: Ivy Devlin

Year: 2010

Date Read: 1-20-2011

Overall: * * 1/2 (2.5/5)

GoodReads 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.

Plot: * * /*

Characters: * * * *

Style: * * *

My Review: Avery witnessed her parents' murder, though she doesn't, or can't, remember a thing about it. This story follows the week or so following the murder as she tries to piece together the missing bits, and as she meets the new, sort of strange, boy who might know more about that night.

Avery and Ben have a very quick relationship. The whole book is very quick, actually. It is hard to get to know the characters when the time span is so short and we don't get to experience them in a lot of different situations. Avery was a bit bland, she wasn't terrible by any means, but she wasn't particularly special, and though Ben is supposed to be a hottie, I couldn't really picture it.

Her "blood red" piece of hair was a bit weird, and creepy. Especially when it smelled or tasted like blood. Also, the whole "trees can feel and are mourning" thing was a bit forced, and it didn't really fit in with the rest of the story. It could have been explained better.

I wish there had been more about Louis, Ben's uncle, in the story. He seemed like an interesting character with a good story to tell. A lot more background could have been added to make sense of all the characters, actually. What happened with Louis and Renee, what happened with Renee and Avery's parents, and maybe more of an explanation as to what led Ron to do what he did.

I thought it was amusing how Devlin (aka Elizabeth Scott) avoided using the term werewolf at all costs. Characters who were about to say it or even think that word had their words or thoughts immediately cut off by someone else speaking. It's bad when it feels like even the author is ashamed of the creatures in their own book. And, I am not quite sure where the title came from. The moon was mentioned a few times, but no more than any other book. So I am not really sure of its significance. The ending was left a little open, so I am wondering if she will attempt a sequel or not.

I did like a lot of the story, though. It wasn't as predictable as I was expecting it to be, even though some parts were very Twilight-ish. I liked that Avery had some special sort of sight when it came to wolves, and I liked how she needed the forest and needed to see her old house to find out what happened to her parents. Her grief and confusion was really well written.

To Buy: Amazon

Currently Reading: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and Bleed by Lauri Faria Stolarz

I'm concerned about your Wallaby

"Redwall" so far:

I really, really like it. Even though it's about woodland creatures, Jacques manages to make you feel like you are there, defending Redwall Abbey from the rat army. Matthias is a very courageous little mouse and I love the scenes with him and old Methuselah. Constance the badger is very amusing and kind of a bad@$$. Cluny is so viscous, but he is also very smart, and even though I don't like him, I love finding out what he's going to do next in his plans to attack the Abbey. I'm a little over halfway through the book, and I think I will pick up the next couple of books in the series because they are so well written and adventuresome. I'm definitely a fan.

Other happenings:

Yesterday morning Mike and went to the Ristuccia Memorial Arena in Wilmington, MA to watch the Bruins end-of-Summer practice. The Globe site said they'd be there everyday this week starting at 11:30, but I guess they started earlier than that because we got there after Thomas and Sturm had already left the ice. But we did get to see Lucic, Bitz, Ference, Wideman, and a few of the new guys. The practices this week are just informal skates & goalie practice, so there aren't any coaches or trainers. They did a half ice scrimmage and seemed to be in good spirits. I posted some video from the practice on my youtube channel. And you can really see the difference my new camera makes when compared to my videos of last Summer's practices.

I think the rest of the day was pretty lazy, because I can't even remember what exactly we did. So I'm assuming it wasn't of any interest. Though later in the day we did watch Twilight with the RiffTrax for it... which was amazing. RiffTrax are from the same guys that did Myster Science Theater 3000, but they just provide the commentary track and you can sync it up to the DVD. The one for Twilight is so funny, because it's everything you want to say about the movie out loud, but can't, because every 13 year old girl in a 10 mile radius will come beat you up. If you're an MST3K fan, you should check it out here.

Speaking of MST3K, I got home tonight from work & dinner out to find Mike and a friend watching the MST3K episode "Future War," which is a really good one because it so ridiculous. It's like the writers tried to fit in as many different plots and background stories as they could into this one terrible movie. There are dinosaurs, time traveling, prostitutes reformed into nuns, cyborgs, more cardboard boxes filled with air than you will ever see again, and an excess of flannel. After "Future War" they put in the episode "Werewolf." I hadn't seen this one yet, and neither had Mike. The main actors are all foreign, but not distinct enough to tell what exactly their accents are, but just enough to give them terrible pronunciation of words like "werewolf" and "well-being." The main girl says "wurrwolf" every time, and when she says "I'm concerned for your well-being," it sounds like "I'm concerned for your wallaby" (Not that a wallaby wouldn't be cause for concern). The crew of MST3K do a song sketch in the middle of the movie reminiscent of the movie Grease. The song is "Where Oh Werewolf," and contains the line "Where, oh, Werewolf, I've looked every where, Wolf." It's one of the funniest skits I've seen them do, and you can watch it here. Another great part of the movie is when a security guard gets scratched and turns into a werewolf while he's driving. It's like the crazy grandma driving clips where they exaggerate turning the wheel and look like a bat out of hell. I never new werewolves could drive, but apparently they can, although not very well since he did end up crashing and blowing up the car...

My plans for the rest of the night include watching Blood Sport (for the 756435652yth time) and finishing Redwall.