First confession: I don't like books in verse. Second confession: I'm a cat person. So why did I read a verse-novel about werewolves? Because it was written by a Quaker (duh).

Seriously. The author spoke at this year's RUSA Literary Tastes Breakfast and afterwords, I had to read this book. Because it's a werewolf book, there's some gore, but because it's in verse, the gore isn't as pronounced as it might be in a "real" novel.

This is the story of Anthony, a lonely guy who becomes a dogcatcher; Luke, a werewolf with a pack; several other packs; and Peabody, the detective. The intersection of these stories is a bit confusing - something about mistreatment of dogs, about drugs, about a ranch in Mexico and which pack is dominant. Luke's clearly the guy with the Big Ideas (limos, suits, nice places to "change" in), Annie's building her pack, Damon's the traitor and, well, it's a little confusing. That's that part of the book I didn't like. But the characters were very well done and you'll get a definite sense of who's who as you read.

Not sure if werewolves are the new vampires (or is it werewolves are the new zombies, which were the new vampires?), but this is a good read for anyone who wants something a little different.