The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks

Although technically either the second or third book I've read in 2012, this wasn't the best start to my search for a great book.

"When Tobias Vandevelde wakes up in hospital with no memory of the night before, he is told that he was found unconscious. In a zoo pen. (naked, I might add.) The doctor rules out epilepsy and Toby's prank-loving friends are just as freaked out as he is. Then the wild-eyed Reuben turns up talking in hushed tones about Toby being a werewolf. Reuben's pale, insomniac friends seem equally convinced and offer to chain him up every full moon. They also claim to be part of some vampire support group. This has to be a joke - right? It's only when he's kidnapped, imprisoned and in desperate need of rescuing that Toby begins to believe them. Hamster-drinking Vampires, vulnerable werewolves and accidental zombies? Welcome to the bizarre world of the abused werewolf rescue group."

That is the ACTUAL blurb. I don't know if it's just me, but it sounds insane. It IS insane, by all accounts.

It's definitely a children's book, or at least early teens. It's not necessarily a bad book - it kept me entertained and engrossed at least a little, but it seems to me now that books on werewolves are over done, books on vampires are certainly even more over done, and although books on zombies aren't quite as popular, when you throw them into a book which already contains werewolves and vampires, it becomes a little too much.

Admittedly, the vampires and the zombies don't play a huge part in it until the last six chapters - around three quarters of the way through, in fact, but werewolves themselves aren't actually a huge feature either, aside from the issues they raise and the main character wondering whether he is or isn't a werewolf, a species which may or may not exist, and until half way through, nothing exciting happens at all. After this point, it's intriguing, but past a certain point, all of the characters and the species involved get confusing as they start merging and cross-breeding. When his mother re-enters the book, I almost wanted to stop reading because of how unbearably irritating I found her to be. Then right at the end, spoiler alert, the last chapter is the most clichéd, boring end to an otherwise bearable novel I have ever read. After Toby and his mother FINALLY accept that he may in fact be a werewolf, he plays it off as "yeah this is my life now, it's cool, I don't care about my friends any more" and then we see one of the two worst ways to end a book, one of which, the 'it was all a dream' ending, I must credit the author for not using. However, she did use the equally as terrible ending, the 'this is me talking into a voice recorder, and I'm going to have it published' scenario, as if this is not a terrible novel for children, but actually a "thinly disguised piece of non-fiction".

At the end of the book, the last few pages consists of an extract from a prequel or sequel (I can't tell) to this book, which I read two pages of before I became so mind-numbingly bored I wanted to chew my own face off.

My verdict? I would not read this again or recommend it for anyone who is not a twelve year old boy. It's not a bad book, it's just not a particularly good one either. Two stars. Full of clichés and bad stereotypes, it is not a good read for someone interested in werewolves. However, it will sit on my bookcase as part of my werewolf book collection which I am slowly forming.