Mongrels
Ratings26
Average rating4
15
Ratings26
Average rating4
FINALIST FOR THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD * FINALIST FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD * FINALIST FOR THE THIS IS HORROR AWARD * HONORABLE MENTION, LOCUS AWARDS * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2016 BY TOR.COM AND BOOK RIOT
A spellbinding and darkly humorous coming-of-age story about an unusual boy, whose family lives on the fringe of society and struggles to survive in a hostile world that shuns and fears them.
He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixed blood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.
For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and narrow escapes--always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will finally know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they've been running from for so long are catching up fast now. Everything is about to change.
A compelling and fascinating journey, Mongrels alternates between past and present to create an unforgettable portrait of a boy trying to understand his family and his place in a complex and unforgiving world. A smart and innovative story-- funny, bloody, raw, and real--told in a rhythmic voice full of heart, Mongrels is a deeply moving, sometimes grisly, novel that illuminates the challenges and tender joys of a life beyond the ordinary in a bold and imaginative new way.
Reviews with the most likes.
Mongrels is a more challenging book than I expected. Much like its characters - an unconventional family of migrant werewolves - it bucks rules and devices that one would typically come to expect in a novel. And yet, by the end I was, to my surprise, really satisfied. The ending stayed with me, occupied my mind after I put it down. I'm not sure how that makes me feel about the novel as a whole though.
I'm in the process of revising a novel - or figuring out how to revise a novel that I've already revised four or five times, and now I'm starting to wonder if I've just outgrown it - and as such I'm absorbing tons of storytelling advice. How to introduce conflict, how to administer background information, how to build your character. This book does its damnedest to defy every single one of those rules. We flash back and forth between past and present constantly, between someone telling a yarn and someone giving you vital information, all while you're trying to parse through the doublespeak of werewolves attempting to pass through the world unnoticed while refusing to conform to anything resembling a normal life. There isn't an ordinary trajectory - aside from the narrator's ongoing question of whether he is truly or werewolf or not, there isn't a central conflict. The conflict is survival, its constantly learning, its trying to scrape by day after day and wondering whether its better to stay human or go wolf.
I'm not going to tell you that all those strange pieces come together, because they don't, not exactly. But Jones does know how to end a book, and you get an answer not only to the question you were asking, but maybe a good reason for it took the journey it did in order to get there. Nothing is handed to you though. I'm not going to lie, I struggled to stay engaged through a lot of this book, and it wasn't until those last 80 pages or so that I got into it. But I liked that ending a lot, and I liked the feeling it left me with, even though the rest of the book left me feeling kind of icky and sad. This is one of those 3.5 star books that I have a hard time defining (funny how I never want ask for a 4.5 or a 2.5, its always the tricky point between “liked it” and “really liked it” that gets me stuck). I think is extremely effective for what's its trying to do, but not as entertaining of a read as I would have liked.
Un peu déçu par ce roman qui commençait bien et semblait prometteur. Nous y suivons une famille de loups-garous dans le Sud profond des Etats-Unis. Chronique familiale et roman d'apprentissage sur un fond de fantastique, il y avait de quoi faire un grand roman américain mais je n'ai pas été totalement emballé. Sur la durée, j'ai trouvé ça un peu répétitif et ennuyeux.
Roaming the deep south
one step ahead of the mob
more guns than pitchforks.
I have a confession: I fucking love werewolf stories. I love them, I eat them up. I have a spotify playlist dedicated to werewolf music (what? No I don't? Or do I?)
Mongrels was FANTASTIC. I have never even heard about it before picking it up at (hilariously) the Big Bad Wolf book sale after passing by it over and over again. Some books just call out to you, you know? Some books are meant for you to read.
People say warewolves are animals, but they're wrong. We're so much worse. Were people, but with claws, with teeth, with lungs that can go for two days, legs that can eat up counties.
EDIT: APPARENTLY I HAVE READ ANOTHER BOOK BY THIS AUTHOR, NO WONDER THE WRITING STYLE SEEMS SO FAMILIAR.
