Book Review: Red Moon Rising

Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore
Teen Wolf meets True Blood in this fun, boy-friendly story.

Being only half-vamp in a high school like Carpathia Night makes you a whole loser. But Danny Gray manages to escape the worst of the specists at his school. Thanks to the genetic treatments he had as an infant, most people assume Danny's other half is human. Which is a good thing.

Ever since the development of synthetic blood – SynHeme – vamps have become society’s elite, while wulves like his father work menial jobs and live in bad neighborhoods. Wulves are less than second class citizens; once a month they become inmates, forced to undergo their Change in dangerous government compounds.

For Danny, living with his vamp mother and going to a school with a nearly all-vamp student body, it’s best to pretend his wulf half doesn’t even exist.

But lately Danny's been having some weird symptoms -- fantastic night vision; a keener-than-usual sense of smell; and headaches, right around the full moon.

Even though it's tempting to live in denial, it's hard to ignore evidence. There's only a month until the next full moon, and Danny's time is running out.

Peter Moore speaks to adolescents in a voice that will have them laughing, set in a world that will get them thinking..[Source]

I received this book for review through 1 ARC Tours. I chose to join this tour because I love fantasy novels and I love YA novels; plus, the theme of the novel seemed cool. Half vamp and half wulf? I figured, it's gotta be full of conflict.

And boy, was I right about that! Danny's got conflict with his mother and stepfather, and with his sisters, and with a cold-hearted teen vamp at school, not to mention the internal battles he fights as his symptoms get weirder and weirder. Any teen, male or female, will be able to relate to Danny. He's a great lead character, funny and honest, that I would love to see featured in more novels.

There was another major conflict: wulves vs vamps. This novel seems unique in that the wulves are considered criminals; they can only get low-paying jobs as laborers or servants. They are segregated in schools and in society. Besides the fact that they get sent to dangerous compounds once a month, this turmoil reminded me much of the 60's here in America, with the civil rights battles.

What I didn't like about this novel: Granted it was an ARC, but there was A LOT of grammar mistakes. The flow of the story worked for me, but the author seemed to put all of his creativity into the main plot, and none into character development, or even character names. Very few of the names were original or even pertinent.

I was also very disappointed by the ending. Gunther disappeared too easily, and there was no closure at all with Danny's situation (unless it was set up for a sequel). I also would have like to see a resolution between Danny and Julia.

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