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not bad. interesting mix of family dynamics and fantasy.

Jones‘ take on a werewolf story is, needless to say, horrific and glorious and not for the faint of heart. A young boy, the narrator of the story, is waiting to see if he‘ll shift, if he‘s a werewolf like most of his family is or if he is just a sheep (human) while he and his aunt and uncle who are raising him stay one step ahead of the law…because in Jones‘ hands, life as a werewolf is anything but easy. Jones never, ever disappoints.

#TLT #ThreeListThursday

1) Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

2) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

3) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Brilliant

⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 A super old book on my TBR! Werewolf, family life 101. Some of the going‘s on were hilarious & poignant. This was a good solid book from SGJ. The taking out the garbage nightly & the constant need to keep on the move & how to identify a fellow werewolf … all a valuable good time!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Paraphrasing since I don‘t have the book in front of me. There‘s a beautiful line that‘s says something about how a photograph is a stand in for a time or a person or a whole life. Really beautiful.

I had been wanting to read SGJ & I had such high hopes for this, but I didn't care for it.

I know people will say, "I didn't get it." Well, I did get it. I just didn't care for how the work was presented with its structure and lack of character development. Also, there was never an arch to the book or climax. It was just flatland from the first sentence to the last.

If you appreciate this book, I respect your fandom. This just wasn't for me.

#weekendreads
1.📖Reading Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, Redemptor by Jordan Fueko & 🎧 to A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout
2. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse - so good
3. Adding tagged to my tbr!

I finished the audiobook this weekend and found this to be a creative take on the werewolf genre. It kept me entertained throughout but didn‘t reach the point of creeping me out or scaring me in any way. It was a fun book though and a good place to start for someone new to SGJ‘s work.
#scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix #screamathon #bookspinbingo #wickedathon #littensdressedinblood

My book is back! @Pogue there was a bookmark in the book - was that by accident or on purpose? I loved reading all the comments- and was fascinated by your great Aunt story @Pogue - is there more you found out? I‘m bummed we had a short #lmpbc cycle but so glad we did Indigenous- I love the books you both chose! I‘m about half way through Round House and will try to send by next week.

Wow this book was amazing. It was not an easy read and there was a lot of violence but it was well written and all of the content fit the story so well. #lMPBC

Wow, I really like this novel. It's a different take on a werewolf story than I've read before. It keeps the reader guessing about the narrator all the way through, and in the meantime poses questions about family, what it means to be human, and the risks and benefits of self-reliance and generalizing based on personal experience. I feel like I'm missing some of the significance of the cars, though, especially the El Camino.

Between a pick and so-so. Not nearly as good as The Only Good Indians, but I liked the scrappy werewolf family, and the themes of fitting into society, not knowing where one belongs, having a foot in two worlds. Headed your way @Pogue on Monday. TW for violence towards humans and animals. Read for the #LMPBC group Indigenous authors. @Chrissyreadit

Oh dear! I really tried, Paula, but this one is just not for me. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm really not good at blood and guts😧 I'm still grateful to have had the opportunity to try it. I know I'm going to like the other books you sent.

I might not be the most devoted baseball fan….😂😂😂😂😂 But I‘m digging this novel! My love for a gripping story is overcoming my weak stomach for violence. A book is the only way I can get through a game. Plus ballpark food. And beer….🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

Oh boy. Only 10 pages in and I can tell this is going to be a ride. Loving it so far. @Chrissyreadit @Pogue

It‘s a Pick- ish- I‘m glad I read it. Sending it Monday for my #lmpbc group. I do not want to spoil, so am just saying it was different from books I love, and I think it would have been more powerful as a novella.

Thank you so much Paula, my super generous friend, for these 3 lovely books. They all look great. I remember you said they were favourites of yours this year so I'm sure to like them🙂 I picked them up earlier this week. Sorry I hadn't posted before, I've been playing nursemaid since my daughter came home after surgery on her foot. We've just heard that we're back in lockdown from tonight ☹️ so I'm especially grateful to have new books.

Q: What‘s the last book you bought?

#bookstore #leftbankbooks #bookhaul #bookshopping #bookbuying #mongrels #couplefoundslain #indiebookstore #independantbookstore

Here are my options for #lmpbc group H. Are there any you absolutely would love to read? Any you absolutely would not want to read?

A Stephen Graham Jones book seems perfect for a rainy Friday night. He has become on of my favorite authors!

Nicole you are such a great swap partner! I am so grateful ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I straight out loved this. It‘s a coming of age story - at heart, all about a boy getting to know his wild but loving family, each chapter almost a short story highlighting one aspect or other of their lives. The writing is so real, the kid and his family so raw and honest with each other. Oh and they‘re werewolves. There‘s a whole culture and history for this unnamed kid to figure out as he aches to belong. ⬇️

A coming of age werewolf story that isn‘t corny. Over half way through and may be pulling an all nighter on this one

This book was a prize from @vivastory and it‘s finally made its way to the top of the TBR list. It was an interesting read. The unnamed protagonist is a human in a family of werewolves and the book details his struggles as he grows up. It was a unique take on werewolf mythology, at times gory and violent, but with a big heart underneath. I struggled to get into it but it was well written and I was hooked by the end. Pick

I woke up to find that Stephen Grahm Jones liked my review for his book on Goodreads. 🤩 Definitely the highlight of my day! 😁

QOTD-which are cooler, vampires or werewolves?

Told with heartaching sincerity, Mongrels is a literary story through and through (i.e. it's focus almost solely on characters and not plot). For me, this is especially felt in the novel's pacing, which contains a serious of minor events that take place over the course of our main character's young life. The narrativs highlights their lives well, but it does make each event feel a tad insignificant.

Well, this wasn't a dud, but I will say I would have liked just a bit more excitement. Somehow this just didn't thrill me in a way a horror novel should. #Scarathlon2020 #TeamHarkness #cocoturns50 #fallintoreadathon #readallweekcgb #thrilloweenreadathon #ReadYourWay

@StayCurious @CocoReads @TheSpineView

Okay, let's hope this one isn't a dud. #Scarathlon2020 #TeamHarkness #thrilloweenreadathon #cocoturns50 #fallintoreadathon #readallweekcgb #ReadYourWay

A new to me author.

The books I want to read/finish for the #readyourwayreadathon @TheSpineView #scarathlon #TeamHarkness #screamathon @StayCurious

"People say werewolves are animals, but they‘re wrong. We‘re so much worse. We‘re people, but with claws, with teeth, with lungs that can go for two days, legs that can eat up counties."Once I got used to the writing style and jumping between timelines (which could be a bit confusing) I really enjoyed this. It was gritty as hell but impossible to turn away from. The inside story of what life is like being a werewolf was gruesome and fascinating ?

This book was pitched to me as "werewolves as a metaphor for systemic poverty," and yet somehow I had the boneheaded idea that it wasn't going to be depressing.

It's depressing. It's well done, and the ending is pitch perfect, and it's not the book's fault that I'm not in the mood for depressing fiction right now.

My top 5 books of the decade (by genre) -- Fantasy

Although I wouldn't describe this as an unputdownable book, I'm leaning more toward a Pick than a So-So rating. I weirdly enjoyed the endless tension and disorienting time jumps. I can see how this one may not be everyone's cup of tea. I spent most of the book waiting for the other shoe to drop. On the back end of the story I began to doubt the existence of the other shoe until that final chapter bonked me on the head.

Grandpa said, rubbing at his jaw, “it‘s because when you change back to like we are now, it‘s always like you just shaved. Even if you had a full-on mountain-man #beard the day before.” He made a show of taking in Darren‘s smooth jawline then, got me to look too. “Babyface. That‘s what you always call a werewolf who was out getting in six different kinds of trouble the night before. That‘s how you know what they‘ve been doing.” #QuotsyOct19

"When....got back from her hunt, two big white birds in her hand, held upside down by the feet they used to have, she tasted it on the air, what happened, and dropped the birds, their wings opening on the way down."

#ScreamathonPhotoChallenge #FullMoon @4thhouseontheleft

A coming-of-age tale with #werewolves. Hooked me from the 1st sentence: “My grandfather used to tell me he was a werewolf.“

Their dysfunctional family was messed up, sure, but man, there was a lot of heart. Also, an interesting mix of new and old folklore surrounding these werewolves. The whole story had a freshness I've missed in horror recently.

#Read2016

Stephen Graham Jones liked my goodreads review of Mongrels so I guess we're best friends now, right?

This was an awesome book, a classic bildungsroman with a unique hook -- the unnamed narrator is from a family of werewolves and coming into his own transition late. He's dying to experience it but questioning if change will ever come. Amazing story to lose yourself in.

It was a big surprise how much Squidapus enjoyed this book. The book is really about family and the incredible baggage our relationships have with each other all through the lens of a nomadic werewolf aunt+uncle taking care of their nephew. The language, imagery and characterization is incredibly strong. Beyond that the culture and lifestyle of werewolves in this was very unique with problems you normally never read about in werewolf fiction

Well, my Snekko appears to approve of Squidapus' book selection.

Keeping with the horror theme, Squidapus is going to start Mongrel now. He's been reading much quicker lately and more focused when he does but it's hard at home sometimes as it's much easier to do so on the go.

1. Rural North Carolina

2. Something with dragons and/or starships.

3. Neil Gaiman - I waffle between him and Gene Wolfe, but I‘m revisiting Stardust right now so Neil is totally winning this one

4. The Innkeeper‘s Song by Peter S. “The Last Unicorn” Beagle (you really really should probably read this one) and the tagged book

#SocialSunday @EchoLogical

Mongrels is a unique coming-of-age story set in an unconventional family – a family of werewolves. While the story focuses heavily on the werewolf aspect of their lives (which is done very well), when one delves beneath the surface, it is easy to see how this is a story of a working-class family on the outskirts of society, forced to scrounge for money and food while constantly on the move. I enjoyed it, but didn‘t love it. #NewYearWhoDis

Next to last book of 2018-and it is dark, bloody, violent,and an incredible take on the coming of age of a young werewolf in America. Very far away from any Twilight type romantic fantasies. And it feels real, which is all you can ask of a writer. Get past the gore and mindset, and it is incredibly moving.

Writing a final paper for my American novel class on Mongrels, Salem‘s Lot, and Wise Blood. Going through my Kindle highlights so I can mark them in my hard copy!! Gonna be writing about children in gothic literature and their tendency to be the characters with the highest capacity for truth. Wish me luck!!

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones is a werewolf coming of age story that was so much fun to read. You still have time to read it this month!