Review – Hemlock (Hemlock Trilogy, Book 1) by Kathleen Peacock (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Size: 416 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0062048653
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Hemlock series
Source: ARC through Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. It was a pretty typical YA paranormal read. It was heavy on the mystery side.

Mac lives in Hemlock and her life was turned upside down when her girlfriend Amy was murdered by a white werewolf. Lupine syndrome is on the rise and this particular werewolf has killed many. Mac decides to hunt the werewolf down and solve Amy’s murder herself. Little does she know she will uncover many secrets of Amy’s, Amy’s boyfriend, and her own best guy friend. When the police bring in the Trackers, a werewolf hunting group, things get even more dangerous.

This book was more of a murder mystery involving werewolves than anything else. Mac spends a lot of time trying to track down clues to Amy’s murder, stumbling on her friends’ secrets, and getting herself deeper and deeper into trouble.

Mac definitely has some toughness to her, although at times it comes across as stupidity. She throws herself repeatedly into a lot of really dangerous situations…I doubted her intelligence a number of times throughout the story.

The book portrays werewolfism as a kind of national crisis, camps have been set up to segregate werewolves from the general population and the nation is in panic as Lupine syndrome is on the rise. This provided an interesting background to the story, but it was just that…background. None of this is really talked about a ton. This could be really interesting in future books if expanded on.

The book was an easy read and decently written. The plot was fairly simple. I had to groan as Mac went from a being a one man woman, to getting involved with the typical YA love triangle. Mac even bitched about it herself.

Overall this is an okay read. It is decently written and the background is interesting. Mac isn’t the brightest heroine I’ve ever read about. All in all this is a very typical young adult paranormal read; it even includes the ever lauded love triangle. I would recommend the Nightshade series by Andrea Cremer or The Deviants series by Jeff Sampson as better YA werewolf reads. If you absolutely need a werewolf book to read and love love triangles then this is an okay read. I personally won’t be reading any more of this series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 150+ Books Reading Challenge
– Debut Author Reading Challenge