Now, I know I said the first post of the new year would be about my top albums of 2011. But, then I realized I listened to a lot of new music this year (at least 3 pages worth) and found it too hard to figure that out. Maybe one day I will do that, but I haven’t really had time. So instead, here is my review of Werewolves.

Written by Paul Jessup and illustrated by Allyson Haller, Werewolves is an illustrated diary of the transition of a girl, Alice, and her brother, Mark, from normal teenagers into, you guessed it, werewolves. Now, me being a huge werewolf fan saw this book at Tunes probably close to a year ago, but didn’t buy it until recently. After reading it I have no idea what took me so long.

The story throws you right into the middle, right after Alice and Mark were bit by what they think are just wolves. But as Alice, a vegetarian, begins to have late night snacks of meat and having strange, random urges to run, she knows something is up. Mark begins hanging out with a new crowd of “misfits”. One day they convince Alice to come with the camping, and that’s when she finds out the truth: they’re all werewolves. As she tries to decide whether to stick close by them or not, she begins to realize she’s being followed. Should she confront her follower or keep their wolfy secret forever?

The one aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was that it felt so realistic. Sometimes male writers who write in the female perspective don’t do such a good job, using a lot of stereo types and making the characters unbelievable. However, I think Paul Jessup did a great job with all the characters, bringing them to life, giving the reader the chance to understand what they’re going through. None of the characters were really alike, each of them having their own distinct personality, which is a big must have so the characters don’t get blurred together.

With short chunks of writing on almost every page, this book is a very quick read (I finished reading it within the span of an afternoon). But with the amazing illustrations showing the characters in human and wolf form and great story line, this is definitely a book that all werewolf fans must read.