Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

I feel that Hemlock can be best described as Veronica Mars, except with werewolves. Mac's best friend Amy was killed by a werewolf. They found her mangled body in an alley with a clump of white hair in her hand. Their group had been inseparable, Amy and her boyfriend Jason, Mac and Kyle. After the attack, Kyle was the one who ignored Amy's calls. Jason was the boyfriend who left her to walk home. Mac has dreams about that night, and she imagines seeing Amy all the time.

The government has officially acknowledged the existence of lupine syndrome. Werewolves are taken to concentration camps and forced to live the rest of their lives behind a fence. Amy's grandfather had been lobbying for greater rights for werewolves. Understandably, after his granddaughter was murdered, he takes a different stance. He invites Trackers into town to find and kill the white wolf. Jason starts hanging out with the Trackers, who are awful, racist, right-wing southern people. In the meantime, Mac and Kyle grow closer together. Mac starts to investigate Amy's murder herself. As the truth comes out, it's a drama bomb exploding all over the place.

I really enjoyed the premise of the book, especially the real world setting and how a very supernatural issue was dealt with in the setting. It's awesome how there's no indication of who's a werewolf until you actually see them transform. Even I imagined pretty much every character as being a werewolf. It really adds an air of mystery to the book.

Anyways, back to my Veronica Mars comparison, Mac wasn't nearly as awesome as Veronica. I actually read this a while ago, but I don't have much of a lasting impression of her either way. She had some cool moments, but she was a little bland. Amy really fits as the Lilly Kane character. She seems like she was a lot of fun. Jason would be the Logan Ecchols, and he is an arrogant jerkhole. The only difference is that I liked Logan Ecchols but Jason sucked. Darned werewolf racist. Kyle is too awesome to be Duncan, plus he's not really Amy's brother and the Mac/Kyle story line doesn't fit. So, three out of four (Technically four out of five because the other-side-of-the-tracks bad boy makes a perfect Weevil) isn't too bad. Yes, I am concluding with a paragraph comparing the characters to TV characters. No, there isn't anything you can do about. Because I am the reviewer and you are not, and I need some way to finally end this freaking review.

I received my copy of Hemlock from Edelweiss, courtesy of Katherine Tegen books. It's available for purchase now.