Book Review: MONGRELS by Stephen Graham Jones

If you’ve read my other reviews of Stephen Graham Jones’ books, then you already know how much I enjoy his idiosyncratic style, vibrant voice, and seemingly endless supply of imagination. SGJ has an uncanny ability to create an interiority for each of his characters that is so real, you can’t help but feel you actually know this person. MONGRELS is no different in this regard, but it is maybe the perfect example of this effect. You feel every hurt, every struggle, every joy that the narrator and his lupine aunt and uncle, Libby & Darren, experience, like you’re right there on the page with them. Through an innovative story structure that moves back and forth across time, SGJ weaves a heart-achingly beautiful (and fun!) coming-of-age story with moments of pure, bloody terror, punctuated by stories-within-stories that expand and expound upon everything we thought we knew about werewolves and the folklore surrounding them. The long and short of it is that MONGRELS is for werewolves what INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is for vampires, and just as essential.