Changeling: Blood Wolf by Steve Feasey

8/10

The Mission: They’ve broken the evil vampire Caliban’s power base. They thought that it was all over. That’s where they were wrong…

Changeling: Blood Wolf is the third in the series and continues to develop the story of Trey Laporte- the last hereditary werewolf. Set in a teenage world where the fifteen year old had come of age and discovered the beast that dwells within.

There are two distinct yet joined story lines in this novel that are both compelling for their own reasons. Trey, our young werewolf, has discovered that he is not the last of his kind and seeks out his remaining relative. Feeling betrayed by his mentor, Lucien Charron, a defanged vampire, Trey sets out in search of his uncle in the wilds of Canada. It is there that he discovers a werewolf pack living free.

Trey is torn between his destiny and the power of the beast within. Will he use the ancient amulet, given to him by his father, that can keep the beast at bay or will the beast come forth and answer the call of the pack?

Add to this the story of his friends as they battle against the Necrotroph that killed Phillipa Tipsbury’s father and left her for dead. Phillipa has gained the ability to see nether-creatures, including the vampire that has taken her into his protection.

With the Necrotroph hunting Phillipa and Trey battling against the beast within the story moves along at a steady trot with well spaced intervals to allow the reader to catch their breath and soak up the atmosphere. With well fleshed out characters and quality dialogue that, for once, has adults speaking like adults and moody teens behaving appropriately. Everything is explained clearly enough to give the reader adequate background to the angst in both the hero and heroine alike.

Graphic descriptions are abound, this is after all a horror story so blood and sinews abound: teeth, claws and fangs all tearing into soft flesh, what more could a young adult reader ask for? If I were to pick a favourite part it would be Steve Feasey’s revelation of what a gym really looks like beneath the facade of the whitewash and sweat. If you want to know what that is all about you will have to buy the book and find out, money well spent in my opinion.

“The black Wolfen’s teeth found a purchase in the shoulder of the other, and shook its head viciously, ripping open an ugly wound that fountained an arc of crimson into the air.”