The Seventh Son - Johnny Rivers

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group

Author: Catherine Jinks
Pages: 409
ARC Acquired from: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Toby Vandevelde woke up in a dingo pen with no memory of how he came to be there. He's not harmed and he swears he didn't do any drugs. A priest and Reuben, both from the first book (The Reformed Vampire Support Group) show up and tell Toby that he's actually a werewolf. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't believe them and concocts a plan with his friends to record the crazies. Only it turns out that they're not lying and Toby could be in serious danger.

Review:
I really was not looking forward to this book after having read and pretty much hated The Reformed Vampire Support Group. Thankfully, this one was much better. It's still not going to be a new favorite, but it was a decent read that moved along at a nice pace.

The real difference between the two is the narrator; where Nina is bored and boring, Toby is full of energy and typical teen boy-ness. Catherine Jinks' conception of vampires was amusing, but reading about a bunch of folks who do nothing but whine is no fun. Toby whines, but he also tries to change his circumstances. He also has a clear personality, unlike the vampires (who show up in this book and still remain static characters).

I still have some issues with Jinks' worldbuilding. Becoming a werewolf is evidently an inherited trait, found only in families of Spanish or Portuguese backgrounds. Not only that, but they have to be the seventh sons. Yikes but that's specific. The book even says that werewolves are typically found in South America and the Phillipines (although nothing is mentioned about Spain or Portugal...), so why are there so many werewolves running around Australia (not to mention so many werewolves in general)? With vampires, too, I am a bit concerned about their origin. Apparently, one bite turns a human into a vampire. If it's that easy, why is the world not populated entirely with very hungry vampires? Sure, the group tries not to fang folks, but all vampires cannot be that particular, especially in early days.

Overall, this was an okay read, but, should there be more books in this series, I will not be continuing on. This one was good enough to give me some hope for Jinks' other series about geniuses (of which I own the first book).