The Pack [Paperback]

Jason Starr is a new author on my radar although I know that he's written other books, something about the blurb for this one just grabbed me. Within this book is a story of self-discovery as the titles lead character Simon, learns to deal with the hardships that life throws at him when he loses his job. Its quirky, its amusing and what the author does really well for me, is bring the lead character to life in a personable way that made me want to spend time with him.

Add to this solid character interaction between the cast, some wonderful dialogue and personal relationship troubles that readers can relate to thrown in with a dash of the fantastical. All in a solid read and when you add good pace and decent prose into the mix, makes this a book that was a pure joy to read. Great stuff.

Jason Starr has written a werewolf novel that, if it doesn't make you `howl' with laughter, will make you smile, because it is soaked in some delicious dark humour.
Our protagonist Simon Burns is an ad exec , family man and New Yorker. He's expecting promotion at the start of the novel, but is abruptly fired. This is an effective scene of urban torment and trauma that fuels the mood of urban paranoia and claustrophobia that this novel is steeped in, and for which it develops its own lycanthropic response. For Simon is about to experience a bizarre new freedom...
His sacking starts a chain of events. Frustrated as a stay at home Dad, he meets a trio of Alpha male Dads at a playground with his son, and is eventually invited to a gathering at their `leader's' (Michael) pad. Here he's invited to eat a lot of steak, given an unusual intoxicating beer, passes out, and comes too naked in the woods. He will soon discover his life has changed forever. He has somehow unlocked a store of seemingly unlimited energy and sexual and athletic prowess, and incredibly enhanced sensory powers. It's the urban fantasy stifled and fearful New Yorkers may dream of.
But it comes with a terrible price.
Starr's novel references and borrows happily from its genre, for example the humour and urban setting references "An American Werewolf in London," the office politics, theme of enhanced sensory abilities and again urban setting can be found in "Wolf," and the unlocking of energy, strength and sexual prowess through a weird infection ultimately leading to bizarre transformation can be found in "The Fly."
The scenes of wolf carnage are not frequent, apart from a welcome set of climactic battles in the end. For the most part the novel focuses on the theme of transformed self, the revelling in new strengths, and how this could affect a `normal' married relationship and family life. It does overdo the scenes of Simon endlessly smelling and screwing his wife through his new enhanced abilities and appetites, and this makes for a bit of sag in the middle, but in the last 100 pages or so something clicks and everything fires up, from the humour to the action. It is very funny in parts; the scenes with the rampage of a certain she-wolf, and Simon struggling to tell his wife of his condition are an absolute treat.
All in all, then, the Pack is a great, entertaining howl at the moon. There's plenty here to make me want to sink my teeth into the sequel.

I was lucky enough to win this book from a giveaway on Feeling Fictional.

I really like the cover, it has a dark and dangerous feel to it. I wasn't sure what to expect from the book itself and whilst reading I had mixed feelings about it - there were some parts that I enjoyed very much but others that just didn't hold my interest enough.

When Simon lost his job and began looking after his son Jeremy it set off a chain of events that changed his life forever. I enjoyed reading about his first day as a stay-at-home dad, particularly the incident at the pizza place which made me laugh out loud as I pictured the scene and as a stay-at-home mum myself I could definitely understand how he felt at that point.

Meeting the other dads (Michael, Ramon and Charlie) at the park was another turning point and after his night out with them things got really intense and confusing for him. Simon went through many physical and emotional changes, it felt like I was always on the verge of finding out what happened during their night out and I was relieved when all was finally revealed.

Michael was an interesting yet scary character, he was a straight-talker who oozed confidence and you could tell that he liked to be in charge. When he met Olivia I couldn't figure out where she fit into the story but as I progressed through the book it all became clear.

It was towards the end that I really had a problem with this book, I got distracted very easily and it just didn't hold my attention the way other books can, truthfully I got a bit bored. The last couple of chapters were full of action and managed to keep me interested but the damage had already been done for me and I'm just not sure if I feel the need to read the next book in the series, which is called The Craving.

This is a dark and dangerous story, it may not have captured me completely but I'm sure for many it would.