** Spoiler Warning ** I’m never sure how much detail is considered a spoiler from one person to the next. And while I don’t say anything that I personally consider to be very “spoilery” I put the warning up just in case.
This book is hard for me to give a rating to because I both liked it and didn’t like it.
First what I didn’t like. First and foremost the author seemed obsessed with female pubic hair and the smelling of genitals. Every time a female werewolf was seen and/or described the fact that she had a lot of pubic hair had to be stressed. Almost every scene with lead werewolf had something sexual and him smelling a woman’s vagina and description of werewolf on werewolf or werewolf on human erotica. This is my review so of course, this is just my opinion but none of that was needed or helped to improve the story in any way and in the end did not lead to any storyline developments. Something I never knew about myself but had also never considered. I am apparently not into the sexual habits and practices of werewolves or what dirty werewolf “soft places” smell like.
The main character was in a lot less of the book than she could have been and she didn’t feel like the main protagonist character at all. She didn’t seem to have any type of leadership or extraordinary traits or any characteristics to make her stand out. She seemed to be reliant on other characters for taking any type of action and really didn’t do anything of any consequence in the entire book.
The book had some editorial issues where for instance the wrong character’s name was used which resulted in said character “scooping himself off the ground and carrying himself upstairs in his arms.”
I hated the ending. It seemed like the author just didn’t want to write anymore and stopped.
I could go on but believe it or not, I enjoyed the book. Despite its faults, I enjoyed the pace of the book. I enjoyed the idea of how the virus/sickness/condition was created and/or spread. I read the book in two sittings and it didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to read which has been the case with a lot of books I’ve read recently. For some reason with this book, I was able to overlook things that would usually turn me off to the book and enjoy reading it. I wanted to know what would happen next. For the most part, I did like the book so on Goodreads I gave it 3 stars. If I had the option though the more I think about the book I’d probably go with 2.5.
Follow the link below to buy this book from Amazon.
The Kielder Strain: A Werewolf Horror Novel (The Kielder Experiment Book 1)
Maitland Reviews 