Never Cry Werewolf Summary:
By Heather Davis
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2009-09-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0061349232
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780061349232
Product Description:
Moonlight can totally change your life.
And it all starts so simply.
You. Him.
The moon.
You're toast.
Okay, so maybe Shelby has made a few mistakes with boys lately (how was she supposed to know Wes had "borrowed" that Porsche?). But her stepmother totally overreacts when she catches Shelby in a post-curfew kiss with a hot senior: Suddenly Shelby's summer plans are on the shelf, and she's being packed off to brat camp. It's good-bye, prom dress; hello, hiking boots.
Things start looking up, though, when Shelby meets fellow camper (and son of a rock star) Austin Bridges III. But soon she realizes there's more to Austin than crush material—his family has a dark secret, and he wants Shelby's help guarding it. Shelby knows that she really shouldn't be getting tangled up with another bad boy . . . but who is she to turn her back on a guy in need, especially such a good-looking one? One thing's for sure: That pesky full moon is about to get her into trouble all over again.
Summary: A book to keep you reading into the night
Rating: 4
Never Cry Werewolf was a fast-paced, enjoyable read! It was your typical "my mom's died, and now I have a stepmother who I do whatever I can to annoy and my stepmother has no great feelings for me either" situation. It was a cute and short book! I couldn't put it down! Some of the characters weren't as developed as they could of been, but were easy to relate too. I just felt like you never got to know any of the characters real well. The variety in characters was entertaining. All these kids are at "brat camp" so there was such a mix. You had Charles the gossip and one who has to be in everyone's business and Ariel who was kind of quiet and unsure. Mr. Winters was way out there, and the places he showed up in the book were really entertaining. Cynthia, or "Guitar Lady" was another really entertaining character. She was the counselor you would associate with a "brat camp" and everything about her was just overall entertaining. I felt like Austin barely knew Shelby, and he had already told her he was a werewolf. It felt almost like "Hi! I'm a werewolf! Nice to meet you!" I just didn't feel the relationship there grow and develop enough for me to understand why Austin would tell the secret he's only told 1 person ever. Austin and Shelby's relationship was one of my favorite parts of the book, but I didn't feel like it had enough base to grow from. The end was definately one of the endings that make you go "Aw!" It was so cute, and I loved it. The cover is gorgeous with the girl and the moon. I thought it was cute that they have her wearing a red hoodie - you know Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf. I definately cannot wait to see what Heather Davis comes up with next! *Do I smell a sequel?*
Summary: Werewolf with a Bite of Love
Rating: 5
Heather Davis is a strong new voice in the YA market, this book is a must read for any age who enjoys a book with a little bite! Shelby is sent off to brat camp by her evil step mother... only to find life's not so bad after meeting hunky fellow camper, Austin. There are fun twists on a few old fables bringing them into a setting with teens. People of any age who read paranormals should discover this fun romp through the woods and buy, Never Cry Werewolf. You won't be disappointed.
Summary: Harmony Book Reviews
Rating: 5
This is only the second or third werewolf book I've read (Shiver and the Twilight books being the others) and I absolutely love it. Unlike Shiver and New Moon, it wasn't a gut-wrenching book. For the most part it was highly amusing and just fun in general which is not to say it's just a laughable book - it's just not dark and mostly sad. The idea of a werewolf at brat-camp is completely original. At that to the unique way she spins the werewolf-ism and you've got on unique novel. I couldn't really relate to Shelby because I've never done half of the things she's done but I loved reading about her. She was just a fun character. Her parents (specifically her step-mother) were ridiculously over-the-top which, unfortunately, made them easy to relate to. (Why is it always the bad parents easy to relate to?!) I enjoyed reading about her time at brat camp - the counselors just made me crack up half of the time. The ending was adorable - slightly predictable but unexpected at the same time. Overall, I highly recommend this. Pick up a copy!
Summary: A dud, unfortunately...
Rating: 2
I'm going to come right out and say that I didn't like this book very much. I simply couldn't take it very seriously and I found it a bit slow. Don't stop now though! Read on to find out why - because I've read reviews by readers that liked this book! I thought the plot sounded cute when I read the back cover, but it did seem a little bit predictable and possibly shallow. I didn't want to be dissuaded by the back cover though, so I tried to keep an open mind. Throughout the book I didn't really feel that any of the characters really popped. I did like Austin, but Shelby was just a little too flat. I felt that, as the main character, Shelby should have had a little more "sparkle" - for lack of a better word. I didn't really buy Shelby and Austin's romance. It was just too easy - I would have enjoyed a little more of a chase and a little more mystery. Some type of unexpected twist would have been welcome!
Summary: Uneven Debut
Rating: 2
*My rating is 2.5 stars.* Please note: This review contains a few comments that some may consider spoilery. After getting caught breaking curfew, Shelby Locke is sent to a summer camp for troubled teens ("Brat Camp") by her father and his new wife. There, Shelby meets Austin Bridges III, the son of a rock singer who's been known to channel Ozzie Osborne by biting the head off a live bird. Shelby soon discovers that Austin is a werewolf and, because she likes him and finds his accent swoon-worthy, she decides to help him keep his secret. Never Cry Werewolf is author Heather Davis' debut novel and though it's marketed to young adults, this one is definitely for the kiddies. At first glance, the characters are likable enough, but ultimately, their lack of depth leaves them uninteresting. In the book's 212 pages, we only got to know Shelby on anything more than a surface level. Exacerbating the lack of depth, I thought some of the characters - particularly Shelby and Austin - often acted very foolishly - a trait that made it difficult for me to warm up to them. For instance:
- Austin has hidden his meds in bunch of glass vials in his backpack. Even if he didn't know that the backpack would be searched, the meds are something he really needs and you'd think he'd work a little harder to disguise them.
- Shelby goes dashing into the woods after Charles, Austin and Mr. Winters. Though she has no knowledge of the area and has no supplies with her, she reasons that she's been camping in Wisconsin so obviously is the only one capable of finding the others before nighfall.
- Austin is a werewolf. He makes noises about being aware that this must be kept secret and saw the disastrous results of telling a girl the truth a few years earlier. But he still shares his secret with Shelby within a couple of days of meeting her and after having exchanged only a few dozen words with her. Whoa. And I mean whoa.
- After Mr. Winters repairs the perimeter chain link fence (and wasn't it convenient that he came along with his tool kit at just that moment?), Shelby rattles the fence in some sort of effort to make the links loosen up. Not once, but twice. Really. Neither she nor Austin seem to consider trying to untwist the wires Mr. Winters just twisted back together.
- When the fence fails to give way to Shelby's shaking (she called it a "piece of crap", too, but that didn't help, either), they decide that they'll have to walk to the gate so that she can get back onto the camp grounds. But do they follow the fence to find the gate that's, you know, IN THE FENCE? Why no - they head into the woods. Now, we've been told - by Shelby - that Austin, being British (we know he's British because he occasionally says things like "bloody", "bloke" and "mate") must be worthless dealing with nature, but Shelby seems to have forgotten this because, even though she has the impression he doesn't know where he's going, she follows him. (Okay, I'll admit that it is mentioned at first that Shelby is keeping an eye on the distant fence, but the next scene finds them in a ravine and the fence doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight.) I was muttering "Whatever" and "Huh?" so often during some of these scenes and others that my dog started looking at me strangely. Like many of the characters, the werewolf storyline wasn't particularly original, interesting or well developed. Part of the allure of a werewolf/human story is the sense of danger, the thrill of the forbidden. In Never Cry Werewolf, the supernatural side of Austin barely registered. While reading, I had the vague feeling that the author wanted to write a story about a troubled teen camp and it was suggested to her that, because paranormal novels are big right now that she make one of the kids a werewolf. (And, if he could have amber eyes like a certain currently popular vampire, so much the better.) As to the camp story: while I never got much sense of why any of the kids were at the "Brat Camp" (in fact, I thought most of them seemed like props moved around along with the scenery to create the next set), I thought the camp plotline actually worked a little better than the werewolf storyline. Shelby did spend some time thinking about the loss of her mother and the subsequent detachment from her father and the counselors seemed interested in working with her on dealing with her loss. I'm not convinced their methods would prove to be effective and some seemed borderline inappropriate, but at least a couple of them seemed to have good intentions. I had very little respect for Shelby's dad. The mistakes Shelby made that got her sent to camp in the first place seemed so innocuous - normal rule breaking made by millions of kids during their teen years - that her father blithely going along with "Honey Bun's" machinations to get rid of Shelby for the summer was a real turn off for me. Even though I didn't respect him, I would have liked to have seen Shelby and her father mend fences and begin the process of reconnecting. Sadly, we never heard again from Shelby's dad after she left for camp. Lastly, does the author have a problem with people who are overweight?
- "An old guy [Mr. Winters] with a moustache and a beer belly barely hidden by a Camp Crescent polo shirt..."
- "And if I saved chubby Mr. Winters from sure starvation and lost-in-the-forest panic..."
- "[Mr. Winter] patted his belly, which made me realize he was the one who was completely starving. Then again, when you're eating for two - you and your beer gut - you probably get that starving feeling a lot."
- "A few of the chubbier campers debated the best s'more-making techniques." I didn't hate Never Cry Werewolf, but I didn't find a lot to like in it, either. My overall impression was that Davis tried to do too many things with the story and so, didn't quite succeed in doing any of them well enough to draw me in. Earlier, I said that Never Cry Werewolf is definitely for the kiddies. But, to be honest, I think the kiddies deserve stories crafted with more care and infused with more imagination.
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