LITERAL REMAINS

According to the author bio, Garton’s novel Live Girls is considered a classic in the vampire genre. I’ve never read it.   Ravenous is my first taste of Ray Garton’s work, and I bought it because it was a werewolf story. I love a good werewolf tale.  And even if I didn’t like the lycanthropes, or horror, and just wanted a good yarn spun to pass the time, I still would have liked this book. Ravenous is familiar enough to appeal to fans such as myself, and just different enough to make the tried and true werewolf story feel a little fresh.

Set in the coastal town of Big Rock, California, dead bodies begin to turn up. Mangled bodies, eaten upon. There is a werewolf loose, and before too long, there are several of the nasty creatures on the loose. The werewolf curse here is passed through sex. Werewolves as an STD is not stop-the-presses kind of stuff, but Garton’s story construction shines in how everyone is connected, even the most desperate of citizens, and is a keen look at how, in a small town, one thing very often leads to another. It’s a small world after all.

Ravenous moves along at a quick clip, and is highly entertaining. Some of the action is a little predictable, but there is a good twist or two along the way. Long after I had finished the book, my appreciation for it grew thinking back on it. It’s pulp, but good pulp, and a guilty pleasure that’s well written and worth a read.

3.5 out of 5

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