Red Moon Rising (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Red Moon Rising April Spisak Moore, Peter . Red Moon Rising. Hyperion, 2011. 328p. ISBN 978-1-4231-1665-3 $16.99 R Gr. 7-9. As if being a teen wasn't tough enough, Danny has the added burden of being half-vampire and half-wulf. The vampire part is super cool and ideal in this alternative Earth where vampires have become society's elite; werewolves, though, are required to register and to incarcerate themselves in poorly supervised "safety" camps each full moon, and they are generally considered to be less intelligent, less human, and just all around . . . less. Danny's parents therefore knew he would do better in the world if his wulf genes were suppressed, but Danny's body rejected the treatment, and now he has a growing distaste for the vampire's nutritious SynHeme and a strong feeling that the coming full moon is going to be life-changing. It's a nifty twist to add to the vampire YA genre that vampires are the least interesting characters [End Page 480] here: the few humans who struggle to stay up all night in order to attend the prestigious vampire school and the wulves who are isolated but defiant, unable to maximize their obvious strengths and abilities in a structure built to defeat them, are all far more intriguing than the vain, arrogant, and mostly dull vamps. Fictional historical quotes preface each chapter and help to fill in the social and cultural picture. The social strata almost become the point here as much as the vamps and wulves themselves, but Moore ably keeps this novel from becoming simply social commentary by allowing Danny, a kid far more concerned with his new love, his future, and his newly found wulf strength than what he might represent in larger society, to narrate his own transformative experience. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois