Book Review: Bloodborn

By: Karen Kincy

Published by: Flux

To Be Released On: September 8th, 2011

Source: book from author/publisher to review

2 stars- I wanted to like it more than I did

Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble

Brock Koeman always hated werewolves and Others like them. While trying to trap a werewolf pack, he and his brother Chris were attacked and bitten—becoming what they have always feared and despised. While Chris fights for his life in the hospital, Brock faces another kind of battle: stifling his terrible urge to transform.

When werewolves kidnap him and the girl he loves, Brock discovers what it means to be Other—wondrous new sensations and experiences, overshadowed by constant danger—and the life that awaits him if he can ever accept his fate.

Like Other, Bloodborn has a fascinating paranormal mythology, only this story focuses more on the werewolves. For Brock, being a wolf is far from natural. In fact, it's one of the things he despises the most, and it seems as though fate plays a cruel trick on him when he and his brother go out to hunt the werewolves and in turn get bitten by one. Now his brother is fighting for his life and Brock is fighting to remain human.

Bloodborn's werewolf mythology is unique in the fact that not all the wolves are born that way, and the ones, like Brock who get bitten, aren't only shunned from society they don't always survive their first turning. Though I never felt like I connected with Brock, I was able to sympathize with his character and how he was feeling. I understood why he was constantly battling with himself, hating the fact he's turning into some he can't stand. He despises his inner wolf and the pack he ends up running with. It took one bite to change everything for him and now he's left with nothing, but a losing battle of turning into a wolf.

Despite being a huge paranormal fan, I had a hard time connecting with this story. I'm not sure exactly why that was, but over all I couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to. The storyline is good, and like Other, Karen has created a world that consists of human, werewolves, vampires and Others who are live together. I should said tolerate each other, because for the most part each paranormal group sticks to their own kind. I like that Karen included werewolf stereotypes in this book, because the werewolves get such a bad rap in this series. They're deemed infectious and like outlaws. I liked seeing how the pack interacted, but over the characters weren't ones I felt like I could connect with, and that made it hard for me to enjoy the book as much as wanted to.

Bloodburn is a book that fans of werewolves and YA paranormal books may enjoy, and I liked that you don't need to read Other to follow this storyline. Brock had a very minor role in the first book, and Bloodborn is a book that focuses solely on his story. Bloodborn's a good sequel to Other, but unfortunately for me this is a book that just didn't connect with me. I'm looking forward to seeing which character gets their own story next and I'm hoping it's Tavian. He's my favorite character from the series so far. There is language and uses of the f-word through out the book and some underage drinking. This is a book I'd recommend to older teen readers and fans of YA paranormal books.