Ashley Fontainne - Growl

8. Growl by Ashley Fontainne (2014)
Length: 294 pages
Genre: Horror
Started: 20 February 2015
Finished: 27 February 2015
Where did it come from? Many thanks to Dorothy at Pump up Your Book for sending me a copy of this book to read.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? since 7 January 2015
Why do I have it? I like horror and Ashley Fontainne is a new author for me.

Eighteen-year-old Sheryl Ilene Newcomb - and yes, her initials do happen to spell SIN - should have little to worry her beyond whether or not she will make the cheerleading squad, missing her boyfriend who is away at basketball camp, and lending a sympathetic ear to her lovelorn best friend. Instead, for the past nine years, Sheryl has been living with a secret. According to her family, the transformation - or whatever it might have been - could probably be traced back to events that happened during the summer when Sheryl turned nine.

That was the year that her elderly great-grandmother died, and when Sheryl's nightmares of the mysterious Shadow-Man started. It was also the year that Sheryl determined no one would ever learn the gruesome details about her Nana's death, nor that Sheryl was convinced that she was in some way responsible. After all, Sheryl had witnessed Nana's mauling, somewhere deep in the woods, and had done nothing to stop it - had she?

However, for the Newcomb family, the day when they truly realized there was a problem - when they had reached the point of no return - was a week before Sheryl began her senior year at Junction City High. That was when the mutilated bodies began appearing in the brush down beside Caney Creek, along with the notes claiming to know Sheryl's terrible secret and warning that the notes' author would soon come to collect what was due - warning that the women of the lineage were going to be eradicated at the hands of their worst enemy.

For eighteen-year-old Sheryl Ilene Newcomb, that was the summer when the fangs and claws of an undeniable monster ravaged all that she held dear; the summer when everything changed and the monster deep inside her soul was unleashed. Because that was the summer when evil awoke and everyone heard its menacing growls. Every living thing in Locasia County, Mississippi quaked in fear, hearing such ominous rumblings.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The plot was very well-written and interesting; I was drawn into the story right away. The character and story development had me intrigued until the very end - I found myself really connecting with Sheryl and I hoped that she and her family would come through everything relatively unscathed.

This was also an unusual treatment of lycanthropy and of werewolves in general; at least in my opinion. This was the first book that I ever read by Ashley Fontainne, but I look forward to reading more in the future. I would certainly give Growl by Ashley Fontainne an A!

A! - (90-95%)

May you read well and often