It’s become a tradition of sorts; every year at LTUE I buy a book to support a new author. This year it was Julie Frost. I met her in the dealers room where she was sitting at the WordFire Press table working on her laptop with a sign in front of her saying “Please disturb the writer!” So I disturbed her, and we had a great conversation. And in the process I picked up her debut novel Pack Dynamics, even though I suspected it wasn’t really “my thing.”
Pack Dynamics is a paranormal/urban fantasy, though you could also argue some sci-fi elements as well. In short, it’s about werewolves and vampires and nanotech, and a veteran with PTSD who has a very bad, no good, really awful couple of weeks. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t all no good. But it starts off with him being tased, abducted, interrogated and dumped in the street, and it’s mostly downhill from there. Caught up in the middle of industrial espionage and powerful people with dark secrets, he’s in for one doozy of a ride.
I can’t say I’ve ever been that interested in the fur, fangs, and claws genre–never read Twilight and probably never will–so this was a bit of departure for me. But I do try to broaden my horizons from time to time. I have no idea if this novel was typical of the genre, but perhaps I’ll find out at some later date. (Come to think of it, Monster Hunters International was in the same vein (no pun intended), so perhaps I’m not such a stranger to the genre as I thought.)
The focus of the book is on action, and the interpersonal relationships between the characters, which is probably why I enjoyed it. It didn’t dwell on backgrounds, ancient curses, or even a lot of character backstory, but just gave enough of a skeleton to hang the plotline on. It’s a lean book, so those who like a lot of exposition, background, explanations, etc., will likely be disappointed. But I found it an entertaining read that kept me coming back until I finished it. I enjoyed the character arcs of two of the main characters (the other two don’t really have an arc, really, which is okay). There weren’t a lot of amazing twists, but that also doesn’t bother me. Far too often writers throw in twists just to show how clever they are. If the plot is engaging and fun without a twist, I’m fine with that. Nor does every plot have to be world-threatening. This one is primarily character-threatening, and that’s good enough for me.
Pack Dynamics took me in some new directions, with some interesting characters. It didn’t come with a lot of gravitas, nor was it intended to. Frost, I believe, was trying to write a fun, entertaining story, and for me she succeeded. I look forward to seeing what she come out with next.
There is language, some gore, and some allusion to “offstage” sex. I’d probably be okay with my fifteen year old reading it, but perhaps not my eleven year old just yet.