I’m a late comer to the Stephen Graham Jones bandwagon, having gotten my first taste of his work with The Only Good Indians. I’m slowly expanding on his previous work, and Mongrels — well it's a gem of a Coming of Age horror novel. Jones puts so much heart and soul into his characters that I almost feel guilty for only rating it a four out of five little twinkly stars. But I have my reasons. We’ll get to those later.

This is the story of a criminal, a prisoner, a villager, a sheep, all rolled into one as the main character tells stories of his own life as a boy raised by his extended family of werewolves after his mother dies giving birth to him. His aunt, his uncle, his grandfather are all storytellers, all hustlers to some degree too because the werewolf life isn’t a pretty one…depending on which family member is telling the story. They scramble to live along the fringe of society, doing their best to blend in, except when they can’t. That doesn’t make them any less proud of their questionable roots, and the kid—well, his entire story is about seeing what his aunt and uncle go through while he wonders when it will hit him; if and when he will ever experience the change.

There are times he wants to be the wild wolf that his Uncle Darren represents, times when he understands why his Aunt Libby has her reservations. It’s really about growing up and learning from the family that raises you. Funny at times, heartbreaking at others. It's a book I definitely recommend reading.

My only real reservation is the nonlinear approach to the story. The boy is a storyteller. His stories comprise each chapter. He's as young as eight in some, as old as eighteen in others. But the stories bounce around, back and forth from age to age as the family moves from Texas to Georgia to Missouri to the Carolinas to Florida and back again, and it can get confusing. Therefore, the four. But it's a solid four, absolutely. ( )

This is a far cry from my usual werewolf fare—an incredibly original take. These werewolves are scraping by, living with limited education and resources, fierce in their care for each other, if not for themselves. I loved this family—an unnamed boy (the narrator), and the aunt and uncle who raised him.
The story rolls along, drifting back and forth in the narrator’s childhood memory. In one chapter he’s eight, in the next he’s 14, and in the next he might be somewhere in between. I liked this storytelling approach, as well as the changing back and forth from first-person to third-person, with the narrator describing himself as he was imagining himself at that age. Things really ramp up at the end, and I had to devour it as fast as I could.
The violence is quite brutal, and my usual deal-breaker of animal violence and death is present throughout. I don’t know how it couldn’t be, and it would be silly of me to complain about it with a book like this. It’s not drawn out, but there is plenty of it. I’ll break my rule for this author.
The edition I read had an extra treat besides the About the Author spot at the end. He wrote an About the Book piece that talked about his childhood obsession with werewolves and the autobiographical nature of the book. I enjoyed it a lot, and it’s worth it to look for this edition, the William Morrow imprint with “P.S. Insights, Interviews, & More…” on the bottom right-hand corner.
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DNF. Couldn't get into it. ( )

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones has to be one of the most unique takes on the werewolf genre that I have read. To be truthful, I do not read a lot of werewolf books.

A yet to transform boy and later teenager travel across the US with his uncle Darren and his aunt Libby. Libby and Darren are werewolves who must continue moving to survive. Sometimes they move because one of them has killed the wrong person, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes they move because there are werewolf trackers on their tale. Wherever they go, our narrator is waiting for his first transformation. He realizes he isn't like his uncle or aunt, but he hopes that someday he will change.

The story itself is told entirely through our unnamed narrator as he moves through life with his uncle and aunt. It is part a coming of age story, part gypsy life story, and part werewolf story. Our narrator admires his aunt and uncle and wants their life so much, even if it means a life of isolation and constant moving. He cannot connect with human girls because wolves kill them if the woman becomes pregnant. So, as he becomes a teen and his teen desires grow, he is torn between them and the wolf life.

We also meet other werewolves and two different types that have given up the wolf life. One group refuses to transform back to human and another are werewolves who refuse to become wolf anymore. Unlike the old tales, the full moon has nothing to do with transformation, but rather a desire to transform. Part of the question for our narrator is what is the difference between the wolf life and the human life?

There are also these little interlude chapters where the narration is a bit different and told from a 3rd person perspective. Our narrator has been keeping a journal throughout his time, so these might be journal entries, but it is never specified.

As much as I loved this take on the werewolf, the writing was at times a bit off-putting. I couldn't put my finger on why, but something was just slightly off every now and then which pulled me from the narrative. The book though as a whole is a great take on the werewolf genre.

I gave this one 4 stars.
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Great story. This is the second or third book I have read by this author and one of the things I admire about his writing is the 'literary' feel to it. My only dislike is the slow pacing and since I had the same complaint about his other novels I think that is just a characteristic of his writing style though this one was faster paced than The Only Good Indians. The end was interesting to me especially in regards to the aunt, still not sure if I would classify it as a happy ending or not. Probably as close to one as you can get with a horror novel. ( )