Review: Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

Title: Low Red Moon
Author: Ivy Devlin
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub. Date: 9.14.2010
Genre: Paranormal YA
Keywords: Grief, Murder, Love, Family, Loss, Werewolves
Pages: 256
Description (from arc):
Her parents are dead. She can't remember what happened. And now she's in love with the most dangerous creature in the forest.

The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver - deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together.

Then Avery meets the new boy in school - Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. Ben is a werewolf, but Avery trusts him - at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash an inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.

Oddly, LOW RED MOON was both more and less than I had expected.

I started the novel thinking that the paranormal aspects would be the focus, but quickly found that this was not the case. From early on in the novel the reader knows that Ben is a werewolf. To be honest, the reader actually knows as soon as they read the description. I assumed, since this fact is clearly pointed out, it would be a much bigger focus. Instead, this element is almost unnecessary. This novel could have had the same ending without anything paranormal occurring. I would have appreciated more backstory and lore regarding this aspect of the novel.

I was much more impressed by the rest of LOW RED MOON. In my opinion, Avery's grief ended up being the main focus. Sometimes I felt like it was almost too much of a focus... I sometimes find it frustrating when reading novels with strong themes of loss and grief. I understand why Avery would spend so much time grieving - her parents were just brutally murdered - but I felt that it made much of the novel repetitive, especially when she was trying to recall what happened that night. She never really moved past having seen "a flash of silver" that was "inhuman." I felt like that element could have been further developed...

I found the romance to be surprisingly intense. Most of the novel seemed to move at a slow pace, but not when it came to Ben and Avery. Those passages are what kept my interest when it occassionally flagged. I wish the relationship and why they felt so strongly for one another would have been explained in more detail. I felt like I was missing some key information.

Overall, LOW RED MOON was a good mystery with a passionate romance and a dash of the supernatural thrown in for good measure. Not the best, but it could've been. I'd definitely read more from Ivy Devlin, but, in her next novel, I hope to see greater exploration of the paranormal elements!

Grade: B-

For a chance to win your own copy of LOW RED MOON, go here.

Review Copy provided by publisher.