Review: Hemlock

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: May 8th 2012
Pages: 416
Source: Library
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal, Romance, Mystery
Goodreads

Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.

Since then, Mac's life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac's hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy's killer:

A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome--also known as the werewolf virus--is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy's murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy's boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.

Kathleen Peacock's thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spellbinding urban fantasy series filled with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love.

When I first heard about this book from another blogger, Lauren from 365 Days for Reading, I immediately wanted to read it. The story just has a beautiful, yet very emotional feel to it that caught my eye right away. Hemlock is about a girl named Mackenzie, and her best friend, Amy, had recently been killed by a werewolf. In the world that Mackenzie lives in, becoming a werewolf is a disease that can be passed through bites and scratches. During the story it becomes Mac's mission to find out what happened to Amy that lead up to her murder, and her decision to go after the werewolf who committed the murder.

The main character Mac is a girl who grew up with a  very difficult child hood and she's been shuffled between family members. I'm not sure as to why she wasn't with her parents, that wasn't explained. She currently lives with her cousin. Because of her childhood she's not the best at expressing her self, especially when others care for her. I really liked Mac as a character, she always handled all sorts of situations surprisingly well and always kept a straight head. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she always found a way out of rough situations. Other main characters include her two friends Jason and Kyle. All three of them have been having a very hard time since Amy's death and they all play a major part in solving the murder. Kyle and Jason both had a very love/hate relationship with me. Both of them were stupid sometimes, but, in the end they both figured things out.

My favorite part about this book was the mystery that Mac was working to solve. It was really hard to guess what exactly had happened that lead up to the murder of her friend Amy, and even as things slowly began to come out I was still left guessing at what, exactly had happened, and who had done it. I also enjoyed how a paranormal element was so well implanted in the story in a way that makes the world seem to still mirror our world in many ways.

The only drawback was the fact that it's a series. It could have easily been a standalone if just one or two things had been changed. I actually spent about half the book thinking it was a standalone because it felt like there would be a conclusion in the end, and I noticed it was part of a series on goodreads.  

Overall, Hemlock is a great story with great characters. I really enjoyed how you really couldn't predict anything in the story and the story leaves you wanting more.