Moonsick, Tom O'Donnell's (Hamstersaurus Rex series; Homerooms and Hall Passes) first young adult novel, is a grisly supernatural thriller about a teenager facing senior year amid the horrors of a werewolf pandemic.
Five years ago, the highly contagious Rabies lupinovirus emerged, turning humans into rampaging werewolves. The militaristic Viral Containment Task Force ("Dogcatchers") fights the virus by forcing infected individuals into lifelong quarantine, hunting down werewolves, and euthanizing dogs. "White girl from the suburbs" Heidi Mills's privileged life has barely been impacted--she has an imperious mother, a charming yet controlling boyfriend, and a dream of attending Harvard. Sure, there are frequent saliva tests, mandatory full-moon lockdowns, and other government-mandated protocols, but getting infected is "the kind of thing that happen[s] to others." When a home invasion goes terribly wrong, Heidi is infected and the 18-year-old is forced to juggle two conflicting identities: "smart, pretty, popular" high school senior and secret werewolf on the run.
Moonsick is unsettling (featuring a version of the classic monster with "a misshapen nightmare of a face" and talon-like hooked claws) and deliciously gory: during Heidi's first full-moon transformation, she "writhe[s] in the puddle of her own bile," as "patches of dark, wet fur" burst from the "ragged holes where [her skin] tore open." O'Donnell's pandemic twist on the werewolf genre allows for insightful social commentary on the poor's increased vulnerability to the virus, while occasional chapters from Erik Balikian's perspective as a rookie Dogcatcher underscore the insidious dangers of militarism, conspiracy theories, and dehumanizing the sick. Moments of comedic relief and an enemies-to-lovers romance allow periods of ease between toothsomely terrifying scenes. --Cristina Iannarino, children's book buyer, Books on the Square, Providence, R.I.