Customer Reviews

Snarl: A Werewolf Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After being a fan of Lorne Dixon's short stories for several years, I was anxious to see where he could take his characters when given more space to move around, to really flex those writing muscles. He got the opportunity in his debut novella, Snarl, and the result was nothing short of impressive.

I'm reluctant to classify the book as simply a werewolf novella. Snarl picks up were every good classic horror novel leaves off, when you've ever wondered what would happen when you take any of these horror figures far from the path of predictability. Dixon breathes new life into an old idea, and makes it--as is his usual style--entirely his own.

The story follows Chev Worke, an old-fashioned American dad dedicated to his family, driving back and forth across the country to put food on the table. During one particular haul his truck hits an animal near the town of Easter Glen. It's not long before he realizes what it is of course. The beast's friends show up--pissed, hungry, and anxious to toy with Chev, sending him running down the highway as the toughest fight of his life begins to unfold.

While trying to outrun the pack, Chev meets up with Ross Eloyan and his grandson, both of whom are suffering from their own fresh wounds from a recent tragedy that has left them with no other family but each other. They, too, get tossed into the mix as they follow Chev in his escape from Easter Glen, a town that has clearly fallen under the control of this gang of motorcycle-riding, blood-thirsty half-humans. Ross's story in particular is especially brutal, and here Dixon shows his skill at giving you a deeply layered character that gets sucked into a series of choices that can only lead to more pain and misery.

Chev and just about everyone else in this story face their own similar choices, and they all reach the gut-punching realization that the world has been changing around them for the worse. All of this just adds to the tension as things spiral out of control. Even the town itself is forced into an appalling agreement with these monsters in order to avoid the bloodbath that would ensue if they didn't. Everyone is held hostage in one way or another.

At all times during this book you get a feeling that things could explode at any moment. Dixon keeps you enthralled, reminds you that everything is teetering on the edge, whether it's a fragile pact made between men and beasts or a twitching finger hovering over a trigger. And when it all comes crashing down, when the dust settles and you see who's left standing, you'll realize you never saw it coming. It's an ending that will leave you numb yet hungry for more.

Snarl is a rollercoaster of a ride. It'll raise your adrenaline, get your blood pumping, maybe even leave you queasy, but you'll be thoroughly entertained and won't soon forget the experience.

Dixon delivers here. Give Snarl a read.

There's been a push the past year or so to re-establish the werewolf as the new "it" monster; after years of vampires, the past 5 years saw zombies take over the horror fiction scene (where they continue to rise with no sign of slowing down).

Although there's been several werewolf novels released over the past couple of years, not one of them (that I've read) has been half as exciting as SNARL, a quick, action-packed novella that just might give everyone's favorite hairballs a nice little boost.

After his 18-wheeler crashes due to a strange animal running onto the road, family-man-trucker Chev finds himself running for his life from a gang of biker-werewolves. He meets up with a grandfather and his ten year old grandson inside an isolated food mart. The wolves catch up to him, but a pregnant cashier named Bella helps them escape---and brings them to the home of a werewolf hunter who lives in a home-made anti-werewolf fortress.

When Devil Ayers agrees to help our protagonists, double crosses abound, wolf attacks increase, and an all-out lupine-assault threatens to take over a small town that has broken its pact with the beasts of the night. There's even a side-plot involving the mob that leads up to a neat ending.

SNARL is an old-school horror story that's very well told by author Dixon, who brings his characters to life within a short page span and manages to keep the reader flipping the pages. I'm not a big werewolf fan, but SNARL's the most fun I've had with the things in many a full moon.

I just finished reading Lorne Dixon's SNARL and I have to say, this is a fun novella/short novel by an up-and-coming star in the field of horror. Be on the lookout for this guy, because if SNARL is just a sample -- or should I say "bite" -- of what this author can do, then I'd place your bets in advance now.

SNARL is a lycanthrope story about werewolf bikers and clans and their legend in a town called Eastern Glen, and these wolves have some kind of special "pact" with the town's residents. The story starts us off with our protagonist, Chev, who is a cross-country trucker working on Christmas to make some extra cash for his family, when he runs over one of the wolves who formed this pact fifty-something years ago. After this particular pact-forming wolf is buried, Chev is thrown into a neverending, panic-fille ride around every turn, along with an old man and his terrified grandson, and a high school girl who is carrying one of the wolven biker's babies in her womb. The werewolves on the hunt are led by the rough and gritty Marek, along with two vicious shapechangers by the name of Jiri and Josef. If this were a movie, I could imagine the hairy Marek being played by Kris Kristofferson, and then there's the Wolf hunter, Devil Ayers -- who comes halfway through the book -- who I could imagine being played by somebody like Sam Elliot. Chev runs into death everywhere he goes through Eastern Glen and learns a lot about the lore concerning werewolves and why this special pact exists. There's many different sides, people forming partnerships, people shooting each other, and all the while poor Chev wants to just get home to his family. Everything hits you unexpected in SNARL, like a railroad head-on.

There were a few typos in the book and what seemed like a few structural errors through some of the later chapters where it started to drag for a wee bit, but, in today's printing industry, two or three typos is a miracle! And that doesn't take away from the important thing: the story. Why I give it five stars then? Because what makes this book so rich and fun IS the story and the CHARACTERIZATION, and readers will quickly identif with it. And this, along with the premise, is where SNARL succeeds. I'll definitely be checking out more work by this author, and hey, so should you. Lawrence Dagstine, Author, Fresh Blood.

A fast read, a page turner, a horror mystery--this well-written short novel investigates just what it is that turns men into beasts, boys into terrorists, women into roadside bombers. It sees the desire to protect our own--especially our own children--as the source of both our cowardice and cruelty. Certainly a book that should be read in Israel, in Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and especially in the high schools of the United States where its quick action should create interested readers and lively discussion. It implicitedly asks all readers how we can stop a spiral of violent vengeance once it gets started. For all its bated breath, thoughtful and disturbing.

Lois Marie Harrod, poet (Furniture, Firmament and Spelling the World Backwards) and educator

While stories of ghosts, vampires and zombies have long held places on bookstore horror shelves, fewer writers have delved into werewolf lore...and fewer still have done it with the gusto that Lorne Dixon brings to SNARL.
From the moment the book's protagonist, Chev Worke, strikes and kills one of the beasts with his eighteen-wheeler, breaking a fragile pact between the werewolves and the town of Easter Glen, the book takes off like a couple of eloping 16-year-olds. Almost every page brings a new revelation, a new twist or turn, and just when you think Dixon has the accelerator all the way to the floor, he manages to ramp up the speed even more as the novella rushes toward its dead-on conclusion.
And while the book is certainly a bloodbath, Dixon has managed to avoid the trap of filling the pages with cardboard characters that will be merely fodder for the many hungry werewolves that dominate these pages. Chev is a working Everyman, a truck driver on the road on Christmas Eve with a wife and two daughters at home; Ross Eloyan is a guilt-ridden and protective grandfather traveling with his grandson David, all the family he has left after a house fire has taken his other loved ones; Bella is a tough, headstrong teenager with a secret of her own; Devil Ayers is an old, battle-hardened warrior more than willing to take on the werewovles head-on; and even Marek, the leader of the beasts (referred to in the book as Brothers) is more than a mindless, hungry monster. He is as intelligent, determined, and well-spoken as he is fierce and violent.
With this fine mix of characters that exist amidst the backdrop of an all-out war pitting humans against wolves, SNARL delivers. It's a book with bite...and one that will likely wind up being an enduring and fine representation of the werewolf legend.

To use an old cliche, this isn't your father's werewolf novel. It's 2:30am and I have a huge grin plastered on my face. Snarl is amazing. It's both genuinely amusing at times, utterly shocking and gruesome at others. This book has guts, pardon the pun.While it's a fairly quick read, it's twists, turns, action and characters make up for it's brevity tenfold. Perfectly paced, well-written and adrenaline pumping, Snarl is a very worthwhile addition to your horror library. I loved this book and will definitely be keeping my eyes open for more of Mr. Dixon's work.

SNARL

A refreshing and consuming werewolf story. So well written it will be a movie playing in your head as you tag along wondering, hoping, praying at least one of the good guys gets out alive. You will not want to put it down. Lorne Dixon has a wonderfully direct way of telling a story and his action scenes pop in your head. His characters real. I will order his next book, Lifeless.

Suzie Bradshaw (Author)

Although not much more than a novella, "Snarl" is well written, compact, and so entertaining that it seems like a complete novel. With only a handful of major characters, the characterizations are well done even with the man/beasts who threaten throughout the book. The pacing is breathless for most of the novella and the story is truly entertaining.

Chev Worke is a cross country trucker who accidentally hits and kills a werewolf outside the town of Easter Glen. Accident is not acceptable to the dead beast's clan of biker wolves who give Chev a chance to run for it before exacting revenge. Seeking relief in a roadside market, he encounters Ross Eloyan and his grandson, David, who are running from the terrible loss of their whole family in a devastating fire, and Bella, a townie who decides to help "save" the outsiders from the werewolf pack. Chev's accidental killing of a man/beast has, in fact, started the disintegration of a 50 year-old unholy pact between the humans and the beasts that guaranteed the locals safety in return for free access to "outsiders".

She leads the small band to the fortified compound of Devil Ayres, a werewolf hunter, who has been targeting this biker band for years. Together they set out to rescue young David who has been kidnapped by the beasts and to beard the lair of the werewolves. At this point, the action shifts into a higher speed and the action, violence, and suspense climb another notch. Twists, turns, and double crosses soon surprise the reader as he/she is carried along by the relentless pacing of the story. The satisfying conclusion can be anticipated but it makes for a fulfilling experience nonetheless. Recommended as a quick, fun and entertaining read.

Nothing much new, but a nice, short, enjoyable werewolf novel. It's important to support the smaller publishing companies and up and coming authors. The cover looks like it might be a young adult book, but it is not. If you like werewolf stories, you should enjoy this book.

I was very happy with this book. It was written to keep you moving through the story line. The characters were simple yet fleshed out, the world was developed very well. Plenty of detail without bearing down on the reader with tones of tiny useless information. Ended well. Good read!