Me on The Night Has Teeth

Title: The Night Has Teeth
Author: Kat Kruger
Release Date: September 23, 2012
Publisher: Fierce Ink Press

Connor is chased by a memory. On his first day of kindergarten, he bit a boy hard enough to scar him for life. Since then, he's been a social outcast. Through an unexpected turn of events, he receives a scholarship to study in Paris, and on the first day he befriends two military brats, finally getting a glimpse of what it's like to be a normal teenager. But it doesn't last. His host family, an alluring tattoo artist and her moody boyfriend, introduce Connor to a dark, underground world filled with werewolves, those born and those bitten, and unfortunately for him, he's on the wanted list of a human bitten over 400 years ago who's desperately searching for a cure. As well as a way to wipe out werewolves for good. Connor's loyalties will be tested as werewolves, mad science, and teen angst collide.

The Night Has Teeth is dark and dangerous, what you'd expect from a book set in Paris, exploring the mysterious underground population of werewolves. Connor has nowhere to go but wrapped up in a centuries old battle between the born and the bitten, and what he'll discover will certainly change how he sees the world.

I liked Connor in the beginning because he was such a geek. He didn't have friends, he played video games and read manga. It's refreshing to come across teen guys that are outcasts but also outcasts who fit into a specific niche that isn't just above-average intelligence. After he learns the secrets, he's desperate and floundering, and it's interesting to see how he tries to climb his way back to a semblance of normalcy.

When using already established paranormal mythology and creatures like werewolves, it has to be tweaked and twisted enough to make it stand out and not be boring and overused. Also, it can't be altered too much or else it'll feel gimmicky and implausible. Here, there are enough tweaks to the original story of the werewolf to keep it interesting, stretching back into old world Europe before coming back to the 21st century.

From the first chapter, not knowing what was to come, the book felt tense. Something was always happening out of the range of Connor's comprehension, and the reader can only wait until he figures it all out, until the bomb drops and blows the world he thought he knew to pieces.

(I received an e-galley of this title from Fierce Ink Press.)