Lora Hates Spam

By Graeme Reynolds

Wow. This was an intense story. I often say that I don't like a lot of blood and gore in stories, but for some reason it doesn't bother me in a good werewolf or vampire story. It just seems necessary. Reynolds doesn't hold back, yet the violence has been well done for believability without crossing over into the unnecessarily gross for the sake of it.

Don't read this if you're looking for romantic werewolves or have lost a child to violence. This is written for Horror fans.

I found it difficult to put down and kept neglecting other books to keep going back to it. It really did hold my attention all the way to the end. I wasn't happy about the cliff hanger at the end, but most of the loose ends were tied up enough that I'll only dock half a star for it.

One thing I really liked about the storyline is that it addresses the subject of bullying in a way that many people can appreciate from childhood, though the bad boys are worse than average. I wouldn't want to have grown up with them around. The relationships among the child characters were realistic and didn't fall into what I would see as YA, even though they did swear a lot. The interactions with adult characters just came over as perfectly natural.

It was a good story and written very well. I keep saying there are some gems in the indie realm and this is one of them. As soon as I get my breath back I'll start reading the second book!