The Wild Boys was definitely a hit for me. It's one of the few werewolf books that I've read that actually does a pretty good job illustrating the legendary characteristics of the beast. It's not the cheesy 'good/bad werewolf falls in love with girl, blah, blah, blah' story. This is pure lupine blood-thirst.
It's FBI, secret agent level and the 'damsel in distress' is definitely a top kick-butt heroine. Even with a couple of downsides, I still can't believe how well the story turned out. The beginning is pure mysterious tension and the best part is, once you actually know what the heck is going on, you still feel entrapped in the story because from then on it's pure, nonstop action. Besides, the villain is
nasty. The moment he was introduced, I just knew the guy was bad news. He gives off that 'I-will-kill-you-in-your-sleep' vibe that sent chills down my spine. I wanted him dead as much as most of the characters did.
So Mia, the female protagonist, is a broken heroine. She has to deal with the loss of her brother, the fact that her mother blames her for his death, and the empty spot her father leaves in their family since he's always working. She doesn't have a lot of friends and the only time she ends up making one... yeah, she finds his headless, mutilated body in the middle of the forest. Lovely.
Just lovely. (Where's a sarcastic font when I need one?)
How to make matters worse? Well, wild animal attacks begin to rise. Huge, black shapes start stalking her while she's out riding her bike... oh! And three strange and utterly naked boys, who have a craving for raw meat, appear out of nowhere and ask for help.
How to make matters better? Eh, cute guy at school finally notices her.
The romance in this book was a huge miss. It came out of nowhere and it blossomed for some unknown reason. Dalton, the lover-boy, felt like a fake to me. He was the perfect 'Prince Charming' that showed up just in time. What a coincidence. I actually had my suspicions on him for about half the book until I realized he was just some love-struck kid, who played a big part later on, but was introduced in a very un-stylish manner. His relationship with Mia was cute, but I didn't get why they even had one to start with.
Mia herself was definitely a strong heroine. She was levelheaded, which is something you don't see in young adult books very often. She was sort of sensitive to her Asian background, and incredibly tough, but not unrealistically tough. I loved the way she handled some of the situations. Naked boys pop out of nowhere?
Werewolf car chase, bleeding arm, almost killed? No problem. She's got this down.
She had breakdowns, don't get me wrong. Who in their right mind wouldn't? But she wasn't the sort of person who gave up easily or spent like half the book contemplating on whether she's a good or bad person and if what she did was right or wrong. Sure, there are times when she over-analyzes things, but it doesn't get heavy.
Plot-wise, there's a lot going on. I don't want to get into it too much, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It's nail-biting and there are quite a number of twists throughout the book. It's like a supernatural action movie. Think
Supernatural plus some
Teen Wolf. There are werewolves and secret agents and deadly viruses and cool fighting scenes. I loved it!
Overall, even though the romance sucked, I was completely taken by the rest of the story.
The Wild Boys was definitely one of my top werewolf books of the year (maybe even ever). It's a change of scenery, sort of. The ending isn't a big deal, there aren't any HUGE revelations, but that's the best part. I felt completely satisfied by the time I got there, and I was relieved that it didn't end with a cliffhanger. Plus, the villain... yeah, he needed to go
down. Hate. Him.
I definitely recommend this one to anyone who's ready for some real werewolf action.
I'm so excited to have Travis Heermann over at my blog today! I know I've been gone for a long while, but thankfully that's over... for another while :) And I really do need to apologize here for postponing this for such a long time, but thank you so much Travis Heermann for being patient with me.
Me: So, what's it like being an author? Did you ever expect to become one?
Travis Heermann: I knew from the time I was about 12 or 13 that writing is what I wanted to do. These dreams were derailed by life, circumstances, and too many people trying to herd me into a "sensible" career field.
Now that I have steered my life back onto that course, I can say that I still don't really know what it's like to be one, because it's changing so quickly, I'm trying to keep up. I am constantly learning new skills, trying new things, all in efforts to improve my writing, and to learn all the other things I have to know to navigate a really, really difficult business. A career writer has to do more than just write good books; he or she has to be constantly digging up new opportunities for paying work, marketing the work that has already been published, and putting out the work that's finished but not yet out in the world.
Me: Did you ever experience writer's block while you were writing? How'd you get over it?
Travis Heermann: There have been periods in my life where I wrote very little, largely because I didn't realize how important it was for me to be doing it. Nowadays, since I write full time, I don't have the luxury of accepting writer's block. I have to be writing because it's my job. So if something is not working, a story is not coming, I either work on it anyway, knowing that what is coming out might be awful but trusting that I can go back and improve it later, or I work on something else on which I might not be blocked. With enough irons in the fire, I always have something I could be working on.
Me: Is there anything in The Wild Boys that's based off real life experiences or is it purely imagination?
Travis Heermann: Writers steal characters, locales, and moments from their own lives all the time. So there are characters in the book that are conglomerations of people I have known, places I'm familiar with. It's life experiences that give writers their unique perspective, and that inevitably appears in their fiction.
Me: Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
Travis Heermann: That's a difficult question to answer, because my writing career has undergone fits and starts and long dry spells, largely because of my very first published book. The short version is that it involved an unscrupulous, dirty publishing house, and a literacy agency where everyone did 3-4 years in federal prison for fraud. You can read about the whole story here, and it should serve as a cautionary tale for writers.
http://travisheermann.com/blog/?page_id=34
I consider Heart of the Ronin to be the book where my career truly got started, and that was very much by the traditional route. I queried several dozen agents and ultimately found one who loved the book. It had a really near miss with one of the Big 5 publishers, but after three years of trying it ultimately sold to Gale-Cengage's Five Star imprint.
Me: Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and fans?
Travis Heermann: My fifth novel, the second in my Ronin Trilogy, titled Sword of the Ronin, will be my first venture into indie publishing. It is coming out in June, and I have to say the cover paintings by Alan M. Clark and Drew Baker are just stunning. I ran a Kickstarter campaign back in January, that was really successful, and it was gratifying to see so many people come out and support my work, so if you like historical fantasy with ninja, samurai, duels, and strange critters, check it out.
As a general call out to readers everywhere, I want to say this: If there is a writer, artist, musician out there whose work you enjoy, admire, etc., it is absolutely critical that you support them by paying money for their work, especially if they are working outside the bounds of big publishing houses and big record companies. Too many people don't think about the fact that books and music and art represent somebody's livelihood, the difference between paying the rent and living in their parents' basement. Help give them the financial breathing space to let them create the next work you will love.
And for the fun questions :D
Me: Have you ever read something that you really wanted to like, but you ended up hating?
Travis Heermann: Usually when I encounter a book I don't like, I know pretty quickly that I don't like it. Since I'm so stubborn (I have to be; I'm a writer) I will usually keep going and hope to find something in it that can redeem it somehow and make it worthwhile. Usually, however, I don't, and I just end up throwing it in a corner. "Well, that sucked." The last time I was really incensed with how crappy a book was, was when I had decided to write a YA novel, so I decided to read a few and get a feel for the YA realm. I picked one up that was a best-seller, and it came highly recommended. On about page 60, I threw it across the room, yelling, "Oh my god! What a piece of crap!" The storytelling was awful, the fantasy world completely unbelievable, and the prose redundant, boring, and uninspired. I never picked it up again. Then I read Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, and my faith in YA was restored. It was an absolutely awesome novel.
Me: If you could magically teleport to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Travis Heermann: That depends on what day you ask me. I have traveled all over east Asia, and lived in Japan for three years. Lately I find myself really missing Japan and the friends I still have there, so today I would zap myself to Fukuoka, Japan.
Me: What movie scared you the most when you were a kid?
Travis Heermann: There was a movie I saw on the late movie one night when I was staying over with my cousins when I was probably eight or so. The movie was a Roman Polanski film called The Fearless Vampire Killers. It was ostensibly a comedy, but I remember being absolutely terrified. And it featured Sharon Tate, in one of her last roles before she was murdered by the Manson family. I remember thinking she was one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen, so that movie holds a special place of fascination in my childhood memory.
Me: If you could swap places with any character in any book, who would it be?
Travis Heermann: I would be John Carter of Mars. Growing up, I was completely fascinated by that character, and I think part of me would still love to be him. Master swordsman, savior of a whole planet, strange critters and beautiful women everywhere. What's not to like?
Me: What do you think would be the coolest pet to have?
Travis Heermann: I'm mostly a cat person, but I've also had two iguanas. I always thought a snake would be pretty cool, though, or maybe a raccoon.
Thank you so much, Travis, for stopping by my blog today!
I totally agree that Tender Morsels was a great read, and I'm glad you didn't give up on the YA genre!
