Review: Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans. As breathless as Twilight and as spooky as Shiver, this is a book to be devoured in one sitting—by an acclaimed YA author making her paranormal 
debut under the pseudonym Ivy Devlin.


I received this book as a trade today from Read It, Swap It and started reading it straight away, I've just finished it.


First of all, I have to admit that I was a bit unsure about this read, I've been a little bored of werewolves for a while and only got this book because I was looking for something other than dystopian for a while, so i didn't exactly set my hopes too high. As well as this, I have read a few bad reviews so I wasn't expecting too much.


I'll start with the good things. It was a nice surprise to find the elements of Little Red Riding Hood in there, the wolves, the woodcutter, the grandmother and there is even a line in there; "Oh what big eyes you have" which made me giggle, as well as the main character being called Avery Hood (Hood!). 


I also loved the characters, Avery is lovely and believable, her attachment to the house, to her family and her reactions to her grandma. I also loved the character of Ben, who who was cute, kind and dangerous, but not in the scary way, in the 'Oooh... mysteriouuuus' way, I also liked that this wasn't a love triangle, there were two characters in love. Finally, there are the the side characters, Renee who is quite nice and a real grandmotherly presence and Louis, a relative of Ben's who I found almost scary... 


I love the way that in such a short book (244 pages for my copy), Devlin dragged out the suspense and had the reader guessing all the way through, even though some of it was a bit obvious, I was completely shocked at the end (even though I had a little suspicion at one point, I'd easily cast it off.) Also, I'm under the assumption that this is a stand-alone novel and no sequels, which I like because it was just the whole story in a short novel, which makes it an easy read, its also short chapters so its easy to pick up and put down again.


The only reason that this book does not make five stars is because I was a bit confused at some points, with the hair thing and the Avery power thing... little confusing to me. As well as this, I didn't understand some of Avery's decisions, the fact that despite what she thought, she still stayed with Ben and as well as the fact that they were full on making out after knowing each other for about two days, which was too fast for me personally, it needed to be developed a little more rather than it being; "I'm a werewolf"... "Kiss"..."I'm a werewolf"... "Kiss".."I'm a werewolf"... "Kiss" for 244 pages.


Even though I completely loved this book, I have to give it only 


Overall rating: B+


A footnote: If anybody knows who 'Ivy Devlin' is a pseudonym of... please let me know! I really want to know.

Stand alone/series: Stand alone 

Released: February 7th 2011 (Paperback)

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 256

Book obtained via: Swap