On the surface, this is the story about a girl named Rory, who upon returning to her small hometown to help her pregnant twin sister gets bitten by, and turned into a Werewolf. It is a story about a Manhattan socialite trying to hide her new signature scent of wet dog, her new ravenous appetite and hankering for hot dogs and rotisserie chickens, and this pesky little monthly transformation problem all while throwing baby showers, building cribs, and rekindling a high school romance.

However, like with all good horror, something sinister lurks beneath the surface. This is also a story about trauma and the many shapes it takes.
Harrison does an excellent job of capturing the complexities of trauma;  how it's rarely yours alone to hold, and how no matter how far you run, no matter the distance or time, how it it will find you.

This is an incredibly cheeky, grisly and yet still tender horror novel that left me literally sobbing as I finished it. Anyone who has experienced any kind of traumatic event will see themselves on these pages, but not necessarily in a bad or triggering way, because as Rory says:

"It isn't fair that I have to live with this, but I have to live.

I'm resilient.

My strength doesn’t come from the bad things that have happened to me. It defies those things. It’ll be all right. No matter what, I’ll be all right."

Thank you, Rachel Harrison, for this absolutely beautiful book. You are everything I love about this genre. 

And thank you to the publisher, Berkeley Publishing, for an advanced reading copy that allowed me to do this review.