Red Moon

A Novel

By: Benjamin Percy

Narrated by: Benjamin Percy

Audie Award Finalist, Paranormal, 2014

They live among us. They are our neighbors, our mothers, our lovers. They change. When government agents kick down Claire Forrester's front door and murder her parents, Claire realizes just how different she is. Patrick Gamble was nothing special until the day he got on a plane and hours later stepped off it, the only passenger left alive, a hero. Chase Williams has sworn to protect the people of the United States from the menace in their midst, but he is becoming the very thing he has promised to destroy. So far, the threat has been controlled by laws and violence and drugs. But the night of the red moon is coming, when an unrecognizable world will emerge...and the battle for humanity will begin.

©2013 Benjamin Percy (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

" Red Moon is a serious, politically symbolic novel - a literary novel about lycanthropes. If George Orwell had imagined a future where the werewolf population had grown to the degree that they were colonized and drugged, this terrifying novel might be it." (John Irving )

"With Red Moon one of our most blazingly gifted young writers stakes his claim to national attention. Benjamin Percy has one great advantage over most writers who attempt 'literary horror': he understands the literature of real horror from the inside out, and he speaks it like a native. This is a novel with the power to thrill and transport, also to lead the reader well out of her comfort zone and into emotional territory few people have ever seen." (Peter Straub)

Needs a Better Ending

What did you like best about Red Moon? What did you like least?

I enjoy this book right up until the end. It seems very much like an unfinished work. It took forever to get to a very lack luster ending. The author created some great characters and has an excellent narration voice and tempo. I just did not like the ending. I will say that should s sequel be developed, I will buy it.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Great Characters. Allegories to 911, Arab American Issues, AIDS are clearly seen in the book.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Benjamin Percy?

Yes - excellent voice and tempo

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Maybe - seems it would be a bit long for a movie.

Dry Wit and a bit of grit

Percy's voice and delivery make the book for me. I personally found the story a bit hard to swallow at some points, though I ended up enjoying it overall. The way all the separate storylines interwove at last wasn't as thrilling a climax as one would have hoped, especially considering the tension built by the preceding chapters. Overall the story felt like it swelled for an explosion but ended with a slow steady sigh instead.

Heh

Ok book does not live up to the hype. Set up to be series that I will not follow.

More than a werewolf fantasy story

Despite the many reviews focusing on the authors reading of his story, which feels heavy and unbearably ominous, but soon fades into normality as you get used to the delivery. I found this to be a story worth reading because it could be drawn from the stories about any group of oppressed people. It was set in a fantasy alternative reality about Lycans. But it resonates with a number of real stories going back as far as the 1800s such as proposals that black slaves be freed and sent back to Africa because they couldn't live with whites. Then instead systematically ensuring their treatment as lesser when that idea failed. It could reference Native American reservations, the fear and hatred and slander of AIDS patients in the 80s it could reference the treatment of Muslims today. It could be drawn from stories of historic and current Jewish oppression . It could be drawn from Native American oppression It could be drawing from the Japanese roundup during World War II. There are so many cultural references drawn from so many stories of systematic oppression and mass societal fear that It can't help but resonate on some level with a majority of people.

Great Story...Not a good audible read

I liked this book, but the author is not a good audible narrator. Read the book do not listen to it.

When I first heard Benjamin Percy's deep voice at a reading during an event in Gaithersburg, MD, I was so excited to purchase the audio. Well, Benjamin is not experienced in the audible world, and it did not work for this book. I need someone to get into the book and create some characters. Only an experienced narrative could have done this. For example, the sex scenes just sounded vulgar when read aloud. I read many audio books and I should not cringe while reading, rather listening, to this book. The book will make a great movie. Those scenes that I described as vulgar will be nothing more than gratuitous sex in a movie. The problem with the story is that I could not differentiate one character from another in the reading. I often went back to see which male character was the focus of the particular story. I also purchased the book, and I re-read certain sections because in the audio, it seemed the characters just disappeared or their story just ended.

Now that I have finished the book, I realize that he wrote the book thinking of a sequel, which was not the right thing to do. There were too many lose ends in this book. I will read the next book and probably watch a movie if there is one. I just think that the book would have been better if some of the characters’ stories had an actual ending.

With all of that being said, the author is a great writer and just needs to work on his story telling for longer novels as he very skilled at writing short stories. In some ways, that may have been the flaw in this book. Lots of short stories and sometimes the characters did not seem part of the same novel. He will get better and the sequel will probably be awesome. For audible, the author should not be the one to narrate it.

The narrator makes it hard to embrace the story

What did you love best about Red Moon?

The narrator, who is also the author, makes it difficult to embrace the story. Every single line is in a deep, sinsiter voice that feels over dramatic. It gets distracting and tiresome. Great story though.

I wanted to like it.

This story started out with a bang! I was intrigued and wanted more. As the story progressed I just couldn’t take the narrator (Note to all authors: PLEASE let a professional narrate your audio books!)

I got more than half-way though it before I decided I couldn’t listen to him read another word. The storyline was interesting enough that I would consider checking it out at the library to see how it ends – but this was a waste of an audible credit.

Nothing is black and white

OK, the novel probably does not deserve five stars -- there are a few too many serendipitous encounters and Patrick is way too lucky even for a fictional hero. Still, I loved it. I literally could not stop listening. When other things got in the way -- like work!!! -- I could not wait to get back to it.

I am a sucker for werewolf and vampire stories (this one is just the former), but this novel is about more. There are quite obvious parallels to current political and religious themes (there are the "good" werewolves and the "terrorist" werewolves, setting up bombs, etc. There is the occupied werewolf country that the U.S. needs for its uranium mines...)...But, as Mr. Percy seems to want us to understand, we should not be too quick to judge. There's very good and very bad -- and everything in between -- on both sides. Even among the terrorists who are setting up the bombs, there are some "good" people (a hard thing for me to swallow since I live in Boston and the Marathon bombings happened just a month ago). Still, Mr. Percy has enough talent to make you see "the other side."

He is a very GOOD writer -- nothing like a well-written horror yarn!

The plot gripped me from the start -- and it does not let up. Even with the serendipitous occurrences that I mentioned before, it is a nicely woven story. I was afraid that the ending would let me down -- how can this END? -- but it did not. In fact, I thought the ending was perfect...and I cannot say anything more without spoiling it.

At first, Mr. Percy's reading is a tad hard to get used to. Then it becomes one of the things you absolutely love. (I am not sure if I would have felt the same if he had not been the author...I probably would have thought that he was reading too much 'drama' into some of the scenes. But, since he was the author, clearly the drama was meant to be there.) In fact, I looked at the other novel he has in Audible and was disappointed that he was not the narrator.

I highly recommend Red Moon. Well done. Mr. Percy, well done!

Playback issues

Any additional comments?

I had continual playback issues with this book. I tried to remove it from my iPhone and re-download and still had issues. Phrases/words would repeat themselves several times, almost like a scratched record.

This is one of the best werewolf stories I've ever heard.

I absolutely loved this novel. The story in general was great, the characters were well made and relatable. My only gripe is that it left off with so much more to this story could be told.

Honestly, I could see this being made into a series of movies or a long running TV show.