HEMLOCK by Kathleen Peacock

Mackenzie's best friend, Amy, was murdered by a werewolf. Mac wants justice for this death, but she also doesn't approve of the Trackers, a group dedicated to hunting down werewolves and either killing them or locking them away. Amy's boyfriend, Jason, is making a lot of bad life choices since Amy's death, and is starting to think about joining the Trackers. Mac's other best friend, Kyle, is hiding something....BUT WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE? Mac's guardian is her older sister, whose boyfriend, Ben, is also hiding something.....BUT WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE?

Hemlock is a 200-page book smashed into 400 pages. It's way too long for the amount of action in it, and most of the revelations we can see coming a mile off. Most of the pages were filled with Mac trying to come to terms with her friend's death, her other friends' problems, all of the secrets she uncovers, and the political wrangling of the Trackers and other anti-werewolf people, and those who think werewolves are human beings with human rights. However, some of the mystery was very suspenseful and there were some twists I wasn't expecting. Mac's constant dreams about Amy were pretty strange, though. I don't know, some of the stuff that seemed random or really drawn out might come back into the trilogy later, but for this book it made me wonder what the point of it was.

Mac herself did very little in this book. I spent a lot of time expecting her to do something, anything, besides yell at everyone else to stop being stupid or scream in terror-both of these are valid reactions but that's all you can do, girl? Why are you even the protagonist? Jason and Kyle deserve a lot of yelling from her, but they were frustrating to read too because all their choice are bad ones, it seems like. Ben was honestly my favorite character in this book. And that...I don't think that should be, considering who he is and everything that happens in the book.

My favorite part of the book was the world, which is very dark (especially if you're a werewolf) and intense. It reminded me a lot of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson novels, if the werewolves "coming out" had gone horribly.

I gave Hemlock three out of five stars. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the trilogy, but I hope Mac builds on the development she got in this book and becomes a more active character.

PS-Don't get me started on the pop culture references in this book. Just don't.