Canyons by P.D. Cacek

No Series
HORROR

rating


Picture this: you're riding the bus home from work, with the very first newspaper article every published under your byline clutched in your hot little hand, when a coked-up idiot attempts to hold up everyone on the bus. He takes a dislike to you and is about to slice you open when a large, gorgeously hairy man attacks him and saves your life. Only your rescuer is not a man, but a giant wolf who leaves a bloody pawprint on your newspaper, all over your precious byline . . .

If you're an intrepid reporter, you don't panic. You run for the newsroom to get a photo of the pawprint before it disappears . . . because the paper you work for thrives on stories of alien invasions and Elvis sightings and Bigfoot's baby, and this, unlike all of those stories, this is real.

Of course, it's not that simple. The highly civilized Denver werewolves don't want anyone to know of their existence, not even beautiful young reporters who make Lucas, the leader of the pack, think lustful thoughts. But Lucas and his pack have a much bigger problem to deal with: there's another were-pack hunting in their territory--and being messy about it. If the police solve any of those brutal, apparently random, murders, Denver's more patrician lycanthropes may wind up in big trouble.


I despised this book despite it being hard to put down and starting off on a semi-promising foot. This book keeps dipping into different genre pools so much that I can't figure out what it's trying to be. Sometimes horror, sometimes paranormal romance, ending horror, it's just odd.

It would have been a three star rating if not for that killer ending that gutted the rest of my enjoyment out. What a douchebag the main male character ended up being, and it made a lot of the storyline no longer make sense. Plus the mating with all in the pack including the daughters when they come to a certain age? Uber ick.

The sarcastic female lead is sort of fun and probably the best part of the story, but her storyline ends up so unfair and trapped it leaves me irritated at the end. Humor works only until a point to where I get pissed off instead. It’s nifty to have dark twists at the end IF they work, but in this case it clearly didn’t for me.

If you’re a horror fan this one is brutal with dark humor, but I think the level of romance may be a turn off if that’s not your bag. On the other hand, if you’re a romance or PNR fan you will want to veer away from this one due to the second half crushing the heart of any potential bondings. Yech.

Of course the biggest issues with this (horror?) novel is the abuse with the children later as well as the bizarre werewolf incest. The author certainly doesn’t shy away from villain cruelty.

If I had to say something positive, it’d be that at least the characters are relatively well-fleshed out, even if they aren’t likable….which brings me to another problem. Why did the author spend so much time trying to convince the reader a semi-unrealistic bond exists in the first place, to throw it away as pointless later anyway and take away all the story development between the two?

There’s horror, but then there’s stories that detail sexual violence toward children horror, and nope – doesn’t work for me.