Ahh...Jonathan Janz. This guy is like a fine wine. He simply gets better with age. Anyone that has followed my reviews knows that I was already a big fan of his. With Wolf Land, my fandom is approaching man-crush territory. Before I start sounding like Annie Wilkes here, let's move on. 2015 seemed to be the year of the werewolf for me. I read some absolutely amazing lycanthropic tales in 2015. From Bill Schweigart's excellent, The Beast of Barcroft, to the gem-laden short-story collection, Best New Werewolf Tales, Volume One, to Ray Garton's wonderfully vicious, Ravenous, to Glenn Rolfe's coming out to the big time classic, Blood and Rain. Four tales that simply took me by the throat and didn't let go. But, I saved the best for last with Janz's Wolf Land.

An upcoming ten-year high school reunion brings many back to celebrate in the small Indiana town of Lakeview where a kegger is being held out in a vacant field. When a strange and odd man crashes the party offering prophetic warnings to the group, little did they know all hell was about to break loose. The stranger transforms into a furious abomination of teeth and claws right before their very eyes. Many died that night, but a few survived. For the ones that survived, they are about to be plunged into a world that they thought only existed in the movies. But this evil is ancient and has quietly been roaming in the shadows of the Indiana prairie since the Native Americans ruled the land. Now, Lakeview is about to be engulfed in a horrific bloodbath.

With Wolf Land, not only does Janz create a blood drenched and wildly entertaining story, but he also flexes his literary muscle and explores sociological themes of a small-town's dark sided underbelly. This creates multiple layers within the story and brings a realism to the characters and their settings that totally immerses the reader. This is where I give Janz kudos. He could've simply made a werewolf story with non-stop action with cardboard cut-out characters that we wouldn't care about and try to dress it up by splashing blood all over the pages. But, in Wolf Land, he does so much more by creating layer after layer and breathing life into the cast very reminiscent of Straub's finest works. Well done, my friend. Well done.

5 blood dripping muzzles out of 5

You can also follow my reviews at the following links:

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5919799-ken-mckinley

http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1JOKW56F2YT

http://intothemacabre.booklikes.com

Ahh...Jonathan Janz. This guy is like a fine wine. He simply gets better with age. Anyone that has followed my reviews knows that I was already a big fan of his. With Wolf Land, my fandom is approaching man-crush territory. Before I start sounding like Annie Wilkes here, let's move on. 2015 seemed to be the year of the werewolf for me. I read some absolutely amazing lycanthropic tales in 2015. From Bill Schweigart's excellent, The Beast of Barcroft, to the gem-laden short-story collection, Best New Werewolf Tales, Volume One, to Ray Garton's wonderfully vicious, Ravenous, to Glenn Rolfe's coming out to the big time classic, Blood and Rain. Four tales that simply took me by the throat and didn't let go. But, I saved the best for last with Janz's Wolf Land.

An upcoming ten-year high school reunion brings many back to celebrate in the small Indiana town of Lakeview where a kegger is being held out in a vacant field. When a strange and odd man crashes the party offering prophetic warnings to the group, little did they know all hell was about to break loose. The stranger transforms into a furious abomination of teeth and claws right before their very eyes. Many died that night, but a few survived. For the ones that survived, they are about to be plunged into a world that they thought only existed in the movies. But this evil is ancient and has quietly been roaming in the shadows of the Indiana prairie since the Native Americans ruled the land. Now, Lakeview is about to be engulfed in a horrific bloodbath.

With Wolf Land, not only does Janz create a blood drenched and wildly entertaining story, but he also flexes his literary muscle and explores sociological themes of a small-town's dark sided underbelly. This creates multiple layers within the story and brings a realism to the characters and their settings that totally immerses the reader. This is where I give Janz kudos. He could've simply made a werewolf story with non-stop action with cardboard cut-out characters that we wouldn't care about and try to dress it up by splashing blood all over the pages. But, in Wolf Land, he does so much more by creating layer after layer and breathing life into the cast very reminiscent of Straub's finest works. Well done, my friend. Well done.

5 blood dripping muzzles out of 5

You can also follow my reviews at the following links:

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5919799-ken-mckinley

http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1JOKW56F2YT

Happy New Year, fellow readers!!

In January, Jonathan Janz will be joining us Horror Aficionados at Goodreads, for a group read of Wolf Land!! He will be available for questions, sharing tidbits with us and just generally being the awesome author that he is. We hope you can join us!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/17900075

Special thanks go out to Ken McKinley for helping HA put this all together. You can find his blog here:

Into the Macabre.

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com/

Thanks, Ken!!

Reblogged. 

Feel free to do the same!!

I discovered Jonathan Janz about one and a half, maybe two years ago when I read his novel, THE SORROWS. Brian Keene called that book the best horror novel of the year for 2012, and for good reason. It was the best horror novel I had read in years. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of reading pretty much every book Janz has written and have been pleasantly surprised to watch him grow and get better with every book he writes. His newest novel, WOLF LAND, continues that trend.

WOLF LAND is a bloody, harrowing,  sensual, and brutal creature feature of a book, infused throughout with Jonathan’s trademark, often heart-breaking emotion and unapologetic violence. It’s easily the darkest, most disturbing gore-fest of a novel Janz has written, and that’s saying a lot. His vampire novel, DUST DEVILS, was a brutal son of a bitch, but WOLF LAND makes that book look like a feel good romance novel.

Janz pulls out all the stops with this book, populating his story with convincing characters dealing with real conflicts, both internal and external. And he puts those characters through absolute hell. You can tell by his meticulous attention to detail and masterful character development that Janz loves the characters he creates. But he’s a ruthless god and no one is safe from his blood-stained pen. At times I found myself enraptured by the beautifully choreographed, brutally bloody action scenes. He constructs each scenario sentence by harrowing sentence, developing tension and conflict with excellent pacing and razor sharp, captivating prose.

Before I wrap this up, I want to talk about Jonathan’s werewolves. He does monsters as well as he does anything, taking the classic werewolf legend and transforming it into something entirely his own. When I think of werewolves from now on, I’ll be thinking of Jonathan Janz’ werewolves. His larger than life monsters have a humanity about them that is heart-rending. The grief and pain the characters experience during the change is vivid and agonizing to behold, and the lust for sex and blood and human fear is edge of your seat, fight or flight terrifying. Believe me when I say that these creatures are the real deal. This is horror with carrion reeking, sharp-as-knives teeth and claws.

Jonathan Janz is one of my favorite authors and WOLF LAND is the best werewolf novel I’ve ever read, bar none. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this beautiful, ground-breaking horror story.

Jonathan Janz is an amazing author and a really nice guy, so when I saw that he had a blog tour coming up with Hook of a Book - and for Wolf Land - I jumped on board. (Book tours always give me a reason to move books I have on hand further up on my TBR list haha.)

Janz has a talent that, unfortunately, most writers do not have. He not only knows how to write a story that stays with you and gets into your head, but his use of characters and setting are simply spot on in every book I have read of his. His characters, even the bad ones, have a way of grabbing your attention (and sometimes your heartstrings), and I'm always surprised to see who makes it through the story (they really are never the ones I expect). His settings could be anywhere; you could walk past "this place" everyday of your life and never even think about it until you start reading his latest... and that's where he first gets me every time. His description of events are powerful - and sometimes so gory - but so... perfect.

From the very first page, I was drawn into a story that, to be honest, scared me. I mean REALLY scared me. And not just while I was reading it. Even after I put the book down, the story remained right there on the very outskirts of my thoughts, waiting to sneak back in when the lights were out, when I was walking past a large grouping of trees down the road from my place, when I came home from the grocery store in the dark. I'll be honest: When I finished this book last night, I sat there for a good half hour taking it all in. This was after two days of sleepless nights, of not getting to bed until really late (like 3am and after) unable to put the book down. And, after enjoying my view of the trees behind my building... and being convinced that I saw something moving in them, something large and... We'll just say that all my lights stayed on last night.

As usual, I enjoyed his characters - and was a tad disappointed when some of the characters (the ones that typically survive these kinds of things) died early on. I really liked Duane and Joyce - Duane because he grew after the horrific event, and Joyce because I completely relate to her.