Book Review: Bite Risk

I picked up a coy of Bite Risk by S.J. Wills after reading a review of it by Ms Yingling Reads and (not surprisingly) it was a great choice!

Set some twenty years or so after the Disruption, when life was forever changed by the spread of corpus pilori, a virus which turns everyone over a certain age (usually around fourteen) into werewolves. Up in Tremorglade, a remote town in the mountains where Sel, our protagonist lives, confinements (aka nights when there is a full moon) have been run smoothly for years: the children lock up the adults in secure cages, the gardens are set with tripwires, and the older children are trained in the use of stun guns and tranquilisers in case the unthinkable happens (ie a werewolf escapes).  13-year-old Sel, after securing his mother in her cage, usually spends confinement evenings with best friend Elena at the Shady Oaks Retirement Centre, playing cards with their elderly friend, Harold. Harold is an immutable, a rare case of an adult immune to the disease. He’s also something of a conspiracy theorist which Sel and Elene don’t take too seriously. Not until a drone, normally used for delivering supplies to Tremorglade, crash-lands into the tree outside Sel’s house, and Sel and his friends discover all is not as it seems in the town.

This is a fast-paced, exciting story with lots of plot twists and turns. I love the premise – ‘normal’ life some twenty years after a werewolf apocalypse (so to speak). It’s a great take on the werewolf story, with good characters, and a gripping plot. Two things that I really wanted to happen, happened, which made it a really satisfying read for me. My only tiny niggle is that I felt Sel was a couple of years older than 13, but maybe if I had grown up in that world, I would have been an equally mature 13 year old!

A great monster story, which I highly recommend for older children and anyone who likes a good werewolf story. I see a sequel is due out next March, and I intend to read it (or should that be devour it?).

Note – there is a dog in this story but Knitted TOTP considers it’s really a cat, and the reason is a major plot point spoiler so I can’t share his opinion!