Mount Toberead 10: The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group by Catherine Jinks

The Reformed Vampire Support Group also by Catherine Jinks is one of the best recent vampire novels I've read over the last 10 or so years. I call it the Anti-Twilight, as it basically explains exactly why being an immortal vampire (especially a teenage one) sucks (pun not intended).

Despite that, for some reason, the sequel; The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group, wound up on Mount Toberead for quite some time. I really don't know why. It could be that werewolves tend to interest me less than vampires, and I'm really not that into vampires, either.

One of the unusual things about both books is that they're set in and around Sydney. The reason for this is that Catherine Jinks is an Australian, and she lives in Australia (although not all of her books are set in the country). It's hard to write Australians, although being an Aussie, I probably give that a higher bar than most. Jinks gets it right and her descriptions of her setting prove that she does actually know the city that she's talking about. One of the vernacular things that she did get wrong, though, was referring to tomato sauce as ketchup. We rarely call it that.

The existence of werewolves along with the vampires in Sydney was mentioned in the first book, and the rescue of some of them being used to illegal dog fights in the outback was also part of the plot.

This one concerns a fairly clueless young man called Toby, who becomes a werewolf. Jinks changed a few things about the accepted methods and backgrounds of werewolves. It's not passed on by being bitten by an infected one, it's a hereditary thing (rather like in the original Teen Wolf film) and it also seems to affect people with Portuguese or Spanish heritage (not sure why Jinks targeted that particular background, but it was a point of difference).

Toby came across as quite real, as did his friends Fergus and Amin. In fact I did find it rather odd that Toby, who was a bit whiny and dopey at times, hung out with an idiot like Fergus, I also thought it strange that Amin also hung out with Fergus,. Not only was he an idiot, he was one with dangerous and stupid ideas.

The story mostly concerns Toby coming to terms with being a werewolf (it sucks about as much as being a teenage vampire does, although at least Toby won't live forever and won't permanently remain at 14 years old, he's also not dead) and trying to get his mother to deal with the reality as well.

He is eventually taken by members of the same illegal fight ring that appeared in the first book and has to be rescued by members of the Vampire Support Group. It's quite funny, sometimes violent  and confronting, it also moves fast and is fairly likeable due to a diverse and interesting, well drawn cast.

I wish I'd read it a bit earlier. although I still enjoyed it. I did find The Reformed Vampire Support Group a better book, however.