ARC Review: Call of the Wild Werewolf by Jack London, Carl Waters

Deciding to leave his easy life in Santa Clara Valley, Buck Miller, the son of a wealthy judge and raisin farmer, pursues gold riches in the Klondike. Before he reaches his destination, Buck is kidnapped by vampires, turned into a werewolf, and forced to work as the vampire’s sled dog.

Now, in an unfamiliar place and in an unfamiliar body, Buck must learn to survive more than just the brutal weather. With attacks from vicious werewolves and abuse from his masters, will Buck be able to regain his humanity or will he spend the rest of his days living as a wolf?

WARNING!!!

This a mashup story. It combines Jack London’s classic, The Call of the Wild, with the werewolf mythology in my Merlin’s Hoods world.

It is in the same vein as Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith’s mashup novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Instead of adding zombies, I’ve added werewolves and vampires.

Mashup stories are a creative novelty. The idea is to create a new story by adding as few words to the original story as possible. So, most of the words in this story are Jack London’s.

I love werewolves and the protagonist, Buck Miller, is a powerful werewolf in my Merlin’s Hood world. This is his origin story.

I received a physical copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Let me be honest right of the bat – I have never even read the original classic by Jack London. It’s only recently that I have gotten in the swing of all things classic – so I have a feeling that I just might be reading the original as well soon (not to mention, I just found these amazing Scholastic editions of classics that I am dying to get my hands on!) 😛

This is also only a novella which is quite a shame – this author is pretty brilliant when it comes to writing – as in it was the writing I fell for rather than the story – because the writing made the characters all the more realistic for me!

Told in the POV of Buck – this narrative sucked me in from the start and since I had nothing to compare it to, felt all the more realistic. The changes that Buck went through were so subtle that I honestly didn’t realise that there were any changes occurring.

The animalistic part of Buck felt like a part of him, as if he was already an animal from the start and that to be very honest, was a brilliant move by the author! Such simplistic view of the world as seen through Buck’s eye, was absolutely mindblowing!

While I could have given it a higher rating – I did not simply do so only because I haven’t actually read the Classic – And the fact that it is a 4 star book on it’s own is an indication of the book itself!

As for the author, I have a feeling if I loved a novella by him, I am definitely going to love a full length novel by him and I can’t wait to read more of his work!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

If you love werewolves and vampires, then this one is a book for you – you would just get sucked in the story without even realising it! And if you loved the classic, who knows? You may just like the new twist in this one as well 😉