Book Review: Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

Title: Low Red Moon

Author: Ivy Devlin

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Publishing Date: February 2011

Length: 256 pages

Genre: YA, fantasy, paranormal romance

Source: Finished copy from Publisher

The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died. 

 Summary by Goodreads 

Avery, our main character and narrator, is as plain as the story she’s telling, revising the murder of her parents the whole time. Her thoughts are mostly marked by iteration loops of questions and thoughts. This girl has talents and because they are paranormal they need no further explanation, still they seem so weird.

We witness an immediate attraction between Avery and Ben, the male protagonist. I am a fan of magical first sight attractions but the relationship between Avery and Ben comes out very unreasonable and annoying. The make out scenes, although without further reason behind, are good but at some points a turn-off.

Secondary characters are also weakly constructed elements that only help to delay the already very short story a bit. During the whole read I didn't get to like one single character enough to care for his end. That might be because Devlin doesn't offer a profound background to their story or only involves them in hollow dialogues and meaningless actions.

Devlin’s writing style is average, defined by a low vocabulary diversity and a series of the same or similar phrase structures.

The murder case does have some potential, but Devlin only developed an obvious and boring conclusion. From the beginning I knew how LOW RED MOON was going to end. Facts and details that are hyped throughout the entire novel turn out to be rational explanations in the end, nothing paranormal. So I was confused about the involvement of paranormal creatures where it does not even fit or would be necessary to realise the plot.

I have got no idea what the low red moon is supposed to mean and why each time the word “moon” is mentioned in the text, it's highlighted in red ink.

What I appreciate is that Bloomsbury created a costly graphic design, working with the colors black, red and white and the picture of a forest.The story is set in a wooded landscape, so the layout definitely fits the story of LOW RED MOON.

1) of a very costly graphic page design

2) of its love of nature

3) we like to solve murder mysteries

4) it has good makeout scenes

5) grandmas are great

2/5 ** LOW RED MOON- A novel with costly appearance and unfortunately without substance! 

An average writing cannot save Devlin's hollow characters and dialogues. In this case I would suggest less trying to incorporate paranormal elements and a higher focus on the establishment of a serious murder case. Unfortunately not a 2011 UK debut I would recommend, but in the end you should try it yourselves to find out if you like it.

* If you want to visit Ivy Devlin's webspace, click here (last update in September 2010)

* You can watch the LOW RED MOON book trailer here! 

* Thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a finished copy a LOW RED MOON!