The Hunter’s Moon

A male figure appeared through the meld of orange and yellow leaves. He was young about Morgan’s age…- The Hunter’s Moon

The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading The Hunter’s Moon by Beth Trissel was that I can never hang out with this person. Bizarre thought, right? Not to me. I had to say the sentences in The Hunter’s Moon were written in a way that was a switch between first person and third person point of view. Maybe the author wrote in the first person point of view initially and just deleted the noun and left it that way and the result was that when I was reading I found it hard to follow the flow of The Hunter’s Moon. Sometimes it’s like this it’s as if she is telling a story about Morgan and Jackson and the Wapicoli clan and the next it’s like she is Morgan and is telling me about her thoughts. I even at one point felt like I was reading a Twilight fan fiction where Jacob is replaced by Jackson and courteously eliminate Edward from the equation and now we have a werewolf saga. The result was that I was bored, to say the least. Hence it took remarkable effort on my side to finish this book. The book is set in the mountains of Fort Valley or someplace cold in the mountains in a lodge to put it precisely where they have no electricity and have all the things to live like they are in the mid-1900s or some age where there was a lack of electricity. I wasn’t impressed, no wifi, no outside world, no school (school wasn’t really fun but it is a must I believe everyone has to endure it like a rite of passage). What on earth is this?

Oh, crap. Don’t let this place be haunted! She’d never seen a ghost before and didn’t want to start now, especially not in this room.

As the book cover suggests yes they are werewolves. While reading this book I had to hand out to Stephenie Meyer for Twilight and for her creativity in creating this vision of werewolves that has spurred the imagination of many to write fictions with the same idea and given light to the much-forgotten natives. Credit is given where credit is due. Jackson is a werewolf, yeah Jackson like Jacob see the similarity and he is also a native American. Stereotyping is getting so common and it is not fun. I also observed that the author used the acronym NA for native Americans, I found that rather impolite just pointing out the obvious here. I have never really read much of authors using short forms except for messaging or email parts of interactions in novels. I found this NA thing rather unsettling. Thanksgiving and Native Americans don’t mix I get the idea that she was trying to be cool or something but from what I have read Thanksgiving is rarely celebrated by the natives because of the issues with the atrocities that they went through from the occupation of foreign forces on their land. It was like very strong matter overlooked by the author. It was rather insensitive and the author should be aware that not everyone shares the same sentiment. That’s why I believe proper research is vital so that information provided or conveyed to others are worthy and do not mislead or hurt others in the process.

Were those dyed porcupine quills sewn in with the beadwork? Morgan couldn’t be sure.

The funny thing in The Hunter’s Moon was that sometimes Morgan knew stuff before it was even mentioned or the information she mentioned contradicts with the facts presented before. Like the sentence above I had to say it was mentioned in the book that Morgan was a suburban kid and all of a sudden, she knows what or how porcupine quills looks like. Well, I don’t, I would have thought what a fancy hair pin. There were holes in the plot and then Morgan was bombarded with so much information and exposed to a whole new world but as the main character she took in stride, that was just too much. Seriously what exactly does a teenager want to do in the forest full of strangers even if their intentions are good? Oh well, she does the all-knowing instant-love thing. I don’t know but I didn’t get the chemistry. Maybe the author was trying to emulate Edward and Bella’s story in werewolf form. Needless to say, the effort was a waste. Not only did I didn’t fell a thing but I also felt like the push at the end for Morgan to confess her feelings to Jackson was just ridiculous. I mean it started with a crush and became full blown love so soon. They didn’t even go out on a date!!! Morgan doesn’t even go to school, I dislike this fact I prefer the teens actually finish school rather than become dropouts. I have to wonder did the author forget that these books are for young adults? That being said young adults need creative work that can keep them engaged and capture their interest because they tend to lose interest easily. To me the best part of  The Hunter’s Moon came at the end, in this part, the interaction between Morgan and Jackson is actually very sweet and believable while throughout the book the author was trying to create a relationship dynamic between them that really didn’t work.

Sobering words. Morgan wondered if she were a participant on some form of the TV show, Survivor.

The authors writing was not something I enjoyed. The author didn’t give a proper explanation about the lodge or the surroundings, there were holes in the plot like Morgan knowing things that impossible she would have known. I mean I was lost, the story moved too quick like the author was in hurry trying to show the good part or something and the ridiculous instant love chemistry felt off to me. Aside from this, I have to say the author seriously lacked in explaining and describing the physical surroundings like for example the lodge was described in a rather poetic way like burning torches and all but there was nothing about the color or more description that explained the things but was really vague about that. The Hunter’s Moon was all over the place, I can’t tell how many times I had to figure out what was really happening and how Morgan knows a lot when she is a novice in this shape-shifting world. There are a lot of things that require help and I hope maybe the author can see through that. There was also the constant barrage of TV shows that led me to think that how many a teenager watches one that is constantly on the run and watching something like Survivor. I was wondering do teenagers even watch that, sometimes school is like going through Survivor itself. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

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