Maryneal 1962 by Abigail F. Taylor — A werewolf story. But not really.
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| Cover Image courtesy of Wild Ink Publishing LLC |
What a wonderfully written coming of age story disguised as a young adult werewolf tale in a Happy Days world. The location is Maryneal, Texas circa 1962.
Delah is a small town girl in a Texas town barely on the map, where everyone knows your name. It’s the summer of 1962, although rural places often don’t keep up with the times, and this town is no different. 1962 could easily pass for the 1950s here, as the girls, including junior in high school Delah, gab about boys and popularity and marriage, and spend their summers at church socials and carnivals that blow through town.
But when a carnival does blow through town, so does something wicked, and Delah and her family suffer a horrible loss because of it. The entire town is affected by the loss as, what the town claims is a rogue ky-ote, continues to terrorize the local livestock. But Delah knows it’s something more, something that she’s afraid to share with friends and family at the risk of sounding crazy. At the risk of putting her friends in more danger.
But that’s not really what this story is about, because as Delah struggles to reclaim some post grief normalcy, she also struggles to come to terms with the idea that she herself is not “normal.” The story is more about teenagers coming to terms with sexual identity in an era when normal had stricter rules. And this town being a white Christian town adds to the pressure to fit in.
It’s a wonderfully written piece filled with heart and well drawn characters. The werewolf angle poses as a nice analogy regarding hormonal changes that lead to dangerous decisions. I really liked how Taylor effortlessly pulled together a small number of trigger warning topics without crossing a line.
But this is, ultimately, a horror story, and the culmination of it does involve quite a bit of gore. I thought the ending actually fell short—not because of the gore—but because I expected to see a bit of a wind down from the bloody climactic moment.
Overall though, this piece has strong, endearing characters who you want to root for, and not just because of the creature feature monster lurking in the shadows. It’s well worth the read, and I highly recommend it. You can find the book here, or at your favorite online book sites.
