3/5 stars
A Dark Breed follows the Jacksons, a family on the brink of splitting on their way to visit extended family. Their lives are falling apart, but this trip is the last ditch effort to make things right. Unfortunately, they make a wrong turn and things quickly go awry. In order to get out of the freezing storm, they hole up in a cabin they found, but all is not as it seems. Something is lurking, waiting to be released…..and it’s hungry.
This story is really sad. I was really pulling for all four of them to make it, but they never really had a chance. From the moment Nick found the woman, their fate was sealed. I am extremely curious about what she, and the others, are. It’s not really mentioned and I’m not familiar enough with my cryptids to know offhand. I’d guess some type of wendigo maybe?
McNulty really knows how to introduce some atmosphere. I didn’t even notice the anxiety I was getting from this until I was being hit between the eyes with it. I started subconsciously reading quicker as I got more and more tense from what was happening. For a story that takes place in only a few major scenes, nothing felt underutilized. However, this was an extremely slow build. It took ages for the plot to actually advance, but once it happened, events seemed to move at light speed.
Now, one last thing to mention, these characters were incredibly stupid. They very easily could have saved themselves if they would’ve made better choices and didn’t throw every bit of common sense that they had out the window. If there was a bad decision that could be made, by God they were going to make them.
All in all, A Dark Breed is a very atmospheric, tense book. It just took a little too long to get there for me, and the characters were just so frustrating to read.
Alpha's Court 
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