Bored Gay Werewolf – Tony Santorella

2.5 stars

Where Bored Gay Werewolf shines is in its representation. I love Darby so much, and I love how unapologetic they are in being themself and doing the things they enjoy. Nik was also a great addition to the story, and I really enjoyed her energy and how grounded Nik and Darby both were.

Brian was unlikable, plain and simple. I couldn’t get behind him as a main character, and him being way felt more like a reason to market this as an LGBTQ horror rather than actually being part of his character. I’m also a little confused by Brian as he seems fairly useless, then is suddenly fantastically strong and fast with barely any effort, then somewhat less but still fairly useless. He didn’t seem super solid as a defined character one way or another.

The plot felt a little weak to me. Nothing seemed like any great motivation for the characters, and I just didn’t get a feel for what was supposed to be happening. Toxic Masculinity Tyler and his weird werewolf Ponzi scheme didn’t really sell this book for me, and it wasn’t really what I was expecting based on the title and cover. Honestly, if it weren’t for the couple sex scenes, I’d have thought this was supposed to be a teen horror with very light horror elements.

The ending of this book felt a little contrived to me. Abe’s big reveal kind of took the wind out of my sails a little, and I don’t know how excited I am that it implies more books in the series. Werewolf/mystical lore seems a bit scattered in this, though it’s a very easy and quick read. I wouldn’t mind reading another book, but it would be very low on my priority list.