Wow! What a bloody-romping-roaring-gore fest this story turned out to be! I discovered a new author to pursue as well as this was my first book by author, Ray Garton. Let the fun times begin!

A little backstory for you readers:

In Big Rock, California which is a small town near the coast becomes infested with werewolves which go on a rampage through the town. There are lots of characters within these pages and I will not go into details with all of them as there is just too many.

The werewolves are lethal and ferocious as they make the town their hunting grounds!

Bodies do pile up within this book, but there are some people that the werewolves use for breeding as well which as you can imagine there is lots of rape and torture within this book as well.

The interesting thing about the rape victims is that they do not die, but they do pass on werewolf STD (yeah you read that right) to their lovers, husbands, etc. which is when this book goes into high gear!

There is lots of sexual activity in this book along with tearing fangs and gore ripping throughout this book as the author, Ray Garton, brings a whole new name to the word "werewolf" as he takes this story into the extreme side of life!

I will definitely be pursuing more of Garton's work as this book rocked right along towards five "howling" stars!

I am putting a warning on here as this book does contain graphic details and situations throughout the book as some people might not be able to handle the content within, but for you horror fans that have the motto "anything goes" then by all means pick up this book and add Ray Garton to your list of horror authors!


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Typical Garton, as far as content goes. It was an interesting twist on the werewolf theme, and ended differently than I expected. ( )

Ray Garton is one of those authors that snuck his way onto my favorite authors list. Some authors I end up actively searching out their works: Tom Piccirilli, Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum. Garton is one that I've picked up because I always remember liking his stuff and it looks interesting. And fortunately I remember right and have never been displeased with one of his books. RAVENOUS is his chance to enter the werewolf mythos and provide his vision of it.

Farrell Hurley is sheriff of a small, sleepy California town of Big Rock. Unfortunately his secretary is the latest victim of a serial rapist. While she ends up killing her attacker, the dead body gets up and walks out of the morgue. Coming to save the day, Daniel Fargo is the Van Helsing of the tale and has the answers. The rapist is a werewolf who is actually spreading the lycanthropy via sexual contact, a perverted from of a STD. Sheriff Hurley naturally is skeptical until he realizes that the evidence is too much and then must deal with the problem head-on.

While the story and plot is a new take on an old theme, the characters are maybe a tad shallow. You feel for some of them but at the same time, you know from the start that others are not going to make it. That doesn't stop you from enjoying the novel though. The story is still engaging and keeps you involved. There is more than enough of anything you might be looking for: scares, violence and sex. All in the traditional Ray Garton style. But be careful. You might one day realize that your bookshelf has more books by Ray Garton than you realized and he is a favorite author of you too. ( )

Ravenous is a pretty good book but ultimately unsatisfying. Ray Garton gives the werewolf myth an interesting twist, especially on how a small town acquires "an infestation of werewolves". This was a very intriguing premise building on the primal instincts of these creatures. It is a well written book with plenty of action and scares. For those who want blood, guts and gratuitous sex, you'll get that in spades. Where the book falls short is the introduction of some interesting characters that seem pertinent to the plot, but then are taken out of the story. And then there is the end. I don't mean that it ties everything up in a nice bow, or that the bad guys win or that there are elements left unanswered. I don't mind either of those. I mean that it just simply ended. Hastily. With characters doing things that didn't make sense. After enjoying 3/4 of the book, I was left feeling unsatisfied. ( )