FEUD

A politician finds herself endangered by a quarrel going back centuries in this engaging supernatural thriller.

This rivalry begins in the American South in 1850. Aaron, an enslaved person, plans to escape the Virginia plantation on which he toils and start a new life in the North. Plans don’t work out for him, however. He’s attacked on the night he escapes and is left for dead by a giant beast. During the attack, the “beast,” a werewolf, changed Aaron into a werewolf. Now nearly invincible, Aaron kills the cruel plantation owner and his wife—vengeance, in part, for whipping Aaron’s beloved mother. Perhaps unwisely, the escapee spares their 8-year-old son, James. Following the Civil War, James becomes a vampire and later leads a clan of all-white vampires, which wars with Aaron’s pack of Black werewolves. Since both groups need to exist in shadows, they agree to a truce: neither will turn victims of the opposite race. This truce holds for decades, until an inexperienced werewolf attacks and turns Ally, a white congressional aide from South Carolina. Aaron stalls while deciding how to handle this unique situation. But the two sides begin slowly but inexorably slipping toward war as the werewolves attempt to protect Ally while the vampires try to kill her. Michel deserves credit for finding a different slant on an overused trope. Usually, vampires are portrayed as highbrow and the werewolves lowbrow, but Aaron’s pack is classy and stylish. Also, injecting racism as the dividing line between two types of monsters is inspired. The long-standing grudge that James holds against Aaron only ramps up the tension. The character who evolves the most is Ally. She starts as a conservative eager to pass a voting-restriction bill. But time spent with Aaron’s pack, as well as peril to her family, impacts her perspective on race and life. Characters other than her and Aaron aren’t as well developed, however. But altogether, this is a fascinating new take on old monsters, one that Michel has set up to continue as a series.

A riveting, fresh interpretation of monsters.