HEMLOCK

Ever since the white werewolf killed Mackenzie's best friend, Amy, she's been having nightmares. Amy's boyfriend, Jason, has gone off the deep end. And their other friend, Kyle, has distanced himself.

The Trackers, an anti-werewolf vigilante group, have come to Hemlock to round up anyone with Lupine Syndrome to be permanently interned in a government-run "rehabilitation camp." You'd think Mackenzie would be behind this, but one of the few caring adults in her peripatetic youth with a no-good father was a closeted werewolf who had never hurt anyone but was rounded up and interned anyway. Peacock makes sure readers understand the symbolism; narrator Mackenzie actively reflects on the parallels between the werewolf hunt and war propaganda. But because this is a teen paranormal romance, the dominant plot is, surprise, a love triangle. Kyle, who Mackenzie and readers learn fairly early on is a werewolf, is in love with Mackenzie. So is the tortured Jason, who has joined the Trackers. As Mackenzie says to herself, "It was official: my life belonged on the CW." It's this ironic self-awareness that keeps the book at all palatable. Events churn to an utterly predictable confrontation that leaves the door open to the next volume in the planned trilogy.

Mildly interesting ideas are obscured by all the necessary ingredients of the genre.