MOON DANCER

With an intriguing twist, debut author Deyo takes the timeworn werewolf myth and turns it upside down, creating a new legend in the process.

In this tale of love triumphing over evil, Sally, a small-town girl, is making her way home on a snowy evening when she hears cries coming from a Dumpster. Inside she finds an abandoned puppy, barely alive. The puppy, which she names Max, soon becomes the center of her world. In a seedier part of town, a down-and-out prostitute named Nettie is ruminating on her miserable life when she sees a gorgeous woman appear before her. The woman promises Nettie that, for the small price of her soul, she can become attractive and rich beyond her dreams. Nettie agrees to the pact and awakens the following morning transmogrified, now stunningly beautiful. The story at first seems straightforward, but Deyo takes time to create a compelling background for his main players—Sally, who just wants to better her life, and Nettie, raised poor with no father and a heavy-drinking mother—and the supernatural twists that ensnare them. Yet they witness these fantastical events without the kind of shock and amazement readers might expect. The story moves along at a frantic pace, but Deyo manages to wrangle in the dueling narratives, as the next full moon rises and the cost of Nettie’s demonic deal is revealed: She morphs into a raging beast harboring an insatiable bloodlust. Soon, Max, now a grown dog, confronts the beast, protecting Sally but getting badly mauled in the fight. After being bitten by the werewolf, unsettling changes overtake Max: He transforms into a human male and can later change back and forth at will—a storyline that helps make this chronicle startlingly unique.

A short, fast-paced love story cleverly concealed as a horror story.