Being the new kids sucks. It sucks even more when you're forced to move to a very small town after being born and raised in a huge city. (Oh, I know about this all too well! And it does hurt) But imagine thinking that going to a before school semester party would change all of that and it making everything so much worse. Worse in a way where everyone calls you a liar and you have to walk around with sixty-something stitches. Virgil doesn't know what he has gotten himself into but he's in for a howling good time.

This was incredible. From the moment that Virgil makes his appearance and up until the very end, I was hooked. I couldn’t put this one down. This was too bizarre not to love but it also has a deeper and more meaningful message that'll make you tear up. This may be Shaun's most memorable story yet and I'm desperate for more horror from him.

Shaun does a fantastic job of writing about trauma and illness. He writes about the stigma of having an illness and corrects it for the readers. It was a perfect combination. The author never made you feel as if you were lesser of a person for having an illness or for being traumatized, he welcomes it with open arms and makes you feel normal. There is no one better to write this. Shaun is a hero.

Howl was an epic story with an amazing cast of characters. Virgil was a deeply moving character that made me fall in love with this book. The horror mixed with the trauma while being new in a town and facing the evilness that is high school was fantastic. I'm going to now sign all of my paychecks over to Shaun for the remainder of my life and I beg him to write more horror.

This is such a good book but it is so very difficult to read. And it should be, it's a story of trauma and a metaphor for so much more. I was really blown away by the absolute gut punch this was.

Growing up in a small Florida town, I immediately was drawn into this book! This was such a great metaphor for non-monster trauma, and Shaun David Hutchinson wrote this really well. The gaslighting, the physical symptoms of trauma are all approached really well. I really like this one!

I got this from NetGalley and these opinions are my own. I really enjoyed this book but I don’t know if I could explain why. Virgil moves to a small town in Florida when his parents split, at a party he’s attacked by a monster but of course no one believes him. Virgil goes through a lot of trauma as a result of the attack. I loved Virgil as a protagonist it’s just the rest of the characters that I struggled with. Well not all of them Tripp and Astrid are both amazing friends. And Reba is not terrible. But Jarrett is completely passive aggressive, not to mention Virgil’s parents and grandparents! I wanted to rage at many of them on Virgil’s behalf! I think, at least to me, the thing I really enjoyed about Shaun David Hutchinson’s writing in The Howl was the correlation drawn between the trauma Virgil went through and traumas that people could go through in real life. The fact that people don’t believe him or don’t want to talk about what happened even when there are scars. And not just the physical scars but the fact that he can’t sleep, has nightmares, loses weight, struggles with being touched. Also it was relatable to read about how these small town characters responded to someone with mental health issues. Unfortunately stigmas exist and they can do a lot of damage. I liked that The Howl discussed that, in a different way, that still allowed the reader to make those connections. Excited to read this again when it comes out!