Perfect for fans of Stephen Graham Jones. This is far and away the best I’ve read of Asman’s work. It feels like Mongrels by SGJ, and it has some slasher in its DNA. But this story is really lead by the incredible characters and scenes. They both felt so vivid and real. Just a joy to read. Highly recommend.

A wonderful horror novel from Mr. As man. It was compelling and hard to put down. Sometimes an author comes along and ruins my sleep schedule, and this author did.

Terrific book from Asman about a makeshift family of werewolves who must move from their current home habitat after one of the members makes a deadly mistake on a nightly prowl. At the new site, they encounter a mysterious beast that challenges their ability to live peacefully in their surroundings, and they must figure out an answer before everyone winds up dead. Well-written with a nice horror vibe to it and fleshed-out characters that keep the whole thing quite interesting straight through the intense and highly satisfying ending. Wasn't sure what to expect from this one, as Asman was unknown to me (it's his first novel but apparently he's written some viral stuff), but I was pleasantly entertained. 4.25 stars. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well-fleshed out characters with a solid inciting event. Readers do grow to care about them. The lack of visceral descriptions was disappointing, considering the genre. Would love to see more emphasis on action sequences and more descriptions of horror that really form an image in your mind.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for sending me a digital ARC of this book to review!

Good Dogs is a found family werewolf book that begins with a mistake during The Shift that leads to our wolves having to pack up and leave to an abandoned town called Talbot. This sanctuary is isolated from everything so they can safely shift without incident. However, something else lurks in Talbot and it seeks revenge.

I loved this creative spin on the werewolf genre. Clever lore and fun ideas that I’ve never seen implemented before. I love the idea of a shock collar to contain “night-selves”! This is also a creature feature independent of the werewolves, but I thought the imagery when describing the creature was truly grotesque and terrifying. I feel we didn’t see enough of it, much of the horror was in the fear of unknown.

This story was one heck of a slow burn, constantly going back and forth with different timelines to build suspense. Asman has such a talent for building up characters and personifying them. This also includes the villain/creature of the story. The backstories build an emotional connection to help the reader understand motivations and personal justifications. Even though it took some momentum away from the story, I appreciate the time dedicated to “flash-backs” and memories.

If you’re on the hunt for a gory creature-feature with found family, werewolves, and a creepy ghost town, then Good Dogs comes out on October 1st!

I love a good werewolf book and this one is full of the things I like about these creatures. But it's also surprisingly "human" and, in fact, the werewolves here are not the most terrifying thing in this book.

A pack of werewolves live together in a home meant to harbor them. Kind of a halfway house of sorts as they've all had to come to terms with their affliction. They are free to run and hunt when they turn but with safety measures in place. They don't want to feast on humans during their cycles.

But one night, their precautions aren't good enough and they change back to find a bloody stump of a leg. Because of this, they're forced to move to an old abandoned ghost town far far from civilization so they don't get caught.

But something else is in that town. Something bigger, stronger, and hungry for violence and bloodshed. With internal strife threatening their pack and the hunters becoming the hunted, they'll have to find a way to protect themselves or die trying.

This novel focuses on each member of the pack from a human perspective. They've all had their separate experiences in the past dealing with what they are and it's not always a happy loving family. There's a good amount of heartfelt moments which gives these creatures a certain sympathy and understanding.

The evil thing they encounter in the ghost town is horrifying and we'll get to see it's backstory as well. It's fueled by hate and vengeance and seems unstoppable.

This is a great werewolf novel and I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed the premise of this one. Creature features seem to pop up less and less these days, and I enjoyed a female lead.

I struggled to get into this one and had to shelve it for a while before giving it a second go. Slower starts aren't my thing, but I know don't readers will enjoy this.

I felt disconnected from the characters too. For some reason, this one didn't grab me as much as I'd hoped.

If you like slower paced werewolf stories, this could be for you!

This book was a good read and definitely a slow burn.

I didn’t know where it was going at first but it still sucked me in, but I wasn’t sure if it was enough and would I even finish it!

I liked the variety of characters in the story and how they adapted to their lifestyle and tried to be as honorable as they could with what they were handed.

About halfway through the story it started to pick up, which was a good thing, as I was really starting to question the plot.

The last half of the book was great and definitely made up for the beginning. It moved fast and it took no prisoners, literally.

*dnfd at 60%*
Good Dogs transports its reader to the mind of Delia, the self-proclaimed mother of a group of unruly werewolves trying to make a living in the suburbs of South Cali and the other werewolves of their pack. In their new home, they can change safely every single night without fear for everyone else. Their seemingly odd but functional lifestyle takes a turn when they find a severed leg in their backyard, as well as the dead owner of the leg somewhere in the neighborhood, forcing them to flee the seeming safety of their home. Forced to relocate to a new ghost town with an infamous past, Delia and her pack may not be the only hunters.

I love the premise of this book: we don't get enough female werewolves or books with werewolves at the forefront of the story, and something I have always preferred about werewolf stories is that they have the potential for very complex conflict and conversations if done right. However Good Dogs fails to make its characters compelling, and it a lot of ways has the same tone as a flashy action or mystery movie, very generic very underdeveloped in some aspects, and in others, there is a layer of paint that makes it feel more compelling and complete than it is. As a character who feels responsible for her pack and friends, Delia could be compelling and engaging in her conflicted relationship with characters like Linnae and her love for Naughton. As far as I got into this book, the characters felt more like tropes than actual people.

When I saw Good Dogs was on NetGalley, I jumped on it. I searched for Man, Fuck this House forever! I wanted to find a copy in the wild but ended up snagging a copy from Amazon. Good Dogs is going to be another one I add to the shelf once it comes out.

Just like Man, FTH - I was obsessed with story. I loved the character development, it really explained a lot. 10/1o would recommend

Saw this one on netgalley and requested a copy because I really enjoyed his book Man, Fuck This House. And I'm so glad I did. What a fun spin on the genre!

Delia is a werewolf, though not in the sense that we've been led to believe. She wasn't bit or turned. She has a genetic disorder that makes her susceptible to The Change. She isn't a slave to the full moon. But she does change on a regular cycle. She leads a normal life as a human for most of the year, but during those change cycles, she has little to no memory of how she spends the nights as her wolf-self. Forced out of fear, and a care for others, she broke away from home and connected with other lycanthropes who, like her, are also ostracized and misunderstood.

As the unofficial den mother, it becomes her responsibility to relocate the younger members of the clan when one of them breaks through the barrier of their isolated hunting grounds and kills a human. They move to a ghost town their clan's founder purchased for just this type of crisis. But as they settle in, Delia and the others discover they are not the only ones there. And the thing that is stalking them is ancient and out for revenge.

It's a creature feature slash found family horror novel with a whole lot of blood and gore and a ton of heart, one where the werewolves are actually the good guys, which made for a very unique reading experience. There's tons of character backstory (yes, even for the 'monster'), and a great boss scene towards the end that kept me at the edge of my seat!

If you liked Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, you will dig Good Dogs. Brian's focus on the human side of the change is very similar and just as touching. While they might not remember what they do each time they change, their non-wolf selves struggle with the guilt and shame of what they are unable to control.

You guys, really. This book is sooo good.

A brilliant creature feature! Loved the characters, the location, the storyline, and the writing. The perfect amount of horror, adventure & intrigue. Will absolutely read more from this author!

Ha, like I'm going to see a book titled Good Dogs and not read it. Unfortunately, there are no frolicking golden retrievers or stubborn greyhounds (who are refusing to eat their breakfast because they want parmesan cheese sprinkled on top) in this one, but fortunately it's still a pretty good story about some werewolves. And, okay, so maybe my greyhound is the only one currently on a parmesan cheese-related hunger strike, but it would make a super intriguing and suspenseful novel, I think – hit me up for more great ideas, Brian Asman.

Anyway, for real though. It isn't every day that you read a book where werewolves are the good guys, but here we have it. When Delia's pack is forced to make a new home in the isolated ghost town of Talbot, they soon begin to suspect that they aren't as alone in the woods as they thought they'd be.

Good Dogs is a bit of a slow burn at first – the wolf pack doesn't even really come face-to-face with the monster who's stalking them until the final third-ish of the book – but I never found myself bored. Almost all of the characters have interesting backstories (including the monster), and the flashbacks to previous encounters with the creature are well-written and suspenseful. There's also all kinds of drama going on within the pack, which keeps the story moving along nicely. When the monster finally makes her appearance, however, things get super messed up super quickly. There's blood and gore and death and wolf-humans running for their lives, and it's definitely a nail-biter. (Not that there's blood and gore only toward the end of the novel, mind you – this is not a book for the squeamish.)

My only minor complaint is that while there's a lot about the why of the creature's century(plus)-long rampage, we don't really find out much about the how. It's probably too much to ask of a book that's basically a creature feature in print form, but I am so curious to know the mechanics behind … everything.

My overall rating: 3.95 stars, rounded up. If you enjoy creature horror, stories about werewolves, and/or found family tales with a supernatural twist, definitely consider giving this one a read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is October 1, 2024.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Blackstone, and the author - Brian Asman. I received a free ARC, and this review is voluntary.

So, the synopsis provided pretty much tells the story. Found within, we meet a lot of different folks within the tribe, and learn a lot about their personalities, and connections. This story focuses largely on character development.

My only criticism is a catch-22. I did find this to be a slow read for most of it, but that had more to do with the attention paid to developing the characters to advance the plot rather than allowing for more action sequences to move the plot along. We got to know who the characters are down to their marrow, and that takes time, but it certainly paid off in the end. This is a great addition to the overall lycanthrope mythology.

Quite simply one of the best monster stories you'll ever read, Good Dogs is a story sure to please both casual and hardcore horror fans. In his visionary first novel, Brian Asman transports his readers with an incantation of authentic characters, genuine emotion and vivid, clearly written action scenes. The book uses a staggered chronology to strategically reveal twists that propel the narrative at an exponential rate toward the pulse-pounding climax, as a group of friends, bonded over their shared curse, are faced with an enemy even more formidable than themselves. Fans of Lyn. I Kelly's Tracks and Max Brooks' Devolution should consider this story essential reading.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.

Brian Asman’s Good Dogs was everything I wanted it to be—fun, gory, tragic, and action-packed. Simply put, it’s a fantastic concept that’s been brilliantly executed.

My absolute favourite parts of this book are tied to Talbot, the deserted old mining town the werewolf pack is forced to flee to when a leg is found in their garden after a night of werewolf shenanigans. A woodsy outdoor setting is my favourite for horror novels so this really worked for me. And with Talbot comes the creature that lives nearby. The description of this beast is horrifying in the best way and I loved learning about its backstory.

The found family element of the story was also so well written. Sometimes found family can be a little saccharine for my tastes, but the connection between the werewolves had a layer of complexity that made it feel far more real.

4 stars

I’ve recently discovered that I really love werewolf stories. This is such a damn good one too. Also, my favorite book of Asman’s to date. It felt really original as far as this old familiar somewhat overdone (not to me, I’m still discovering it) trope goes.

This started off a little weak but when the "pack" has to flee (flea? couldn't resist the pun) to a ghost town with a nefarious reputation it got good! I think I even rubbed my hands together with glee. The backstories for each wolf were interesting, as were the backstories of those who met their demise in Talbot through history. Although, Hankie the bank robber was the low point in the story for me. The monster was grotesque and just so mean. The only character I actually liked was Halbermann. This is an enjoyable and gruesome creature feature. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

Oh. My. God. I loved this book so much! Just finished so might revise this review bc I feel I have no words that can encompass how amazing this book was….characters ON POINT…..I feel as a reader you are sucked right into their lives & immediately care for them immensely! So well written, literally sucked into their lives, it’s insane….loved so much…he is such an amazing author to write such characters that you feel so deeply for!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of my favorite werewolf novels of recent memory. Loved the chosen family vibes throughout. Can't wait to read more Brian Asman!