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Mongrels: A Novel Paperback – January 24, 2017
Stephen Graham Jones (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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A spellbinding and darkly humorous coming-of-age story about an unusual boy, whose family lives on the fringe of society and struggles to survive in a hostile world that shuns and fears them.
He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixed blood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.
For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and narrow escapes--always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will finally know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they've been running from for so long are catching up fast now. Everything is about to change.
A compelling and fascinating journey, Mongrels alternates between past and present to create an unforgettable portrait of a boy trying to understand his family and his place in a complex and unforgiving world. A smart and innovative story-- funny, bloody, raw, and real--told in a rhythmic voice full of heart, Mongrels is a deeply moving, sometimes grisly, novel that illuminates the challenges and tender joys of a life beyond the ordinary in a bold and imaginative new way.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWilliam Morrow Paperbacks
- Publication dateJanuary 24, 2017
- Dimensions0.4 x 5.3 x 7.8 inches
- ISBN-100062412701
- ISBN-13978-0062412706
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Mongrels isn’t just a coming-of-age story or a horror story. It looks at the world through a disturbing, uncomfortable lens, and offers up a brutal mythology of werewolves. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and I won’t forget it anytime soon.” — Carrie Vaughn, New York Times bestselling author of the Kitty Norville series
“With lupine tongue tucked well into cheek, Mongrels is at once an adolescent romp through the tangled woods of family history and a rich compendium of werewolf lore old and new.” — Christopher Buehlman, author of Those Across the River and The Lesser Dead
“Lyrical...The narrator’s voice is heartfelt and absorbing...an often moving portrait of a family struggling to survive.” — Publishers Weekly
“A love letter to the American South...Jones’ portrayals of rural American ring true in many ways. Horror enthusiasts will also dig the graphic mythology...A Holden Caulfield analogue dropped into an old horror movie with a soundtrack by Warren Zevon.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Mongrels exists somewhere in the borderlands of literary and genre fiction, full of horror and humor and heart, at once a nightmarish road trip and a moving story about a broken family leashed together by their fierce love and loyalty. A bloody great read.” — Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding
“Stephen Graham Jones is as powerful as the monsters herein.” — Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box
“Mongrels left me speechless. Or breathless. Certainly without my dew claw. I mean, it’s so smart, original, thrilling, horrifying, and human.” — Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock
“A gory monster coming-of-age tale that makes love triangles with sparkling vampires seem like trivial concerns...A thoughtful, entertaining novel with rich details, well-drawn characters, and, if you’ll forgive the phrase, plenty of bite.” — Los Angeles Times
“Mongrels makes a meal fit for any werewolf: meaty, surprisingly sweet of heart, and immensely satisfying...As real as anything you’d find in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Only wiht more teeth.” — Tor.com
“You ever read a book and know from the first page that it’s going to be something special?...SGJ’s words are reasonable enough to convert the biggest skeptic into a believer. He’ll have you howling at the moon and digging through the trash in no time.” — LitReactor
“Hilarious, painful, fascinating, and satisfying...Will easily be remembered as one of the most unique and unforgettable werewolf tales ever written. It’s both a postmodern deconstruction and a wild love letter to a classic creature of legend, told in a way that only Stephen Graham Jones can tell” — New York Journal of Books
From the Back Cover
He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixedblood, neither this nor that. The boy at the center of Mongrels must decide if he belongs on the road with his aunt and uncle, or if he fits with the people on the other side of the tracks.
For ten years, he and his family have lived a life of late-night exits and narrow escapes—always on the move across the South to stay one step ahead of the law. But the time is drawing near when Darren and Libby will finally know if their nephew is like them or not. And the close calls they’ve been running from for so long are catching up fast now. Everything is about to change.
About the Author
Stephen Graham Jones is the author of fifteen novels and six story collections. He has received numerous awards, including the NEA Literature Fellowship in fiction, the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction, the Independent Publisher Book Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the This Is Horror Award, as well as making Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Horror Novels of the Year. Stephen was raised in West Texas. He now lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife and children.
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Product details
- Publisher : William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (January 24, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062412701
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062412706
- Item Weight : 8.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 0.4 x 5.3 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #58,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #314 in Native American Literature (Books)
- #950 in Coming of Age Fantasy (Books)
- #1,648 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Born and raised in Texas. In Boulder, Colorado now. Forty-nine. Blackfeet. Into werewolves and slashers, zombies and vampires, haunted houses and good stories. Would wear pirate shirts a lot if I could find them. And probably carry some kind of sword. More over at http://demontheory.net or http://twitter.com/@SGJ72
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Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2022
Top reviews from the United States
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What stands out most for me about this book is how much though the author must have put in to what it must be like to live as a werewolf. Lifestyle, customs, and survival utilitarian survival strategies are all examined, and it makes you wonder how many conversations Jones must have had while watching the Werewolf films about what did and did not make sense.
Additionally, the language is beautiful and honest. Nothing feels forced or artificial here.
Highly recommended!
There are fascinating details about being werewolves. Like the fact that eating trash is a quick way to die, because items you might eat while in wolf form could kill you when you change back. There are other unusual ways to die, also, like getting used to eating fries, or wearing stretchy pants. These sound humorous, but they’re actually fairly horrific. Our protagonist also starts to realize that since every werewolf family seems to pass lessons down through stories, different lessons might be known by different families.
This doesn’t really have an over-arching active plot. It’s more the coming-of-age of the protagonist through a series of events. He’s based his entire identity on the belief that he’ll shift and become a werewolf, while he stubbornly remains human. The overall story shows us what it means to be werewolves in the modern era, and what happens when you want to be something so very much while it stays out of reach. As such, there are some mysteries that don’t get solved by the time the family leaves town. I didn’t particularly feel frustrated by this, the way I might in some other books. The werewolves in this book are just so interesting that they totally kept me glued to the (electronic) page.
Content note for sometimes-graphic animal harm and death. (To werewolves, most animals are prey, and they don’t always kill cleanly.)
One burst is The Were Wolf of Alcatraz. Read it. He was not drinking a Pina Colada in Trader Vic's. His hair was not perfect. Mongrels, on the other hand, is simply that. Perfect.
I don’t normally read horror, and I have no interest in werewolf stories. For me, the themes of outsiders, family, and the lies we tell one another are the enduring strengths of the novel. Jones did a good job allowing his characters to unfold the truth about past lies, or perhaps just to develop new lies to replace the old, as the story moves along. That said, the main narrative here probably could have been shorter, as central elements of the road trip story end up repeating more than unfolding.
To my surprise, the reviewers on Amazon seem not to have noticed that Jones is a member of the Blackfeet tribe, and that he has a bit of a wanderer history. That certainly matters here, as our wandering narrator wants to take ownership of a difficult heritage, one that excludes him from mainstream American society.
It’s also interesting to me that the story takes place throughout the American South, a region where it’s probably harder to be “different” than in other parts of the United States. That subtext of difference gives this werewolf story wider appeal than it otherwise would.
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