What a weird little book this was. I’ve been meaning to watch the show Hemlock Grove that was based off of this novel by Brian McGreevy for quite some time, but running across the book at the library unexpectedly, finally inspired me!
Hemlock Grove is a fictional town in near Pittsburgh, and it’s home to a defunct steel mill and some serious supernatural oddities. We spend most of our time with Peter Rumancek, a werewolf, Roman Godfrey, an upir, and a bunch of dead bodies. Surprisingly, none of those dead bodies have anything to do with our horror creatures. It’s the first murder that brings these two oddballs together, and they reluctantly agree to stop whoever is doing this.
Now, that’s the main crux of the story, but there’s also Roman’s cousin, Letha, a virgin who’s recently been impregnated by an “angel.” She ultimately forms a relationship with Peter, who Roman definitely has a crush on. There is also Roman’s sister, Shelley, who is a bit of a monstrosity but extremely bright and kind. She was essentially brought back to life shortly after she was born. She was the love child of her mother and “uncle,” which seems to be the main reason why her father killed himself back in the day. Letha’s father and Roman and Shelley’s uncle, Norman, is trying to keep hold of his shares of the Godfrey Institute, but moral-less scientist, Dr. Pryce is working his magic behind the scenes. He’s also got some unseemly secret experiment going on called Project Ouroboros.
Honestly, at times this book confused the heck out of me and seemed to change narrators almost by sentence, but the relationship between Peter and Roman really drew me in. It’s clear that Roman knows he’s different and is trying everything in his power to be good. The same goes for Peter; he’s taking ownership for the bad wolf out there destroying people. Ultimately, things both work out and don’t work out for everyone and while I know there ended up being three seasons of the show, I really wish Brian McGreevy would have continued the story on the page. The things that are revealed about Roman at the end of the book, through a letter from his mother, Olivia, is wild.
I can’t say that this book is for everyone. I have personally been so used to reading young adult science fiction that the maturity in this book took me by surprise sometimes. After finishing it though, I’d definitely like to find things similar to it. In the meantime, look out for my reviews of the show in the near future!