Reviewer: MissRut

Call of the Wolves by InsanityIntrovert

I want to thank InsanityIntrovert for her trust with this book and I apologize that this is coming quite late.

For starters, this is the first werewolf themed book I've read that i actually wish I could have found it earlier. I'm going to be quite blunt however but all is meant with good intentions.

The Cover: The cover of this very book portrays to perfection what any reader would have been looking for. It shows the longing nature of a wolf trying to desperately make its connection with its source. The picture of pain, loss and even confusion can be read off the cover at a single glance. It falls in line with the title so well so it gets 5 points. I recommend, however, that the text be edited just a bit so it doesn't clash with the serenity and mystery of the moonlit background.
The Title: It has quite the right proportion of mystery as far as fantasy is concerned. It doesn't scream for attention but it silently demands that one pays it attention. It calls out to whoever the reader might be, hypnotizes them. 5 points.

The Blurb: This other feature falls in line with the title an cover respectively. There's enough detail on where the torment comes from and that is shown in the snippet of the little summary of Taylor's life. It is capable of building anticipation to quite a height and compels the reader to dive right into the book with abandon. The concluding part however, I feel it should be changed from, '...to her falling', and instead should be, '...to her fall', since it acts as a noun it that context. 4 points.
The Setting: This story plays out in modern day America with the life of a teenage girl at its very center. In this book America is both a regular habitat for mankind in the daytime and a place where the supernatural thrives behind the scenes and at night time. The mayhem and destruction that erupts  had been building up over the years and explode when all efforts to conceal the supernatural from the regulars turns useless as they are unearthed by time, curiosity and lots of questions just like the typical modern world. This earns 12 points. Later on in the book, it seems that the other elements of the modern day are completely scrapped out and we are left with just the olden vibe.

The Plot: This feature of the book thickened quite a lot if
I do say so myself. So much mystery was embedded in every chapter. There were so many spaces to fill in with more than enough heartache to provoke the audible cries of the protagonist's reality. It was thrilling, realistic as fiction could be and didn't follow the cliche pattern of a totally downtrodden narrative stringing some cringe-worthy story line or the other. Worth the effort to create and earns 8 points.
The Characters: There seem to have been a lot of inconsistencies with the way all the characters acted out. The ones mentioned much earlier in the book are not given enough spotlight and disappear for extended periods of time but they still play their independent roles well enough. In that same vein, while I get that Taylor has been hurt really bad, I think it's too huge a jump for her to become so insensitive where her grandmother is concerned yet not be so harsh when it comes to her father abandoning her. They were both looking out for her in different ways. I think one would agree though that a little more light should have been shed on Taylor's backstory with both Adam and Eliza. It felt too much like Adam popped out of nowhere without the right even if he seemed to have quite a longer history than Eliza. I like Taylor's character development however. It started showing when she began asking the right questions. Caesar didn't seem to live up to his 'big bad wolf' reputation by almost getting killed more than once even though he had harnessed the power of his wolf much earlier than Taylor. I also noticed that the strength and size of wolves are not dependent on the ages of their human bodies. It could help a little to show just how this works out in a fun little history lesson free from so much hate, blood and gore. This is rewarded with 4 points.

The Content: The content of this book is filling. It changed my mind about werewolf themed narratives and focuses on the matter of belonging rather than straying towards the animalistic urges that seem to exist in virtually every other book. I commend the author's work greatly in this regard but award 14 points for this. Everything is too dependent on twisted, forgotten, faked and even terminated relationships in so many directions and this kills the morale to keep reading when all comes crashing down. It can weaken the totality of the narrative but not too bad really. It's still very much commendable.
Writing Style: The author's manner of expressing thought under the tab of mysticism is satisfactory and her ability to communicate with her audience with word and language choice is appealing and helps her audience hear her voice. It is one of the few that communicates to the preferred audience. 9 points.
Grammar, Vocabulary& Sentence structure: The overall composition of word blends can sit well with readers and carry them along with the narrative. The entirety of word usage and sentence formats have been arranged quite adequately to suit mysticism. The words don't clash, collide or run over each other neither do they collapse on each other in failed attempt to move the story onward. This gets 16 points. I will suggest a quick briefing to brush up word usage in regards to the parts of speech and also diction especially on words that can be used in two or more contexts.

Engagement with readers: This work is simply captivating from the very beginning. I felt guilty for not having the time to read it all at once even but it was worth it. I almost pulled out though when Eliza started appearing so much. She isn't exactly the character the audience was dying to be bothered with. 12 points.

Total points: 89/100