The cleverly titled "Norm" perfectly ends a wonderful werewolf trilogy. It takes place several years after the events of the previous book, "The Happening," and introduces a whirlwind cast of new characters and perspectives to the world of Chicago's ongoing werewolf epidemic. I've said it in previous reviews and I'll say it again: If you want to know how a werewolf takeover would go down in modern times, this is pretty much it.
Taking place later in the lycanthropic epidemic, "Norm" presents more of the "bigger picture" aspects of the existence of werewolves: government bureaucracy, shady agendas, politics, science, rampant public denial, nutty religions, Big Pharma capitalizing on everything, and, of course, the myriad struggles of the actual werewolves themselves. Here we have some pretty fun pack dynamics, including the disparity between "Infectives" and "Trueborn" werewolves. You've also got a few wilder things like werewolf Neo-Nazis, slick MLM-type businessmen, and a conflicted werewolf sniper who has some serious personal baggage (half of the book's namesake, Norm).
Being the final installment in the trilogy, "Norm" ties up a lot of the storylines present in the previous two novels - though it leaves a little unfinished business, which feels realistic in the aftermath of a violent and chaotic viral werewolf outbreak. (Without spoilers, let's just say that one of the novel's big reveals is very supernaturally exciting.) It also provides closure on a few of the previous two novels' plotlines, including the evolving relationship between Polly and Ansel (who might actually be my favorite character now). I, for one, really loved how it all came together.
As always, D.T. Neal brings his trademark satirical humor to what could easily be a pretty heavy story in addition to his fantastic characters and created world. I have to once again shout out how incredible all his characters are. There were a lot of them in this novel - all the ones from the previous two books and more - but I still felt like I intimately knew each one and was more than a little sad that this was the final book with them.
"Norm" also introduced some pretty engaging mystery - and, dare I say, romantic - plotlines and seeing those through was a lot of fun. While I'm bummed that this is the last installment of the werewolf story (werewolves are my favorites, after all) I'm very excited to read Neal's other books. And while we're here, I'm going to double down on my assessment that this series is criminally underrated and needs a sassy and action-packed television show in the style of "True Blood," stat.
—Becky Stephenson on GOODREADS
