Percy releases second novel to critical acclaim
St. Olaf College Writer in Residence Benjamin Percy recently released his second novel, Red Moon, to widespread critical acclaim.
In Red Moon’s alternative vision of America, werewolves live alongside humans as second-class citizens and must take mind-numbing drugs to suppress their monstrous sides. But in the beginning of the novel, a violent werewolf attack sparks a lycan revolution against the government, and thereby transforms this horror story premise into a political allegory.
Against this backdrop of civil unrest, Percy weaves together six story lines following characters that include a politician on an anti-werewolf crusade, a pair of young lovers, and a history professor involved in the rebellion.
The reviewer in the Star Tribune writes, “I charged into the lycan world of Benjamin Percy’s Red Moon with wild abandon and was rewarded with a remarkably rendered speculative history of America, as well as a gripping, grisly horror story.”
USA Today says that “while some writers of paranormal novels wrap their creatures in romance and comic subplots, Percy has chosen a darker, more literary path. Red Moon is a morality tale cloaked in fur, fangs, and social injustice.”
Entertainment Weekly calls the novel “sharp pulp” and gives it an A-. Percy says that this is “so much better than the B- Mrs. Zeeganhagen gave me in sixth grade for my werewolf research paper.”
Additionally, Percy’s Red Moon appears on CNN’s list of “must read books for May,” and on the Amazon editor’s top picks list.
Listen to Percy talk about his new novel on Wisconsin Public Radio (download the audio here), and catch him reading from Red Moon and signing copies in Northfield May 20.