Just Finished Reading Benjamin Percy's Red Moon

I discovered the 2013 novel Red Moon by Benjamin Percy through a common practice of mine: randomly browsing my local public library's shelves.  Without any sort of recommendation other than the conviction that the book wasn't a part of a greater series, I read it through...and now I'm ready with my reactions...

Red Moon is an alternative history dystopian novel, set in the present time.  What distinguishes it from a story set in our real world is the existence of werewolves...designated here as "lycans"...an underclass in society, a few members of which are radicalized and practice terrorism...the connection between them and "our" world's Muslim population with their radicalized violent fringe becomes pretty obvious soon after beginning the story.  And yes, there is a "lycan" nation overseas...this one being far north (in wolf country, of course), bordering Russia...and surprise, surprise, the Americans are engaged there in a long-term war of occupation and nation-building and...conveniently extracting its valued natural resource, not oil...but uranium.  Further complicating the picture is that it an infection of prions that causes one to become a lycan...an infection for which there is no vaccine, although those so infected can have their symptoms blocked through medication.  Since lycans over the years have suffered discrimination and persecution, their situation is regarded by many as less a medical/health issue and more one of civil rights.  All of these "facts" are presented during the early chapters of Red Moon...

I liked the sympathetic protagonists Patrick and Claire, both young people with the latter being a lycan.  Through their trials they cross paths as well as the barriers that society has placed between them to form first an alliance and then a friendship.  No, I'm not going to go into detail about what actually happens to them in their world...I'll leave that to you, the prospective reader...but I do want to make a few incidental observations...

First, if you are from the Pacific northwest, especially the state of Oregon, then Red Moon might make you feel a little at home since the story primarily takes place there...that's not surprising since Oregon is where the author lives.  Also, one chilling, prescient element in the story is the presence of a blabbermouth businessman who discovers a political following for him as he goes about making speeches against lycans and in favor of protecting our borders and citizens from them...and he decides to run for president.  This from 2013, two years before our current commander-in-chief began his own blustering path to the Oval Office.  And finally, there is a structural problem I had with the story.  Benjamin Percy takes various characters who are relatively insignificant and then improbably, coincidentally puts them together at different points in the story to change the course of history.  I had the feeling at times that the author was writing backward from his ending and that he had his entire novel outlined in advance...but that's just my impression and I could be totally wrong about that.  But I also recognize, admire, and respect...as I usually do when reading a literary work...his skillful writing craftsmanship...

So I recommend Benjamin Percy's Red Moon, the faults I find with it notwithstanding.  If for no other reason, this story is likely to get people talking about the issues it addresses...