Red Moon Rising by Peter Moore

Red Moon Rising:
Being only half-vamp in a high school like Carpathia Night makes you a whole loser. But Danny Gray manages to escape the worst of the specists at his school. Thanks to genetic treatments he had as an infant, most people assume Danny's other half is human. Which is a good thing.

Ever since the development of synthetic blood – SynHeme – vamps have become society’s elite, while wulves like his father work menial jobs and live in bad neighborhoods. Wulves are less than second class citizens; once a month they become inmates, forced to undergo their Change in dangerous government compounds.

For Danny, living with his vamp mother and going to a school with a nearly all-vamp student body, it’s best to pretend his wulf half doesn’t even exist. But lately Danny's been having some weird symptoms: fantastic night vision, a keener-than-usual sense of smell, and headaches, right around the full moon.

Even though it's easy to be in denial, it's hard to ignore evidence. There's only a month until the next full moon, and Danny's time is running out.

Peter Moore created a dystopian-feeling, gritty and interesting world where discrimination and hatred rule. Unfortunately, the ending left me wanting more, I felt there was no true conclusion to the story and I still had questions, so I'm hoping there might be more in the future. In this world wulves are seen as lesser beings; and while most of the material within this book leaned more toward the serious side, there were still light-hearted moments that made the story truly enjoyable. The characters were honest and I connected with them quickly. Beneath the surface of the simple story of a half-vampyre/half-wulf teenage boy, Peter was unafraid to show some pretty dark subject matter. It was more than a “coming of age” book, it’s about relationships, family and trust. Danny tries to hide his wulf side from the world, but when it becomes apparent he no longer can he turns to his family, and despite initial misgivings they are supportive and will protect him from a government that would endanger him.