Pack

A Novel

By: Mike Bockoven

Narrated by: Pete Simonelli

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Cherry, Nebraska, population 312, is just off the highway between the sticks and the boonies. It’s where Dave Rhodes and his friends have lived all their lives. They own businesses, raise families, pay taxes, deal with odd neighbors, and, once or twice a month - just like their fathers before them - transform into wolves.

It’s not a bad life, but when one of the group members goes astray, it sets in motion a series of events that will threaten to destroy the delicate balance that has kept Dave and his clan off the radar. Between a son getting ready for his first transformation - called The Scratch - a wife with sordid secrets, a new sheriff who knows nothing of the creatures in his midst, and a mysterious man in a bow tie with a shady agenda, the middle of nowhere is about to get very dangerous.

©2018 Mike Bockoven (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

I loved this book

Less depressing than Fantastic Land but just as engrossing. I wish it wasn't over ... sequel is clearly called for here. ("The Alpha Prime") I even wrote the author begging. Never done that before. This is a truly talented guy. Can't wait for his next.

Fun story

I enjoyed the narration and the story line. Nothing super surprising in the way the story unfolds but a fun listen all around.

Really good story

The only reason, and I mean the only reason I’m giving this a four star on performance was because of the no-so-great Irish accent.
But the story was so engaging and the many of characters were well developed and multi-dimensional. Mike built a whole world in less than eight hours. I am dying for the sequel.

Not Just Another Werewolf Story

Let me start by saying I have a real distaste for Zombie or Werewolf stories because they are usually so predictable. I was a huge fan of the author's other book Fantasticland. Pack was an incredible surprise. The character building and drama of their interactions spliced with comedy and just plain intelligent writing had me on the edge of my seat. The story usually had me laughing and I related to it on many levels. It is a beautiful work of art.

The narration was great and I felt like I was inside the story 90% of the time. Accents are tricky sometimes, espescially Irish.

Loved how the family and community theme meshed with the Werewolf aspect!

Loved this book. Great fleshed out characters. Each with there own personalities and flaws. Willie was my favorite by the way. Pacing was great, not one time did I feel like I just wanted the story to hurry up. Detail and action parts where perfect. Just enough information to get your imagination in gear, but not enough to drag down the pacing. The the themes of family and community shined through very well in my opinion.

One of the best small town werewolf books

I’ve listened to a lot of books of small town werewolves. But few have the appeal of this one. It’s up there with Cadnum and Smolen!

Interesting story

Not quite the masterpiece of fantastic land but a solid story that takes a modern view of an age old creature the werewolf. I hope Bockoven chooses to continue with the pack and explore his take on werewolves. The narrator was fine, but couldn’t do an Irish accent at all which was frustrating since a major character is Irish and the author wrote that character well.

Had high hopes

This was not like his other novel "FantasticLand". I was very disappointed. It started great but then a couple hours in an Irishman walks into the story with a very strange accent, thankfully the author wrote what the"UK-Russian-Queens, NY" man was from. The narrator tried and seemed confident but is hard to listen to narrators that have 1 character contantly flip flopping into accents.

The story itself was seeming to teeter a lot and there were just too many banches on this tree. It's 'a coming of age novel with love, family, a couple murders, a foreign regiment, good guys and bad guys across the world and of course there is a long standing fued. Things get mentioned that sounds interesting, then gets dropped. In this small where a small percentage of the population even is aware of these werewolves, it's just a lot.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book!

A steady pleasure. I couldn’t turn it off! Found myself listening on the way to work at lunch time and every time I got in my car. I enjoyed the individuality of the characters and found myself telling Willie to “shut up”, wanting to visit Carl’s home for a chat, feeling sorry for Dave from time to time and rooting for the pack from beginning to end! Not for the faint at heart this book is definitely violent but it balances out with heart warming moments. Magnifying triumphs of the heart, loyalty, friendship and determination.

great!

I found that this story is played out so greatly... easy follow and the narrator? A+