A lot of books are written about vampires and werewolves every year. But very few of them take a "serious" literary approach...except maybe Justin Cronin. 
 But Benjamin Percy tackles the idea of the lycanthropes among us in "Red Moon," a slow-moving, intricate thriller about two young people adrift in a world were werewolves (aka "lycans") are an oppressed minority. While some aspects of the history and politics are handled clumsily, Percy has a strong, intense style and he fleshes out his characters nicely. 
 The story takes place in an alternate 21st-century where werewolves -- referred to as "lycans" -- exist. Their condition is actually a prion disease that causes them to metamorphose in a painful, and the "Lupine Republic" is overseen by the US military because of the uranium deposits. Lycans are citizens, but are required to take a medicine that blocks their abilities. 
 Then a plane is attacked by a lycan, leaving only teenage Patrick as the sole survivor. In the aftermath, the government agencies -- led by the cruel Tall Man -- kill the parents of another teenager, Claire, who happens to be a lycan. The killings force her to go on the run to her aunt Miriam, a hard-bitten ex-Resistance warrior, in hopes of protection. 
 Patrick has a lot of trouble adjusting to regular life after the attack -- but his loyalties begin to divide when his path crosses with Claire. There is also a sleazy anti-lycan politician who is infected by a Resistance, but whose determination to ruin the lycans is unchecked. As the years go by, the government's choke-hold on the lycans becomes ever more oppressive -- and the only solution can be bloodshed. 
 "Red Moon" is a muscular, slow-moving thriller that takes its time getting through the story -- Benjamin Percy writes in painstaking detail about everything that happens in his story. There's buckets of gore, sociopolitical intrigue, remnants of sixties extremism and a pair of young people with differing ideologies, who are just seeking their place in the world. 
 In fact, the characters are the strongest point in the story. Percy is unafraid to have them drift into unsympathetic territory (Patrick falls in with a gang of anti-Lycan skinheads, Miriam is a hard, leathery ex-revolutionary), and he explores each of them in detail. Even the characters we're meant to hate are given history and a personality, and he places bad guys on both sides of the board. 
 However, he sometimes focuses too much on things the readers don't need to know about (prions), and skims over things the readers DO need to know. It took me most of the book before I worked out exactly what the Republic was, and I STILL didn't understand where it came from or why it existed. It feels like Percy thought, "oooh, a werewolf country, cool idea!" but didn't fully integrate it. 
 And honestly, the preachy "werewolves as Muslims" metaphor makes little sense -- not only does it comically simplify the whole issue, but it equates a chosen belief system to an involuntary physical infection (what?!) and has various people becoming lycans against their will. Actually, it's a TERRIBLE metaphor, and the attempt to include it undermines an otherwise solid story. 
 "Red Moon" suffers from a bad, preachy metaphor, but Benjamin Percy does deserve some credit for trying to give contemporary depth to the age-old werewolf story. Worth a read, despite its flaws.