Supernatural Book Review – Children of Anubis
Looking at my records I realize I haven’t reviewed the final two Supernatural tie-in novels.
I usually grade the tie-in books on 4 categories, each one capable of scoring 0, 1 or half a shell.
- Canon – How well does this book fit into the show’s canon for when it takes place (I do not count later season revelations against it).
- The Brothers – How well does the book depict our main characters and the position they should be in at this time.
- World Fit – Even if it doesn’t violate canon, or mess up our main characters, how well does the story as a whole fit into Supernatural?
- General craft – How well does the book work as a whole? Is the story engaging? Plot well done? This category can go up to 2 shells for its score to give a book a maximum potential of 5 shells.
Now onto the book, Children of Anubis
Overview: Romeo and Juliet if Sam, Dean and Garth all got involved, because this time the lovebirds are werewolves and jackals.
Canon: This takes place after episode 12.05 “The One You’ve Been Waiting For.” Dean still makes jokes about killing Hitler. Garth references his new life goals. Score: 1
Brothers: All very spot on. This category is also a bit more challenging this time since series frequent guest star Garth also makes an appearance which means we have to see how he’s behaving. Needless to say the book does a great job with him as well as well as the brothers and they were all very much in character as well as how they treated each other. Score: 1
World: This book introduces a new kind of werewolf-like monster and pagan god. Both were executed quite well and it was clever enough that it’s a shame the show never borrowed or utilized either idea in the later seasons. It’s always a good sign when one of these books makes me wish it had been incorporated into the show. Score: 1.
General Review: This was very clever and well done and what I expect from a tie-in novel. A lot of your feelings on this book will depend on how you feel about Garth as a character in Supernatural and the turn his character took. In this book he is on a mission to… well “evangelize” other werewolves to adopt a more peaceful lifestyle like him and his family. He arrives at this town about the same time as Sam and Dean, because a pack there has been… not quite as peaceful. To further complicate things, there is also a visiting pack of were “jackals” to the town. In a lot of ways they are similar to werewolves (look human most of the time but have a monster-face they can deploy) but have their own culture and customs. However similar the two monsters might be though, that don’t typically get along and tensions are on the rise in the small town. Things build to a head as Garth tries to play peacemaker, and the Winchesters try to keep Garth from getting killed.
Of course two young adults from both packs fall in love with each other – the whole situation wouldn’t be complicated enough without some Romeo and Juliet thrown into the mix.
The pacing is solid, the characters engaging, and the plot well executed. I especially liked the way they expanded the world of Supernatural monsters without violating the spirit or feel of the show. Score: 2
Final Score: 5 / 5
Strong recommend on this one to fans of the show – especially if you liked Garth and wanted to see a bit more of his adventures before he settled down in episode 15.10 “The Heroes’ Journey.” Even if you normally skip these books, the more you liked Garth, the more I recommend making an exception for this novel. A strong note to close out the run of Supernatural tie-ins.
Find more Supernatural tie-in and graphic novel stories that might interest you with The WFB’s Supernatural Novel Reviews!
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