Review: Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

From Inside Jacket: In a city as mean as this, even a big bad wolf should be afraid. And Henry Whelp is that Big Bad Wolf. Or will be, someday. His dad is doing time for the double murder of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, so everyone assumes crime is in Henry's blood. For years, he's kept a low profile in a Home for Wayward Wolves on the outskirts of Dust City - a gritty metropolis known for its black-market, mind-altering dust. And the entire population of foxes, ravens, and hominids are hooked. But it's not just any dust the creatures of this grim underground are slinging and sniffing. It's fairydust. When a murder at the Home forces Henry to escape, he begins to suspect his dad may have been framed. With a daring she-wolf named Fiona by his side, Henry travels into the dark alleyways and cavernous tunnels of Dust City. There, he'll come face to snout with legendary monster Skinner and his Water Nixie henchmen to discover what really happened to his father in the woods that infamous night ... and the shocking truth about fairydust.

My Rating: 4.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: For fans of fairy tales, Dust City by Robert Paul Weston is a highly creative story that’s full of mystery and suspense. From the dream Henry has involving Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother to Henry finding out why the fairies abandoned them, the dark atmosphere suffused throughout the novel made Dust City an enjoyable read.

                         

I also really liked how Weston made fairydust a drug that people crave because it can help you achieve your destiny. However, it became even more unique in his book because it had the potential to not only just have good effects but also bad ones. What happens when fairydust brings out your most animalistic instincts?

On the lighter side, it was fun seeing the many characters from fairy tales scattered throughout Dust City. Although Weston puts his own spin on them and provides them with their own narratives, they were still identifiable. The character based on Rumpelstiltskin gave me a little trouble but I finally realized it was him at the end and felt like an idiot. For some reason, I kept wondering if the story of King Midas was a fairytale.

The only problem I really had with Dust City was that it was hard at the beginning to imagine how Henry looked. I assumed he was a wolf on all fours until it was mentioned that another wolf at St. Remus was over six feet when he stood up. Luckily, Weston (through Henry) explains a little later on that evolution has caused the animalia to evolve bigger brains for speech and features like thumbs so that they resemble hominids in some ways. Nevertheless, the animalia also retain properties like feathers and fur.

Dust City was released in September 2010 by Razorbill.     

Comments About the Cover: If not for the wolf’s eyes and the fact that I knew Dust City had some fairy tale elements, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. However, the black used for the entire cover actually goes well with the story and makes the big white title really stand out.