Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

Red Moon (alternate history?) establishes a world in which Lycans have been present since the 7th century, and have even established a homeland, The Lycan Republic.  Yet Lycans have also continued to live among "humans" in the U.S. (and I suppose, all over the world) although they must be registered, take the Volpexx drug to prevent transformation, and take regular blood tests.

If, however, most Lycans live normal, peaceful, and productive lives, a growing contingent have joined the Resistance that fight against the discrimination against their kind and that have resorted to horrible and violent terrorist attacks against unlucky innocents.

When Patrick Gamble's father, a member of the National Guard, must leave and return to the Lupine Republic for a 12 month deployment, Patrick must go live with his mother in Oregon.  On the plane, a Lycan terrorist transforms and kills all of the passengers except Patrick,hidden under a victim's body.  Three planes were hijacked for this terrorist operation, the country is horrified.  (hmm, making connections?)

In Minnesota, a peaceful Lycan community is stormed in retaliation, and Claire's family is killed, her neighbors taken in.  Prejudice against Lycans grows, both political and social revenge is acted out all over the country.

A political and social allegory that involves violence both by the Lycans and against them.  Told mainly through the viewpoints of both Claire and Patrick, these two provide the only attempts to come to terms with a complex situation.

The bad guys (on both sides) are one-dimensional, and this book is mostly about bad guys.  Comparisons to current problems in the real world feel blatant and  simplistic, boiled down, in most cases, to black and white/good and evil --with little room for the complexity of society, individuals, or government.

Although I don't usually mind switches in pov, this book is long and the switches frequent.  The ones that most annoyed me were the ones for Chase and Augustus, two stereotypical political-villain caricatures.

Just looked at Amazon and the book has garnered lots of blurbs from good sources indicating that I am in the minority in my view.

Net Galley/Grand Central Publishing.

SciFi/Fantasy/Alt. History.  May 7, 2013.  544 pages.