Review of Killing the Rougarou

[Brandi Pittman]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Killing the Rougarou" by Shawn M Beasley.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Killing the Rougarou by Shawn M. Beasley

Killing the Rougarou is a story centered around several families in the South Louisiana and East Texas area of the United States. The South Louisiana culture is very important to the setting of this story. Our main character, James Gauthier, and her three brothers were born and raised along Choupique Bayou in South Louisiana. They were told stories by their father about the rougarou, the Cajun werewolf, and in their eyes this was the ultimate bad guy. When James was five years old, she was at the Louisiana State Fair with her family when she was spotted by a child predator and chosen as his next victim. He followed the family to their hotel and waited for his chance to take James. After being left for dead, James is rescued but is traumatized, along with her family, and has to learn to get on with her life. The book describes how James deals with her trauma and eventually falls in love and starts a family of her own, all while the terrible predator, or rougarou as the Gauthiers prefer to call him, may be back to cause more suffering.

Some of the positive aspects of this book were the beautiful descriptions of the Louisiana bayou. The author, Shawn M. Beasley, also explains the meaning of many Cajun words and phrases that someone not familiar with the area would probably not know. For those not familiar with the rodeo culture, the reader is also introduced to many aspects of the rodeo, including bulldogging. There is a lot of history given about the lives of all the families in this story. We also learn about the landscape and people of East Texas.

The only negative aspects to me would be how the author skipped around from family to family or situation to situation. At times, it was difficult to understand what was going on until I continued to read.

I really enjoyed this book and I would give it a rating of 4 out of 5, with the only exceptions being commas placed in awkward places and the skipping around that I mentioned.

The recommended audience would be anybody who enjoys a heartwarming romance with a little suspense. Trigger warnings would be the child molestation and descriptions of other attacks made by the predator/rougarou.

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Killing the Rougarou
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