Vampires, werewolves, and teenage angst – the supernatural has often been worked into teen tales, but rarely in quite the way that Vancouver author James McCann has done in his first novel.

Alix is a typical confused teen, struggling through her senior year of high school. She is also the reincarnation of a girl who was loved and killed by a werewolf a thousand years ago. Now, the werewolf has returned, along with his enemy the vampire and a mysterious third immortal who is awkwardly living his life backward in time. As the mutilated bodies pile up, Alix discovers she has more to worry about than who will ask her to the senior prom.

There is enough realism and supernatural horror in this high-interest/low-vocabulary book to hold most young readers’ attention, but the large cast of characters and the frequent time jumps are confusing. It also stretches credulity when the characters continue to act normally as their schoolmates are ripped apart and when the immortals, who have been around for a millennium, decide to settle their challenge with a muscle-car street race. A subplot about Alix’s father’s drinking and an attempt to equate the struggle between the school’s white and native kids to the eternal struggle between werewolves and vampires weaken the story.

In addition, McCann is not well served by his editor, perhaps because this is the first novel from a publisher noted for picture books. The text could use tightening (“She walked carelessly, not caring”) and is dotted with clichés (brows furrow like thunderstorms and anger burns like lava). There is also some strange word use – can one “feel a fallacy” or have a “face filled with disparity”?

Rancour will appeal to teens who enjoy movies like Constantine, although some parents will be turned off by the occasional bits of bad language and scenes with strong sexual content.