Hemlock Grove book cover
Hemlock Grove is a novel by Brian McGreevy. It was released in March, 2012.
The story starts when a young girl is brutally murdered and found near the former Godfrey Steel Mill. Amid mounting rumors, two of the suspects in her killing — Peter Rumancek, a 17-year-old Gypsynote trailer-trash kid rumored to be a werewolf, and Roman Godfrey (heir to the Godfrey estate) — decide to find the killer themselves.
Hemlock Grove is the first of a planned trilogy.
In January 2013, Netflix announced it would be adapting the novel into an original series, produced by Eli Roth. Roth also directed the pilot episode. All episodes of the series were made available on Netflix Streaming in April 2013. On April 14th, 2014, a second season was announced.
This book provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Chasseur had been so before and gotten sober, but the stress of the vargulf's attacks had driven her back to her old ways.
- Batman Gambit: When Olivia reveals the truth about their family's powers to him, Roman chooses to kill himself rather than complete the transformation into a full Upir... But this is exactly what CAUSES the transformation and exactly what Olivia planned.
- Canis Major: The vargulf is described as being at eye level to its (standing, human) victims and is at least three times the size of a normal wolf.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: All of the vargulf's victims were disemboweled and torn in half, with care taken t keep them alive during the process to prolong their pain and fear.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Quoted by Roman, although it really did look like a shaving cut. Chasseur sees right through it.
- Death of a Child:
- Shelley dies in infancy and is resurrected/reconstructed.
- Even Peter's cat wasn't safe from death. He's forced to kill his pet in order to speak to his dead grandfather for advice on how to kill the vargulf.
- Disappeared Dad: Neither Peter nor Roman have a father. Except Norman is Roman's father, and has been largely serving in a version of that role for him and his sister.
- Disease Bleach: Christina's hair gradually goes white after her encounter with the vargulf's victim. Unrealistically portrayed unless losing her hair color was her price for turning against the moon.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Ironically enough, it isn't about Roman. Christina planted one on Peter while he was asleep.
- Eaten Alive: The vargulf's victims die this way. On top of that, it purposely avoids vital organs, only eating body fat to prolong the terror.
- Friendless Background: Neither Roman nor Peter had friends before they met each other.
- Functional Addict: Roman smokes, drinks, snorts cocaine, self-mutilates and still manages to make it through the day until he flies off the handle and ends up in a coma.
- Healing Factor: Only happens when a werewolf has to basically regenerate their entire body. Otherwise, they heal and feel pain just like normal people do.
- Jedi Mind Trick: In the novel, Roman uses something similar (the extaz) to influence people and get himself out of trouble. Olivia, too.
- Karma Houdini: Roman snapped and raped a girl but because of his ability, nobody ever found out about it.
- Kick the Dog: From Christina to Chief Tom Sworn, when both Alexa and Alyssa are both mutilated/murdered horribly by the vargulf, considering Chief Tom Sworn was always so kind to the murderer.
- Kissing Cousins: Implied in the novel and the show. Until it's revealed that Roman and Letha are half-siblings and that Roman is the father of Letha's baby.
- Meaningful Name:
- Destiny: Can tell the future.
- Peter the Werewolf calls to mind "Peter and the Wolf".
- Shelley seems to reference Mary Shelley, since Shelley the child is a Frankenstein's Monster-like resurrection/creation of Olivia's dead daughter.
- The last name Rumancek translates to "Chamomile". There's a particular kind of chamomile known as Roman Chamomile. This implies that there's some sort of familial relationship between the Rumancek and Godfrey families. It's confirmed in the novel that Roman's mother Olivia gave birth to a child that was given to the Rumanceks to raise.
- Letha is in Greek mythology, "The river of forgetfulness, one of the five rivers in Hades." and "A condition of forgetfulness; oblivion."
- GOD-frey, just as Norman's wife says, "Godfreys get what they want" when asked how she and Norman got together.
- Chasseur means "hunter" in French.
- The man who claims to have died and been brought back to life is named Pullman.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Inverted. There are only two male characters that die, and JR's death happens in a flashback.
- Mercy Kill: Averted:
- In a flashback, Peter finds a group of upirs torturing a dying fox but is too terrified to put it out of its misery.
- Roman gets a few chances to kill Christina cleanly before she transforms, but can't bring himself to do it.
- Motifs: "You must make your heart steel/become stronger", Olivia ONLY wears white (Letha also wears white a lot)
- Mind Manipulation: Roman can't read minds, but he can implant suggestions and make people forget recent events.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Shelley is treated like shit by the kids at school but is as kind as she is quiet.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Christina. She turned herself into a werewolf so she could "have experiences."
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Peter's grandfather was the seventh son of a seventh son, meaning Peter is a werewolf through heredity.
- Christina became a werewolf by choice and through drinking water from Peter's paw print.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Based on Slavic mythology the Upir are immortals indistinguishable from humans.
- Being Upir is genetic but ultimate transformation seems to be triggered by a successful suicide and then feeding on someone.
- Self-Harm: Roman is shown cutting himself with a razor blade several times. In his case, it starts because he likes blood.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The way Shelley's emails seem. In this case it is unlikely that the character is trying to show off or be perceived as unusually smart, rather she's taking full advantage of the medium of writing to communicate in a way that is normally impossible for her because of her muteness.
- Smoking Is Cool / Smoking Is Glamorous: There are more characters that smoke than there are that don't. Roman practically goes through a pack per scene.
- Stalker with a Crush: Christina kisses Peter in his sleep, becomes a werewolf to be closer to him, and even leaves him the "bigger half" of her kills. How...thoughtful.
- Super-Strength: Dr. Pryce, as induced by overactive adrenal glands. He broke out of his incubator as a premature infant.
- There Are No Psychologists: Somewhat subverted; Norman is a successful and empathetic doctor. However, all the patients we've seen him personally treat have ended up dead. He sleeps with Olivia for the first time when she visits him professionally, too.
- True Companions: Roman and Peter. They do have their fights, but will pull through for each other.
