The Sopranos meets Love Lies Bleeding in Gretchen Felker-Martin's Chimera, a grotesque body horror novel where a corrupt family of Skin Dancers can transform into any animal they've eaten.

Centuries ago, in the dark of the woods, a pact was made. A gift was given. And the costs have echoed down the bloodlines.

The sprawling Varger family are Skin Dancers, able to shift into the form of any animal they've eaten, and they rule the 1980s New England crime scene. A late summer wedding between two families is meant to usher in a new era of peace among the households, and stifle the brewing tensions that threaten to boil over into war.

But something monstrous lurks in the forest outside the Varger compound. Something ancient, angry...and starving.