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Isaac is a fourteen-year-old boy living in the town of Millwood, Maine. One day, he meets a mysterious boy named Dragan, who claims to be an orphan and soon becomes a houseguest at Isaac’s home. They wind up going to school together, and eventually it gets revealed that Dragan is a fusion between a werewolf and a vampire, who came to Millwood to hopefully receive a cure from a doctor working in secret there. But a vampire named Jourdain Aubrey wants to use Dragan’s blood for malicious purposes, and in the ensuing struggle, Isaac gets turned into a werewolf and vampire fusion as well. The centuries-old Dragan and young Isaac swiftly form a relationship, but an assault from Jourdain leaves the doctor dead. The story ends as the two immortals prepare to visit a blood specialist elsewhere in the United States who might help to break their curse—that is, once they attend a fashion show to earn the funds for her services.
This novel has an interesting blend of elements. There are the supernatural ones, since Dragan is a Romanian boy who got turned into a werewolf, only for Jourdain to then give him vampirism on top of it. However, until the latter half, the story is more about Dragan helping Isaac to confront various issues at school and to form closer connections with his classmates. The understanding forged between Isaac and those other students, especially his estranged friend Jack, is where this story truly shines. It does such a good job of showing everyone learning to work together—in this instance, by creating a horror film to submit at a film festival—that the supernatural aspects become incidental. Then Jourdain appears, and everything changes course very quickly, from Isaac getting turned into the same fusion as Dragan to their relationship to their decision to go elsewhere for the hopeful treatment of their curse. Overall, this first installment in The Forever Saga is a fast-paced teenage romance that feels like a setup for a much larger story.