In Which Trai Reviews 'Soulless'

Many apologies for the lack of reviewing; I've had so much required reading lately that I haven't been able to do much reading for myself!

The Book: Soulless (Book One of The Parasol Protectorate)

The Author: Gail Carriger

How I Found It: General browsing around the Internet led to me finding several enthusiastic reviews.

The Review: Alexia Tarabotti lives in Victorian era England, but it is a Victorian era very different from our own. Supernaturals walk the streets--vampires and werewolves are acknowledged and accepted by humans. Because humans have been studying supernaturals through science, technology has made great advances, and there are all sorts of mechanical inventions around. Alexia, however, might be the most fascinating thing in her world: she is a preternatural, called a soul-sucker by most vampires. She has no soul herself, whereas supernaturals in her world have an excess of soul. A touch from Alexia neutralizes supernatural powers for as long as the contact lasts.

Alexia lives the life of a spinster, her preternatural abilities known only to the BUR, a sort of FBI for supernaturals. Her quiet life is interrupted when she is rudely attacked by a hungry vampire at a ball. Strangely, though all vampires should know about preternaturals, this one seems genuinely surprised by her abilities, and when things get out of hand, Alexia kills him. This lands her in hot water with a BUR agent--Lord Maccon, an Alpha werewolf with whom Alexia has never been on great terms--and the local vampires.

It soon comes to light that loner vampires and werewolves are disappearing and being replaced with these new vampires who have no creator in sight and who have no concept of supernatural etiquette. Most troubling of all, Alexia is being hunted by a wax-faced man who seems impervious to harm... all while Alexia is developing an entirely unsuitable attraction to Lord Maccon, who seems to like her right back. What's a girl to do?

I have to say that it took me a bit to warm up to this book. I had heard rave reviews about its humor, romance, and innovative premise, but the humor felt a little too tongue-in-cheek for me at first, like the author was trying so hard to make every little thing funny. But it's impossible not to be amused by the opening scene: Alexia fending off her vampire attacker with a woodern hairpin and a brass parasol, eventually crashing into a table of treacle tart before killing him. I eventually came to enjoy the humor and laugh at it, and this was a very amusing, fluffy-but-still-science-fictiony book, and the most fun I've had reading a book of this genre in a while.

There were some great things about this book, things that I loved, but there were also some noticeable flaws that should have been edited or addressed further. I really liked the book overall, however, and will certainly be reading the rest of the series (two more books as of now, and two more in the future) as well as anything else Carriger sees fit to put out, as long as anything else she puts out is as fun as this one!

The Good: I love, love, loved the romance between Alexia and Lord Maccon. It defies all social convention and scandalizes quite a few people, but their scenes were so enjoyable and so incredibly sexy. The scene where they first kiss is going to stay with me for quite some time; it was funny and entertaining but also very passionate and hot. I also really enjoyed the supporting cast, particularly Professor Lyall, the Beta werewolf who keeps Lord Maccon in check, and especially Lord Akeldama, Alexia's gay vampire friend. Carriger is willing to poke some fun at the genre, and she acknowledges this when she introduces Akeldama (by pointing out his habit of emphasizing certain words over others, saying that he "seem[s] to speak primarily in italics"). Of all the witty dialogue in the novel, I especially enjoyed Lord Akeldama's; once this series comes to an end, I would be more than willing to see one focusing on him!

So while the characters, dialogue, and plot were all fun and engaging, I bring us to The Bad. These are things that could have been expanded upon or edited down, or things that just bugged me. None of them quite detracted from my enjoyment of the book, but they did leave me saying, "Well, I wish she'd done something with that..."

* It is mentioned early on that having no soul leads to Alexia not having both taste and morals. She learns about fashionable trends from what she sees around her and goes from there, yet, as one reviewer pointed out, she constantly critiques her friend Ivy's taste in hats and accessories. How does she know these things are ugly, if she has no concept of taste? I was especially intrigued by the idea that she has no morals and thus has to learn them from philosophy books. I thought that this could be an intriguing character; if she has no morals, one would think she'd be willing to take action and kill without compunction if someone were after her. Instead, however, she goes by the rules of proper decorum, and there's not too much action where she is the subject. Carriger's statement that Alexia had no taste or morals seemed to have been forgotten entirely after she said it, and I wanted to see that explored more--especially the part about her having no morals.

* There are fairly frequent POV shifts from one character to another from paragraph to paragraph, and Carriger vacillates between calling characters by their last names and first names. Both can be incredibly annoying. POV shifts in particular irritate me. Either this is a third-person limited narration where we see things only from Alexia's POV, or it is a third-person omniscient where we see everyone's thoughts. We should not be spending most of our time into Alexia's head and then BAM! in Lord Maccon's for a paragraph. No, it should not work that way. Also, the constant switching of what name a person is called by got to be tiring. That is something an editor should be taking care of and making more consistent.

* Some details definitely do get repetitive. By the time I was past the first third of the novel, I'd had enough of hearing that Alexia was an Italian spinster with dark skin, an unsightly nose, and a curvy body. I understand that Alexia has been told these things her whole life and made to believe them, but geez, I just wanted the narration to stop repeating them.

All of these things were, as I said before, minor flaws that can be attributed to it being a first novel and just something that needed a little bit more editing. The book itself was wonderful and fun, and I've already recommended it to people. The American Library Association named this as an adult book that young adult audiences can truly enjoy, and I completely agree: anyone fifteen or up who's into fantasy and the Victorian era should most definitely give this one a shot (just be warned about some steamy kisses, anatomical references, and, eventually, a sex scene). I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to reading more by Carriger. Highly recommended to young adult and adult fans of steampunk and science fiction/fantasy.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Kitty Goes to War'

I will reiterate my warning from my review of the seventh Kitty book: this is eighth in a series, and thus, reviewing is difficult without giving away things from previous installments. Thus, if you're interested in this series, I would advise not reading this review unless you want some things (some minor, some major) spoiled.

The Book: Kitty Goes to War (eighth in the Kitty Norville series)

The Author: Carrie Vaughn

How I Found It: I've been a fan of the Kitty books since the beginning, and of Carrie Vaughn's writing in general. My review of the previous Kitty book, Kitty's House of Horrors, is here; my review of her young adult novel Voices of Dragons is here.

The Review: Kitty is used to supernatural unpleasantness, along with mundane unpleasantness. She's been subpoenaed by the Senate as an authority on supernatural matters. She's had to take down her former pack in order to establish dominance in her hometown of Denver--all the while dealing with her mother's breast cancer. In the previous book, Kitty was a participant in what she was told was a reality show about supernatural creatures living together, until that reality show turned into a snuff film.

This time around, Kitty has to deal with two problems. First, she is sued for libel after suggesting on her show that Speedy Mart, a national chain of convenience stores, might be attracting supernatural happenings. Soon after, Kitty receives a call from Dr. Shumacher, introduced in previous books as the head of the National Health Institute's Center for Paranatural Biology. Three soldiers--Vanderman, Walters, and Tyler--have returned from Afghanistan, with one big problem: they were part of an unofficial unit of werewolves in the Army, and with their alpha killed, they are leaderless and deeply traumatized. Kitty and her husband, Ben, are asked to consult on the matter, to see if anything can be done for these wolves--stronger, more unstable, and a potential threat to the dominance of Kitty and Ben as an alpha pair--to help them adjust to normal life.

There's also the matter of Cormac, Ben's cousin and Kitty's one-time almost-love interest. A bounty hunter of werewolves and other supernatural creatures, he was imprisoned in the third book for killing in order to save Kitty and Ben's lives. Now, two years later, he is on parole and back in the real world. Kitty notices that he is acting strangely, different from the Cormac she knew, but Cormac is frustratingly silent on the subject. Three newly minted and uncontrollable werewolves, a libel suit, and a friend acting odder than usual--could Kitty be in over her head?

I've always enjoyed Vaughn's style of writing and Kitty's character, so this book wasn't a disappointment for me. The usual humor is there, and I definitely got a few giggles out of Kitty's usual snarky nature. I'm also very pleased at Vaughn's decision to have Cormac paroled--he was my favorite character from the first book on, and I was waiting for him to come back and be a big player in the series again. My curiosity has definitely been raised by the plot decisions in this book and while I've sometimes had my own opinions on how I would have handled things had I been behind the wheel, I was very satisfied with the direction things are going for the series if this books is any indication. This book takes a step back from the vampire politics that drove Books 5 and 6 and played a small part in 7, and I was grateful for that, as the politics have sometimes confused me. This book is more like the old-school Kitty of Books 1 through 3.

Vaughn continues to build up alliances for Kitty, adding new characters with helpful resources, and Kitty's pack is built upon just a little bit more; we see more of key pack players such as Shaun and Becky. Detective Hardin is mentioned briefly but nothing more ever comes of it; same with Odysseus Grant. (A wise choice; too many characters might have been confusing to keep track of, so mentioning them in passing worked well.) Dr. Shumacher, a tangential character in previous books, is brought more to the forefront and given some development. I wasn't all too pleased with her characterization here--she came off as the typical one-dimensional scientist at times--but it gave her character another side other than someone Kitty calls with a question on occasion.

I liked the increased focus on lycanthropy and its effect on people who might not have been all that ready for it. I was really intrigued by this plotline as soon as I read the first summary that was released for the book, and I wasn't disappointed. The soldiers' plight is believable and raises ethical questions for Kitty and for the military. One thing I've noticed about the recent books is that there hasn't been much focus on the werewolf aspect--this book and Book 5 only featured one shapeshifting scene apiece. While it is in the background at all times, more focus has been placed on the humanity of Kitty and the other wolves. Vaughn tries to show all sides of the condition by making Kitty's human side one thing and Kitty's Wolf something else entirely. I liked this book's focus on how a werewolf adjusts from one life to another; it was explored briefly in previous books with flashbacks to Kitty's transformation and then in Book 3 with Ben's, so it was nice to see it explored more fully.

My one complaint about this installment of the series was that the two separate plots--Kitty's attempts to rehabilitate the soldier werewolves and the CEO of Speedy Mart suing Kitty for libel--weren't tied together very well. The main focus was the soldier plot, with the Speedy Mart plot popping up occasionally, but mostly staying in the background until the last fifty pages or so. I felt they could have been better tied together somehow, or that the Speedy Mart plot could have been given a little bit more prominence in order to make it seem more unified. In general, though, both plots were interesting and resolved well in the end.

Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one to Carrie Vaughn fans, though it's not quite a great starting point for those considering picking up the series now. This is still my favorite series of today and it's been consistently wonderful.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Personal Demon'

It's my fiftieth post! Yay! When I started this blog way back in September, I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with it, but I have! :)

I'm continuing with my Kelley Armstrong catchup, though I'm taking a break after Personal Demon, at least until The Reckoning comes out (the third in the Darkest Powers series; it comes out tomorrow, but I won't be getting mine until next week as it will ship with Armstrong's Tales of the Otherworld).

The Book: Personal Demon (book eight in the Women of the Otherworld series)

The Author: Kelley Armstrong

How I Found It: As explained before, big fan of the Otherworld books.

The Review: Okay, so I might've said in my other reviews of Armstrong's work that I'm desperately in need of a refresher course in her world, considering I started the series so long ago. (Well, four years isn't that long, but whatever.) Since I only really read Carrie Vaughn in the last couple years, I kept getting the traits her werewolves and Armstrong's confused. Bit of a barrier. But that's my fault, so no big deal. Anyway, what I meant to say: this book was a really good refresher on the aspect of the Otherworld that most confused me at 14, the Cabals.

This book also marked a return of a narrator I really liked when Armstrong introduced her: Hope Adams, from her novella Chaotic. I remember reading the anthology it appeared in when it was first released, gym class be damned. I really liked Hope as a narrator, even if I wasn't quite sold on Karl Marsten yet. I'll have to reread that novella sometime soon; I barely remember it anymore.

ANYWAY. This review is turning into a ramble. The plot: Hope Adams is an Expisco half-demon, one of the rarest kinds in Armstrong's world. While full-fledged demons have certain powers and an innate hunger for chaos, Hope's got the sucky end of the deal: she only gets the hunger for chaos and the ability to sense it, with no nifty powers to defend herself. Her job writing supernatural stories for a tabloid is convenient for her and fun, and it would be all she needs, until she is approached by a Cabal for help.

This relates directly to the situation in Chaotic, which left Hope and werewolf jewel thief Karl Marsten with a favor to repay to the Cortez Cabal. Hope is by herself, Karl having left her with barely an explanation to go to Europe, and Hope is determined to repay the favor by herself. Benicio Cortez, head of the Cabal, asks Hope to infiltrate a gang of young supernaturals who may be plotting against the Cabal. Hope agrees, but very soon finds herself crossing paths again with Karl, who is none too pleased with Benicio's offer, and may want to rekindle things with Hope.

Hope is the primary narrator, but the secondary narrator is Lucas Cortez, Benicio's son and unwilling heir to the Cabal. Lucas and Paige's investigation into the ever-more-complicated situation arising out of Hope's undercover mission supplements the main story, the first time Armstrong did multiple narrators in one book.

The book was a little slow to start for me, but I have to say that I ended up really enjoying it a whole lot. Even if the 22-year age difference between Hope (28) and Karl (50, though he ages slower since he's a werewolf) was a tad squicky, they made such an appealing couple and I really enjoyed reading their scenes. Karl truly grew on me and I think that's a testament to Armstrong's ability as a writer.

I wasn't sure at first how I liked the switching between narrators-- I knew it was mostly a plot device, to show the Cortez side of the story that we wouldn't see if Hope had been the sole narrator. There were also points where, say, Lucas would take over for three or four chapters and I would start to think the balance was uneven. But in the end, I saw that it was necessary to include Lucas' narration-- this is just as much his story as it was Hope's.

Hope's story is largely about coming into her powers and developing the relationship between her and Karl. Since we already saw Lucas' relationship with Paige develop into love and later marriage, a lingering question for him was the leadership of the Cabal. His father has named him heir, even if he's certain he doesn't want the position.

This book was really integral to the future of the series, I think-- Armstrong took some irrevocable steps towards shaping the series' future that really shocked me. I'm sure she has a direction in mind and I'm really curious to see if that's further explored in Book 9 (I know it probably won't be in Book 10, as the focus is on the Pack), or if it'll be left to Savannah's books. Either way, it was nice to see the plot of the series really advance and to see the characters develop in their own rights.

On the whole, despite my initial misgivings, I really enjoyed the book. It was an engaging mystery with some pretty shocking twists, and I can't wait to see how the whole situation will eventually be resolved. I loved reading about Hope and Karl's growing relationship, and the book was just plain fun, even if it has that pinch of horror to it. I wouldn't recommend this one to new readers of the series-- way too much to be known beforehand, IMO-- but readers of the series should definitely read it, even with the lukewarm reviews to be found elsewhere.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Men of the Otherworld'

The Book: Men of the Otherworld

The Author: Kelley Armstrong

How I Found It: I knew it was out, but didn't want to buy it in hardcover (I was also still in my lapsed Otherworld fan stage at that point). When I saw the paperback at a good price over the weekend, I figured I'd go for it.

The Review: Okay, so this weekend was mainly reacquainting myself with Kelley Armstrong. The good thing about this book was, even though the stories in it had been on Armstong's website when I initially became a fan of hers, I had never read them. The only e-novella of hers I read was "Beginnings", which is going to be printed in the next Otherworld anthology (out in a few weeks).

The stories inside it are "Infusion" (one of her 2005 online short stories, some of which I read in 2005); her first e-novella, Savage, which concerns Clay being bitten as a child and becoming a werewolf, with Jeremy taking him in; Ascension, her second e-novella, which concerns Jeremy's rise to Alpha; and a new story called "Kitsunegari" (Japanese for "fox hunt"; thank you, The X-Files), which concerns the mystery of Jeremy's parentage on his mother's side. With the exception of "Kitsunegari", all of the stories are prequels.

Since the book is four separate sections, I'll review each of the stories separately, with a brief overview of Armstrong's universe (which'll probably spoil some things if you're not acquainted with the series and wish to be; you've been warned).

The four stories all concern Jeremy Danvers, one of the series' central characters. Ten books in the series out now and four have focused on the werewolves, who are pretty much the grounding force of the series, even if they're not always the focus. (The four werewolf books are Bitten, Stolen, Broken, and Frostbitten.) Jeremy is the current Alpha of the American Pack, although this allegedly changes in Frostbitten, which I haven't yet read (so I don't know who becomes his successor, though I think it's kind of obvious). Jeremy has always been somewhat of a mystery, because even though he is a werewolf, he had unexplained psychic abilities. Armstrong finally answers those questions in this anthology.

"Infusion": This story concerns Jeremy's conception and birth, and is told from his father Malcolm's point of view. Malcolm is one of the only werewolves in the Pack to have not fathered a child-- particularly, a son-- by now. (In Armstrong's 'verse, only males carry the werewolf gene; females only become werewolves if they are bitten and survive. The only female werewolf is Elena, narrator of the four werewolf books, and possibly her infant daughter Katherine, since Clay and Elena were two werewolves who mated.) Malcolm begins a relationship with a Japanese girl just after World War II, and discovers a few months after that she is pregnant. Now, he has to wait to see if he has a son.

This one was short and a decent story-- because it was a short story initially on her website, I hadn't been expecting anything lengthy or profound. It serves its purpose, to tell us how Jeremy came about, and it gives us an early introduction to Malcolm as an unlikeable character, which will be a big thing later on. It was good, but not as good as the other short stories Armstrong put out that year. It was intriguing, though, and raised the question of what Jeremy is on his mother's side. It raised my interest, so it was pretty good.

Savage: Clayton Danvers is six years old and an abused child. Knowing he saw a werewolf by his family's campground, he asks for a bite as a way to escape his awful life. However, he gets more than he bargained for, as being a child werewolf is a difficult existence. After being on his own for some time, Jeremy finds him and domesticates him. The novella chronicles Jeremy's attempts to have Clayton be part of the Pack and Clayton's early childhood as a werewolf.

I'll admit that I was never really a big fan of Jeremy, or of the werewolf novels in the series in general. Nothing against them; I just didn't find them as engaging as the witch novels. My opinion changed so radically after reading these, and that's a good thing. I fell in complete love with Jeremy. Before this, I don't think we ever got a clearer picture of the way Jeremy loves and protects Clay. It was really heartwarming how well he took care of Clay and how fiercely Clay came to love him.

That was the strength of the novella, I think-- seeing how the gradual bond formed between Clay and Jeremy. I have a much better understanding of them now, and I liked that so much. Clay was a good narrator; having not read "Beginnings" since 2005 or so, I'd forgotten his narrative voice. A lot of his lines made me laugh, and I liked how well Armstrong captured his reactions to things we take for granted (since Clay, having been a feral child for years, has to be re-educated about human life). For me, Savage was definitely the best of the four.

Ascension: This one concerns Jeremy's rise to Alpha and how Clay protects him against the growing threats of the other Pack werewolves and "mutts" (non-Pack-affiliated werewolves).

For me, this one felt rushed, and I don't think it was Armstrong's best work. She skims over periods of Clay's life in order to get back to the action. Things like Clay's college years and Nick's first Change are turned into tidy little paragraphs. I would've liked to see how Clay adjusted to socializing in college, since he was so bad at it in high school. I think this one just suffered because of the amount of times Armstrong had to skip over something.

I've never been a fan of Pack politics, though, so it was a little bit boring at times. The suspense is also gone, since we know Jeremy is indeed the Alpha. But it was nice seeing characters like Peter that become red-shirts in Bitten, so I enjoyed that part of it.

"Kitsunegari": This one deals with Jeremy finally learning about his heritage.

This one made me really like Jaime and Jeremy as a couple, and even though I saw plenty of them in No Humans Involved, that one mostly concerned the development of their relationship. I liked seeing who they were now. They were fun and flirty, and I liked that Jeremy helped Jaime deal with her insecurities about men in general. Jaime provided a lot of the humor, and I really liked that.

The exposition on the Kitsune themselves felt rushed, and I don't know when they'll play into the story again. It felt like a giant info dump in the last few pages of the story. I hope they do come into play again and aren't only in this story.

Overall, the book itself was very even and paced well. I really, really liked reading it and seeing things I hadn't before, which greatly improved my opinion of characters like Clay and Jeremy. The stories were compelling and kept me turning the pages; Armstrong works as well with short fiction as she does with novel-lengths. I'm so excited for the next anthology. Recommended for fans of the Otherworld series and perhaps a beginning reader of it who might want a good place to start.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Angelic'

The Book: Angelic

The Author: Kelley Armstrong

How I Found It: I'm a huge fan of Armstrong's and have been since I was fourteen. I reviewed the second of her YA books towards the beginning of this blog.

The Review: This was a different thing for me-- an audiobook. I meant to buy the actual book when it was out, but it was a limited edition and I didn't snap one up fast enough, so I got the audiobook off of Audible and listened to it today. It was short-- just over 90 minutes-- since this was a novella.

Since the first book of Armstrong's I read was Haunted, narrated by Eve, Eve was always my favorite narrator. I always wanted to see another book from her point of view, but it never became a reality (though the book coming this summer will be from the point of view of her daughter Savannah). I was really glad to see Armstrong wrote this, but I was a little disappointed to not see more of Trsiel, Eve's angel partner.

This might be a little spoilerish for anyone that hasn't read the series, but Eve's book was around in 2005, so I doubt I'm spoiling anything for anyone who has. (I'm also a few books behind; the last Otherworld book I read was No Humans Involved.)

To put things very simply, Eve Levine has been dead for some time now, having died prior to the second book in the series, Stolen. She is a very powerful witch who also has half-demon blood, and she is a highly powerful and respected master of dark magic. More than anything, Eve cares about the daughter she left behind (Savannah), whose father (Kristof) she reconnected with in the afterlife. (Kristof was accidentally killed by Savannah in Dime Store Magic, I believe.) At the end of Haunted, Eve was offered a job by the Fates: hunting down spirits and other nuisances and sending them to Hell. She became an angel and was partnered with another angel, Trsiel, and the deal is that she spends six months of a year doing work for the Fates, and gets six months off with Kristof as a ghost.

Angelic lets us follow Eve on a very simple example of the jobs Eve does. Since it was a novella, things weren't nearly as complex as they could have been, and I did find myself wishing it was a full book. There were some appearances by other characters in the series, albeit briefly (Jaime, Jeremy, and Kristof are the major ones).

When the book starts, Eve is attempting to prepare for a vacation with Kristof. The Fates have already postponed her six months of freedom by a week, and Eve is getting annoyed. The Fates call her back to ask her to deal with a problem: djinn who are torturing the people who summon them. Eve has a difficult time saying no to cases involving witches who are being hurt, and thus agrees to the job. Even though she says yes, Eve is annoyed with the Fates' poor (in her view) treatment of her and decides she wants to quit her job.

The book follows Eve as she finds who is behind all the attacks, attempts to stop them, and realizes the orchestrator might not necessarily be who she thinks it is. Through it all, she debates whether or not to leave her job, and finally has to enlist the help of Jaime and Jeremy.

As I said before, it would've been so nice if this could have been a full book. As it was, it was nice, but so much could have been done with it. I really missed hearing the story of Eve and Kristof from her point of view-- seeing them in No Humans Involved was nice, but Eve was a good narrator and she was always my favorite. So hearing from her again was good, but I just wanted more. I wanted to see more struggling on Eve's part to get the case solved. I wanted to see more of her with Kristof. I wanted Trsiel to show up and kick ass and take names.

As it was, I liked it. Eve was fun and a couple lines made me laugh. It was nice seeing a little Greek mythology worked in. My one problem was that it's been so long since I read the early Otherworld books that I was a tiny bit fuzzy on little plot details from them that show up briefly. But I liked the insights we got into Eve, and the reveal that Kristof's son knew about Eve was interesting. I wonder if that will play into Savannah's upcoming book.

Though the book could have been longer if Armstrong had had the time and inclination, I didn't fault it for being what it was. It was nice of her to do it for the fans in the first place. It was well-paced and I was never bored, though I do wish it was widely available in book form. The audiobook was well-done, though the narrator's voice felt a little too girly for Eve. The voices were distinctive enough, but we didn't really see enough of each character to require it, so it wasn't a big deal if they were or not.

Overall, I think the only people this book will appeal to are Armstrong's fans-- though you don't have to know her world, I can't really see anyone else picking this one up. For what it is, I think it was very good. I'm hoping Eve will figure more in the next few Otherworld books, but until then, I'm glad Armstrong gave us this.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Kitty's House of Horrors'

Big warning: this is the seventh book in a series, and my review will spoil (some major) things from the earlier six. If you have any plans to read the series, start with Kitty and the Midnight Hour and do not read this review any further.

The Book: Kitty's House of Horrors (seventh in the Kitty Norville series)

The Author: Carrie Vaughn

How I Found It: I've been a dedicated, adoring fan of the series since the very first book debuted in November 2005.

The Review: My rule: when a new Kitty book comes out, I inhale it. There have been times when I've gotten distracted and have had to set aside the book for a month or two, but inevitably, when I come back to it, I inhale it. Kitty books have traveled with me through freshman Italian class, a road trip to Virginia and Rhode Island, a trip to London, college orientation, and now winter break of my freshman year at college. They've been there for me since my freshman year of high school, and for that reason I love them dearly.

To say a bit about the series: Kitty Norville is a young, twentysomething (I did the math once-- I think by now she's about twenty-six to twenty-nine?) werewolf radio DJ who inadvertently starts the first call-in advice show for supernatural creatures. This show brings her in contact with two of the major characters in the series: Cormac Bennet, a bounty hunter, and Ben O'Farrell, Cormac's lawyer and an eventual werewolf who becomes romantically involved with Kitty, and later becomes her husband.

From the beginning of the series to now, Kitty has evolved from a submissive wolf to a dominant alpha female with her own pack and a husband who serves alongside her as alpha male. The vampires of the series have slowly came into focus as figures who exist to perform powerplays, locked in something called "The Long Game" that appears to be about consolidating political power. All Kitty knows is to stay the hell away.

At the beginning of the novel, Kitty is drawn into a contract with a reality TV show based around keeping supernaturals in a house for two weeks, with the promise that it will bring good publicity to her show. Kitty reluctantly agrees, suspicious, but comforted once she learns that some of her friends from previous adventures will be there.

Vaughn does indeed bring out the cavalry for this one: readers of the series will recognize Jeffrey Miles (Washington), Ariel (Takes a Holiday), Tina, and Odysseus (both from Raises Hell, with Odysseus also from the previous book, Dead Man's Hand), among some new characters. This, along with Vaughn finally expounding on the homo sapiens pinipedia mention at the end of Midnight Hour, made me adore the sheer amount of world-building Vaughn has done over the years.

Once Kitty has settled into the house and gotten familiar with her housemates, she and the others begin to sense that not all is right. Their suspicions are confirmed as an unexplained death occurs, followed by another, more clearly deliberate one. As those still alive are left without power and without any means of contact to the outside world, Kitty and the rest are left to wonder who is causing these deaths-- and what they can do to stop it.

Out of all the seven Kitty books, I have to say that this is the scariest and most emotional one of them all. At first, the deaths were sad, but I could mostly see that Vaughn was killing off red-shirts who had only been introduced to the book for this reason. Vaughn, surprisingly, simply didn't stick to the pattern of killing off only those the readers wouldn't miss. Familiar characters are just as likely to die as the new ones, and even when the new ones died, I was still hit emotionally. I found myself tearing up three times-- I cared about these characters. I've said it before, I'll say it again-- if Kitty were real, she'd be my best friend; I can relate to her easily, and it's partly because of this that I felt so strongly for the characters. Kitty cared and so did I.

As the series has evolved, the books have gotten better and better-- my previous favorite was Silver Bullet, but I think this one has topped them all. I loved the further exploration of Odysseus Grant's character, and I especially liked the new addition, the vampire Anastasia. Carrie Vaughn is doing a good job at building up alliances for Kitty, and part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much was seeing just how Kitty managed away from her normal support system, when she has no clear idea of who she can trust.

I highly recommend this book and the entire series to anyone who wants a strong heroine who can manage well on her own, and whose narrative voice is easy to relate to. The books in the series are: Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, Kitty Takes a Holiday, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and Kitty Raises Hell.

In Which Trai Reviews 'The Awakening'

Second review I meant to post... This book not to be confused with Kate Chopin's The Awakening (also a very good book).

The Book: The Awakening (Book #2 in the DARKEST POWERS series)

The Author: Kelley Armstrong, author of the dark fantasy series WOMEN OF THE OTHERWORLD

How I Found It: Read the first novel, The Summoning, to which this is a sequel. Before that, I've been a fan of her work since I was fourteen (eighteen now).

The Review: As mentioned above, I started reading Kelley Armstrong's books when I was fourteen years old-- perhaps a little young for the content, but in my defense, I started with Haunted, the least sexually explicit of the Otherworld books. (Yes, my mother knew what I was reading and gave me permission... she apparently read worse at that age.)

Since around 2007, I became a lapsed fan of the Otherworld series; with the advent of the seventh book, No Humans Involved, the series went hardcover. Besides my adversity to hardcovers (I just don't like them), they're very expensive, so I waited for the paperbacks. I got NHI when it came out in paperback, but didn't get around to reading it. On the eve of my departure for college, I noticed Kelley's first YA effort, The Summoning, on a Border's display table and bought it on impulse, bringing that and NHI with me to college.

Earlier this month, I pulled a NHI/Summoning double feature, reading them back-to-back. I wasn't sure how Armstrong's universe would translate to YA, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know how many people who read her YA are familiar with the Otherworld books, but for me, it was slightly suspense-killing since I knew the "surprise" of what each person was.

Regardless, I got pretty sucked into the story, and I was very glad to read The Awakening to see where it went. Armstrong writes YA just as convincingly as she writes adult books, and Chloe is a very likeable narrator.

Chloe is also a budding filmmaker, meaning she is what TV Tropes would call genre savvy. That is, she knows all the pitfalls of the normal heroine in movies and books, lampshades them, and avoids them as much as she can. This makes her a smart and fun narrator to stick with-- since she avoids the normal conventions, it's great to see what she'll do next.

Granted, the plot and characters of the first two books of the trilogy aren't too original. I figured out a good many things before the characters did; certain tropes are pretty old hat. But at the same time, cliche as some characters may have been, they were characterized very well, and I enjoyed spending time with them. I thought Armstrong's use of Simon's drawings as coded messages was particularly original-- a ghost, a Terminator, and a lightning bolt translates to "Chloe, I'll be back, Simon." It was a cute touch I really enjoyed.

The first book was about the secrets of Lyle House, what the characters were, and how to get out. This second book was mostly about the search for Simon and Derek's dad and the setbacks along the way. Again, not terribly original, but it is Armstrong's gift that she can make even the most unoriginal plot great fun to read about.

Otherworld fans might miss the familiar faces-- I'm waiting for Jaime to pop up and mentor Chloe-- but once you get past that, these are quick, engaging YA reads that are much, much better than the Twilight junk floating around. Want your kid/friend/partner to read good fantasy? Tell them to read this.