Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Carrie Vaughn
I really enjoyed After the Golden Age, and after that planned to try pretty much anything by Carrie Vaughn that I came across. That initial good impression is waning a bit, though; I didn’t love Martians Abroad, and there was unfortunately quite a lot about Kitty and the Midnight Hour that I found made me uncomfortable. The idea — a werewolf is a DJ who ends up running a whole feature in which supernatural creatures can call in for advice and debate — is pretty darn cool.
The pack dynamics, however, are not. I can see that through the book, they’re slowly critiqued more and Kitty realises that she’s essentially in an abusive situation, but at the beginning, it’s presented as totally normal for her to be treated like a child, and yet also used for sexual gratification more or less whenever anyone else wants. I really cringed at her passivity in that situation, and her acceptance that this was okay. It’s not even true of real wolf pack dynamics (the common perception being based on packs in captivity) and it’s really difficult to read when it’s applied to people who are also human. I didn’t love it in other werewolf books like the Mercy Thompson books, but at least Mercy didn’t put up with it the way Kitty does.
The other books might well deal with this better, but I’m kind of burned out on werewolves right now — at least, on werewolves that act like this. Particularly at the start of the book, it’s treated as normal and okay and no one stands up and says hell no, and I really don’t fancy spending more time in that world waiting for Kitty to become the kickass protagonist I assumed she was. (Note: kickass doesn’t mean invulnerable — I just mean I can’t deal with a protagonist who lies back and lets all this happen to her.)
Maybe I’ll come back to Kitty at some point. Maybe not.
I am not a huge urban fantasy fan but I was interested in the idea of reading this one because I liked the author’s writing. Nope. Yer review proves this series is not for me. Thanks fer the awesome review and for saving me precious reading time. Arrrr!
x The Captain
The other books might be quite different, because this does seem to be setting up Kitty for more independence. But I just couldn’t get along with this first one!
They may be better but I be better skipping them all!
x The Captain
I read and liked this book many years ago but I don’t remember anything about it! I do plan a re-read so I can do a series catch up though. When it’ll be is anyone’s guess!
chucklesthescot recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday
I hope you enjoy it when you do!
Interesting. I loved After the Golden Age, and also enjoyed Bannerless and the Martian book, so I’ve wanting to read more of her books. I have a copy of this one, and haven’t touched it yet. I’ll proceed with caution. I’d guess that you’re correct about Kitty’s character and agency growing over the series.
Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies recently posted…Shelf Control #95: The Pack
It’s probably very much a personal preference thing! I just found it too icky and it coloured my whole view of the world of these books, you know?