Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville #7
Published on: June 29th, 2010
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Werewolves
Pages: 334
Format: Paperback
Source: Borrowed
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Three Army soldiers recently returned from the war in Afghanistan are being held at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs. They're killer werewolves—and post traumatic stress has left them unable to control their shape-shifting and unable to interact with people. Kitty agrees to see them, hoping to help by bringing them into her pack.
Meanwhile, Kitty gets sued for libel by CEO Harold Franklin after featuring Speedy Mart--his nationwide chain of 24-hour convenience stores with a reputation for attracting supernatural unpleasantness--on her show.
Kitty Goes to War contains two major plots that just so happen to intersect…or should I say two major plots, one of which conveniently takes a backseat when the other warms up and vice versa? This alternation does not get old and honestly may be a viable narrative technique more should consider incorporating.
On the one hand, we have a science-gone-wrong, werewolves-left-without-an-alpha plot which explores the ability of these fantastical creatures to rehabilitate. And on the other, we have a conspiracy-theory-investigation, is-your-local-Speedy-Mart-up-to-something-nefarious plot which starts out light and practically humorous but gradually turns darker and darker as the storyline progresses.
I have to say I favored the latter just for its easy campiness. The werewolf plot, although engrossing and certainly the “thing” we are supposed to be waiting for updates on, remained too dramatic. Note: more soap opera than Shakespeare. They may not be able to recover their humanity? O, no. The military may have to put them down? O, no.
The only redeeming motif on this o-so-serious end is the repeated mention of wolf hierarchy and Kitty’s need to demonstrate command of other wolves. Pro-tips: Stand tall, with, at least a head above them. Don’t flinch. When in wolf form, never show your belly, unless, in fact, you are deferring to a higher wolfish power. When in human form, don’t shake hands with another wolf in human form because it may appear to both your inner wolves that you are clawing each other. This ends the nature lesson in today’s review.
Kitty’s side characters such as Ben, her lawyer beau co-alpha, and Cormac, his bounty hunter cousin, make up the backbone and tailbone, respectively, of a great supporting cast. The fact that Odysseus Grant did not get to make an appearance or provide a single line of dialogue is a bit of a bummer I will admit but when you’re dealing with the Kitty Norville series, you can be fairly certain you have not heard the last of any of its massive cast.
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| Recommended: | For plot fusion |
| Like this, like that: | The Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter, the Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price and the Walker Papers series by C. E. Murphy |
