Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
Series: Kitty Norville #1
Published on: November 1st 2005
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Werewolves
Pages: 259
Format: Paperback
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Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station - and a werewolf in the closet. Her new late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged is a raging success, but it's Kitty who can use some help. With one sexy werewolf-hunter and a few homicidal undead on her tail, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew?
Kitty and the Midnight Hour provides valuable perspective on the non-alpha, non-volunteer werewolf. Not everybody chooses to be bitten or is born into that way of furry things. A few such as Kitty have the choice made for them and their status as were just happens to be an inconvenience, that is, until they grow into it.
Whereas this makes for a solid emotional core, Kitty’s job as a radio show host provides much of the thrill. It is too fun having werewolves and vampires call in and seeking advice. The human listeners and callers enhance the atmosphere by posing as paranormal creatures and, ultimately, getting revealed by Kitty. The radio show offers a bewitching point where the line between human and monster blur.
This element is handled excellently and really sets this series apart from political pack scuffling and alpha posturing. When these latter items do arise, they are well modulated by Kitty’s voice, a submissive wolf nearly at the bottom of the pecking order. Who is she to be involved in it?
Complaint-wise, the book feels very much stitched together, cobbled like some Frankensteinian monster from many parts. One could pick out any one of these many plots and write a dynamic, engrossing read. As it is, this exercise in stitching will make one look forward to the next book on your to-be-read list, where – so long as you are lucky enough – your next read will be of the strongly linear plot variety.
Then you can look back fondly on the diffuse nature of this read, which sort of gave you a nice break from the rather monomaniacal flow of rising action to resolution. I certainly advocate a Kitty-related dosage every month or so. It makes one value more the romantic and kung-fu skilled heroines you begin to see all the time. Not everybody graduates to true love and honorary beta status.
| Recommended: | For a break from the action-oriented werewolf story |
| 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 |
