 Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour Author: Carrie Vaughn Format: MM Available Formats: Kindle, Sony eBook Page Count: 272 Genre: Urban/Dark Fantasy Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Pub. Date: November 1, 2005 ISBN-13: 9780446616416 |
Kitty Norville works by night as a DJ on a midnight radio show and spends the rest of her time as a werewolf. Or, rather, a woman fighting her inner werewolf. Kitty begins to encourage her callers to talk about the paranormal on her radio show, which then rapidly morphs into a hit talk radio hour called--you guessed it--"The Midnight Hour". That's right, Kitty is the Dr. Laura Schlessinger of vampires and werewolves. Well, Dr. Laura without the "Woman, get pregnant and get into that kitchen because your man deserves his servant-wife!" spiel.
That isn't to say that Kitty is the normal, resourceful female protagonist. In fact, one of the major reasons I couldn't get into the "Kitty series" was because of Kitty's character. Well that and the fact that I just couldn't stomach some of the leaps of logic that Vaughn tried to pull off. (Seriously, I doubt anyone is going to accuse a near victim of an assassin of harboring sexual tension or a crush for said assassin. Especially the night after the murder was supposed to take place. Give me some development and I might try to suspend my disbelief.) Overall, though, I just did not like Kitty. I realize that Vaughn wants to mature the character into her own power and self confidence, but some passages were downright creepy:
| "He nibbles her ear, licks her jaw, sucks her throat, and pulls himself on top of her, leveraging her legs apart with his weight. She moans and lets him in; he pushes slowly, gently. This is what she lives for--his attention, his adoration. Speaking in her ear he says, 'I'll take care of you, and you don't ever need to grow up. Understand?' " |
You can judge, maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but the factor of how skeevy so many parts seemed just rubbed me the wrong way. Even in a coming of age (even if it's a mental/power coming of age rather than actual age), it just seemed...skeevy.
There were only two reasons I kept trudging through Kitty and the Midnight Hour. One of these was to see the asshole speaking above get what was coming to him. I won't spoil what happens, but let's say it was disappointing. The second reason was because I really did enjoy Vaughn's very true-to-nature look at the wolf pack. Rather than the glossed over the wolfiness of werewolves. Alternately, I wish that Vaughn had done a little more even with this conflict between Kitty and her wolf-self. Perhaps she'll address that conflict in later books. However, a little originality in perspective of the paranormal and a good possible conflict can't save this series. And so, I won't be picking up any of the 5 following "Kitty" books.
Quick and Dirty: Not My Type.
There's a huge number of urban fantasy books and series out right now. I'm sure that any number of them are better than the "Kitty Norville" series. I highly recommend trying out Patricia Briggs instead for werewolf fun. Or, if you're looking for a good female protagonist, try out Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites.
5 responses:
Nice review.. I had fun with the the book, but I might have to take you up on your suggestion of Briggs.
TJ ~ I agree that parts of this book was creepy (or, skeevy, as you way... Kitty doesn't deal with this conflict until book 3 (or was it 4?). And when she does, hoo boy. I liked that she grew into her own.
& yeah, I heart Mercy.
I have had this book in my TBR but have not read it yet because of the mixed reviews on it. Thank you for your honest opinion it really helped me in my decision to hold off on it for a little while.
See, I can't say I'm fond of Kate Daniels in the first book because she's not realistic, but rather too much of a type: bad-ass heroine bitch type. Now maybe she changes as the books go on, and I'll at least read the second to find out, but . . .
I've already commented on an earlier post, but you should give the series a shot through book four. Not only will you find a certain kind of closure to what happens in this book, but also, you'll see things come FULL CIRCLE.
And here's the thing about the skeevy-ness: We know EXACTLY why Kitty ended up the way she is in this: between the physical rape and the werewolf change in one night, it's no wonder she was shattered and ended up so submissive when the wolves took her in. Normally, this is the kind of thing that would PISS ME OFF, but it worked here, because Kitty made some effort, and that effort continues through-out the books while also doing some interesting things in the supernatural world.
That said, this was the first urban fantasy book I've ever read, like ever. I'm a little biased, but I also didn't have anything to compare to. That said, the series has strengths and weaknesses, and the first four books really mark significant progress in Kitty's character. Books five and six feel a little more traditional in terms of genre, I can admit that (actually, book five pissed me off for various reasons), but book six made up for it.
Also, you may be interested in this: Carrie Vaughn posted a series of posts about urban fantasy that are pretty interesting to read when you're looking at the genre as a whole. You may not agree with her (hell, you may find her to be a hypocrite on some levels, depending on your reactions to this book), but they're worth reading and worth examining in light of whatever UF you read.
Part #1: http://carriev.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/carries-analysis-of-urban-fantasy-part-i-the-formula/
Part #2:
http://carriev.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/carries-analysis-of-urban-fantasy-part-ii-when-things-go-wrong/
Part #3:
http://carriev.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/carries-analysis-of-urban-fantasy-part-iii-deconstructing-urban-fantasy/
There's more stuff at this link: http://carriev.wordpress.com/category/urban-fantasy-analysis/
But the bulk is in those three posts. Also, the chances I'm going to REMEMBER to check back to this entry for your response is slim to none, so shoot me a link if you do feel like responding. :) Or just bang on my door and say, "Hey, you!"
I have found, though, that often people's reaction to the KITTY books is directly related to what they've read already in the genre and how they feel about it. Two friends of mine who are OBSESSED with Charlaine Harris's SOUTHERN VAMPIRE series (both the books and tv) couldn't stand this, but a friend of mine who'd read Laurell K. Hamilton and had gotten VERY TIRED OF HER picked this up and loved it.
Kind of like my theory on fairies: if you read Holly Black's stuff before Melissa Marr's, you'll like Black better, and vise versa. :)
@Calico: Kate is a little 'typical', but she's where I go to get my fill of a female who never can be beat, if you know what I mean. Although, I have to completely ignore the romance with Curran to like the books, honestly.
And that could be so. I really didn't like Kitty's utter weakness, but Vaughn's writing and humor--and the implied romance--really didn't set well with me.
I can't promise trying the rest of Kitty, but I will read Vaughn's UF posts.
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