Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Summary: Kitty Norville is a midnight-shift DJ for a Denver radio station—and a werewolf in the closet. Sick of lame song requests, she accidentally starts "The Midnight Hour," a late-night advice show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. After desperate vampires, werewolves, and witches across the country begin calling in to share their woes, her new show 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…
The Dish: The overall story was likable for the most part until the very end when the "big reveal" occurred and Kitty had to face down those that were supposed to be her protectors. Vaughn has a unique writing style as well as a different take on the overall structure of the werewolf pack dynamic. While I do not fault her for this, I have to say I prefer a more positive structure that has less...potential negative effects on the lower-ranking members.
The alphas were perhaps the least likable characters, if you could find any reason to like them at all. I realize that in normal wolf packs, alphas must show and reinstate their dominance over the other members of the pack on a regular basis, but I would not call it "bullying" as Kitty even points out in the story. When I think of the alpha male and female of a werewolf pack, I would like to believe they are more fair judges than "it's my way or the highway" because of the air of humanity that is still present within them. In Kitty and the Midnight Hour, the alphas are pretty much all bullies, especially the alpha male, Carl, who likes to throw his weight around as well as have any of the females in the pack whenever he wants. Meg, the alpha female, is probably the biggest witch you will meet when it comes to werewolf packs with the exception of Reina, the original alpha of the St. Louis pack in Laurel K. Hamilton's Vampire Huntress series.
Kitty is an excellent character to watch grow from the omega of the pack to something more and able to depend on herself more than the pack. Given her circumstances, I can understand her choice in doing so, but somehow I don't feel it's easy to live as a solitary wolf. However, due to the disappointment of the ending of Midnight Hour I don't think I'll continue on with the rest of the books in the series. I had hoped to find a werewolf series I could really sink my teeth into, pardon the pun, but I'd rather stick with Vaughn's short stories instead of the novels.
Have you ever read a book with a good start only to be disappointed by the ending?
Sorry you didn't like the ending. :(
ReplyDeleteI really want to read her new YA though.
I have to admit "Voices of Dragons" does sound like an interesting title. Here's hoping it's a good read for both of us, and if you read it before me, let me know what you think. :)
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