Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

Paperback: 0446616419, $6.99

I read and reviewed this one mostly for MonsterLibrarian.com’s Werewolf Month, but in the end, I needed more space to really explore my reaction. At best I thought “meh”.

I’m absolutely a werewolf fan, all shape shifters really, and even though I don’t like the tradition man-to-monster angle on werewolves found in horror I just can’t get enough. If it has shape shifters I’ll try it, and this is one of those times where that bites me on the rear.

What’s causing this internal conflict is the number of fans and positive reviews out there. I don’t understand what other readers see in this series, because I was done with this book 20 pages in (I kept reading through the first 100 pages and it never picked up.)

Kitty Norville is a werewolf, but she’s not only submissive, she’s whiny. She cowers, she whines, she cries, but she still goes against her alphas. Furthermore, she has a very flat personality and seems to be nothing outside of “being a werewolf” and running her late night call in show, The Midnight Hour.

The radio show bits are the only interesting parts of the book, but those aren’t entirely realistic, when combined with Kitty’s complete lack of experience and the reactions of the callers to Kitty. Callers seem to unquestioningly trust Kitty. This leads to a feeling that everyone who calls into The Midnight Hour is either an irrational hater/religious nut or blindly and adoringly trusts and obey Kitty. This, without a firm rational to explain it, directly sets off my Mary Sue alarm, because it leaves me, as a reader, feeling like the author is setting the character up to be loved and adored and sympathized with by other characters in the hopes readers will feel the same way (we don’t).

I never liked Kitty, and never felt like I was given a reason to like Kitty other than “Poor Kitty was attacked by a werewolf and victimized and can’t be herself except on this radio show, which everyone wants to take away from her”. That simply isn’t motivation enough for me. I need to see features in characters that I like and want to connect with.

And speaking of the werewolves, I’ve seen much praise for this book “showing the darker side of werewolf pack life that other books ignore” that I also don’t understand. I’ve seen lots of stories about constant battles and co-dependency among werewolves. But this book slaps readers in the face with the message over and over with every pack scene.

Put simply, Kitty’s whining is made worse by the fact that her alpha, Carl, commonly beats her and has
sex with her and when not doing either he emotionally manipulates her to be completely dependent on him. Kitty even says he wants her to be a child, helpless and useless without him, unable to protect herself, or make her own choices, but that doesn’t matter because Carl will make the tough choices (in his favor) for her. Even Kitty’s close friend, Carl’s second in command T.J., assaults her and emotionally abuses her, always undermining her choices, especially the ones where Kitty starts to stand up for herself. “Oh I’m worried about you” and “What’s wrong with you” he asks, when Kitty fights back against the man who attacked and infected her and who, in that scene, also tries to force her to have sex with him (again, apparently). With these not-so-subtle questions to her behavior T.J. implies that there is something wrong with Kitty defending herself from forced sex from someone who has proven to want to kill her.

Outside of the radio show and the pack issues there is nothing. All the other scenes, sometimes weeks at a time are completely skipped over, reinforcing the feel that there is nothing to Kitty other than pack submission and giving out advice she’s not qualified to give. It’s as if Kitty has no life outside of these things, save for the fact that she tells us certain things in the “fast forward” sections (like about her family, who are also mindlessly supportive once Kitty comes out).

Through the whole book Kitty is supposed to be investigating a religious cult claiming to be able to cure vampirism and lycanthropy, however no “on scene” time is spent on this investigation. Yet when asked about this Kitty always has more information. What is first presented as likely the main plot, sort of lingers in the background, not really addressed for the sake of Kitty’s emotional pack drama.

Add to that a myriad of small irritations like, how is Kitty’s own howl being used as the sign off for her show, how did she record her own howl if she avoids shape shifting as much as possible? Add the utter lack of resolution making this whole book feels like a prologue to the next book, and there just isn’t anything to keep me reading, much less wanting to buy the next.

In the end the only good thing I can say it that I didn’t force myself to finish this one, I didn’t pay full price, and what I did pay went to my local library (I bought this book at a library sale). Not to say I feel any ill will toward the author, just that a book this disappointing would be worse if its purchase hadn’t ultimately been for a good cause.