Review: Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

[megwrites]

Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville, Book 1)
Author: Carrie Vaughn (Author's Website)
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing




The Positives Whatever else I have to say about this book, it is a very quick read. I don't think I've ever gone through a book this fast. Ever. A little research shows that it is actually an expansion of short stories that were published in this universe. What I liked most about this book was that it wrote in a much leaner and much less self-absorbed first person viewpoint than a lot of heroine-centric urban fantasy novels. Kitty narrates without getting in the way of her own story with pointless background about how she bought the shoes she's running away in like some other novels do.

The pacing was also very, very quick. Things went from zero to sixty in this novel without much of a sense of time passing. I admired that our heroine made a journey from being submissive (and having good reasons to be submissive) to standing up for herself not through physical strength, but mental and emotional strength. This is a heroine that has both the brains and the heart that I dearly wish other writers would put in their leading ladies.

The subplot of the killings around Denver had the potential to be really interesting and I would have liked if a little more mystery and red herrings had been scattered around as well as Kitty's very understated philosophy of keeping the human in mind even when you're being told you're not human.

I really feel that the message of keeping compassion and reason in mind when you're in a harsh and unreasonable place could have been expanded and explored to the book's benefit. Still, having even that small message really impressed me. I wish the philosophy had been expanded upon.

I appreciated most, however, that Kitty's strength does not come easily and that it is as much a disadvantage for her as an advantage. It really did me good to see that she had to make a journey to be able to use that strength on her own terms, and that she earned the right to kick ass when she had to. It was good to see a heroine who didn't come complete with the ninja skills already installed and had to go out and learn them. It was also refreshing to see that even her self-defense skills and her werewolf strength did not make her "kick ass". Instead, it actually made things more dangerous.

There were themes about power, empowerment, responsibility, and humanity that were mentioned but not explored to their full potential, and I regret that. But I also keep in mind that this was the first novel in a series, and it may get better as the author has grown into her very obvious talents.


The Negatives While Kitty does not get in the way of her own narrative, she does come off as rather bland. We see surprisingly little of the existence she leads and I felt like we really didn't taste what pack life was like for her before the author started tearing it apart. I also would have liked a little more build up to the success of the radio show and some more fleshing out of the process of that. In fact, I would have liked a bit more of a peak into the world of radio broadcasting in general, since it seemed to play such a big part in Kitty's life. I have to confess that I'm not a fan of urban fantasy novels which take the supernatural public, because I haven't seen one yet (even this one) that makes me feel like it would be more interesting if everyone knew about vampires than if they didn't. I think this is because it usually involves taking characters that I usually associate with being on the fringes of society or hiding in plain sight and making them celebrities and I just don't care to read books about celebrities of any ilk.

There was a kind of blandness in this novel that comes from there not being much of a flavor from the surroundings. While there are some italicized passages describing what it's like to transform into a werewolf, there was nothing I saw that really made me say, "Oh damn, that's would it would be like to be an animal". It certainly didn't live up to the very raw and real descriptions in Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth that set me back on my heels.

Even the would-be romance between Cormac and Kitty comes off as uninteresting and I wish it hadn't been. I think Cormac could have been fascinating. The entire supernatural-hunter-dating-their-bounty theme would have been completely fascinating from the other side.

I think the novel would have been better served by slowing down in a few places and exploring a lot of the interesting things that could have happened. There are plenty of places in which the novel is barely more than an outline with dialogue and a few sparse descriptions. And while I usually prefer the leanest of lean prose, even I felt there was something lacking in some places.


CoC Score: 1. There were some mentions of characters that were, ostensibly, characters of color. But otherwise it's a rather white washed universe. Even in Denver, there are people of color, and I would have liked to have seen the world of werewolves and vampires move out of the typical white universe that people place it in. I think if supernatural race came up, then it's really rather skanky not to bring up "natural" (or not magical) race as well. I mean, what do you do if there are racial tensions within a pack or family? Do racial distinctions become more or less important if you're a werewolf or vampire? I'm sincerely disappointed in this.

GLBT Score: 1. The one openly gay character in the novel dies. This is now the second book in a row where that's happened. I'm beginning to get pissed off. Seriously.

Gender Score: 8. A heroine-centric novel with women all over the place. It also deals with rape and with a woman empowering herself even when physical prowess (even as a werewolf) is not on her side.