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[skygiants]

2013 booklogging catchup! A good fifty percent of my backlog is that headfirst plunge I took into Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, which is urban fantasy that starts out as pretty straightforwardly about werewolves and is then like "actually, also EVERYTHING ELSE."

This was pretty much a candy corn binge-reading project for me -- it turns out that pretty much all of the books are available in e-format from one or the other of my local library systems, which made it REALLY EASY for me to keep going. Honestly what I really wanted was to get to No Humans Involved, which is the one about a reality-TV show necromancer, because I LOVE BACKSTAGE TV HIJINKS, but because I'm a completionist I had to read all the ones that led up to it first.

Book-by-book:

Bitten: this is the one that's all about werewolves and was actually the hardest for me to get through, in large part because I HATE CLAY SO MUCH. Okay, so the plot of Bitten is that Elena's ex-boyfriend turned her into a werewolf without her consent, and she's mad about it, AS SHE SHOULD BE, and broke up with him, AS SHE SHOULD HAVE, but now there's a big werewolf pack war thing and the rest of her werewolf family needs her help. I like Elena fine. I am fine with her arc of learning to accept that she's a cranky murderous werewolf rageface who is fond of her weird werewolf family. IF ONLY THAT WEIRD WEREWOLF FAMILY DID NOT ALSO INCLUDE THE ASSHOLE WHO TURNED HER INTO A WEREWOLF WITHOUT CONSENT AND NOW REFUSES TO TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. Anyway, that's my issue with Bitten.

Stolen: Stolen is about Elena getting an infodump on the rest of the hilariously arbitrary urban fantasy magical rules, and then kidnapped and kept in a top-secret evil science facility to study other supernaturals before they all break out. It is overall an enjoyable enough ACTION ADVENTURE WITH MAGIC, except when Clay.

Dime Store Magic switches protagonists to focus on Paige, a twenty-something witch who has just adopted difficult preteen witch orphan Savannah, except the problem is she might not be as much of an orphan as they thought, and her dad is maybe evil and his employees definitely are. So: magical custody battle! With the eventually romantic assistance of super nerdy super pompous terribly earnest do-gooder supernatural lawyer Lucas. I enjoyed this a lot actually; I like that the plot centers basically around Paige and Savannah bonding and creating a found family, and I find Paige and Lucas' earnest do-gooder romance charming.

Industrial Magic is the follow-up about Paige and Lucas reconciling with Lucas' giant magical Mafia family, and also solving a murder mystery. Not as charming as Dime Store Magic but still very enjoyable and also introduces my favorite character, GLAM MIDDLE-AGED TV NECROMANCER JAIME. Vampires feature, but not sexily.

Haunted is about Savannah's ghost mom, and made me really unfairly irritated because one of the things I really liked about the Darkest Powers books is how it's pretty creepy and ambiguous where the ghosts are coming from and what actually happens post-death, and this book is all about the afterlife is generally a cheerful kind of Disneyland where everyone hangs out and plays ice hockey all the time. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO EXPLAIN, KELLEY ARMSTRONG!

Broken is the one where Elena and her werewolf family investigate a magical mystery having vaguely to do with Jack the Ripper and zombies and is fine, I guess, except of course again Clay. Notable for having a pregnant woman as an action-adventure heroine, though, which is pretty rare! Also notable for the lesbian vampire who is constantly hitting on married, pregnant Elena, which would have annoyed me, except she is clearly so much better than Clay that I was instead rooting for Elena to run off with her and into a different series.

No Humans Involved is the one I really wanted to get to and it did not disappoint! WACKY BACKSTAGE TV HIJINKS GALORE. The protagonist of this one is, as aforementioned, glam middle-aged TV necromancer Jaime, who is not urban-fantasy-badass like most of the rest of the women in the series but who is extremely canny and kind in her own field and her own strengths. And her love interest is a mild-mannered werewolf, and I have a tremendous soft spot for mild-mannered werewolves. And they're all hanging out in a mystery house with a couple other TV necromancers in a proto-reality show about contacting Marilyn Monroe's ghost, and it's all so delightfully cheesy, and knows it.

Personal Demon started out strong, with half-chaos-demon heroine Hope going UNDERCOVER in a GANG of REVOLUTIONARY SUPERNATURALS, but I got less interested midway through when everything spiraled out from heist hijinks into MURDER MURDER MURDER. That said, I have to give a shout-out to the love interest in this one for cracking me up by being not only a rogue werewolf, but a rogue werewolf DAPPER GENTLEMAN THIEF, like, being a werewolf is just not enough anymore! In my head he is played by Cary Grant.

And at this point I had sort of glutted myself out by binging on too much Kelley Armstrong in too short a timespan, so I stopped there. Wait, no, that's a lie, I also read one of the short story collections, Tales of the Otherworld, which made me angry with the extended tale of How Clay Stalked Elena and then even more angry by having a short story about likeable, fun werewolf Logan, who is the only black werewolf as far as I know, and who ... dies offscreen in the first third of Bitten. OF COURSE. (To be fair to Kelley Armstrong, three of her protagonists are not white -- Lucas is Latino, Hope is half-Indian, and Mild-Mannered Werewolf Jeremy is half-Japanese -- BUT STILL.)

Comments

[newredshoes]

My eyes, they are huge, ohmygod, I am... so happy that a book with glam middle-aged TV necromancer even EXISTS.

[skygiants]

ME TOO. It's what got me reading the series to begin with!

[james_davis_nicoll]

IF ONLY THAT WEIRD WEREWOLF FAMILY DID NOT ALSO INCLUDE THE ASSHOLE WHO TURNED HER INTO A WEREWOLF WITHOUT CONSENT AND NOW REFUSES TO TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.

Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy = Glorification of Domestic Abuse: The Genre?

[skygiants]

To be honest, I haven't read enough urban fantasy to say! This is really my first foray.

[likeadeuce]

I totally didn't even pick up on Jeremy being half Japanese in the first two books. . .is that something I read past or does it not come up until later?

[skygiants]

Not 'til later! I'm not one hundred percent it was actually written into the first books.

[likeadeuce]

Huh, and they don't seem to be going with that in the TV version either.

(As far as I can tell anyway? The internet informs me Greg Bryk's ethnicity is 'Canadian.')

[evewithanapple]

They are not. That is the main reason I am not watching the show. (They read the extended stories! I KNOW they did! There is no excuse for this!)

[adiva_calandia]

Wait, wait, if you like wacky backstage TV hijinks, I have to ask if you've read Tanya Huff's Smoke and Shadows, which involves a plucky PA, his vampire boyfriend, a special effects wizard, and a TV show that's a pretty obvious but loving spoof of Forever Knight and Huff's previous Blood series.

. . . If I wanted to jump into this series on Stolen, and skip Bitten, would I be able to?

[skygiants]

WAIT WHAT I HAVE NOT. The only Tanya Huff I've read is the Quarters series! (WHICH I LOVE AND FIND HILARIOUS, but you know this.) Clearly I should start hunting!

Also, yeah, I think you totally could -- Bitten is pretty much just character introduction for the werewolves, really, and Stolen is what launches the rest of the wider world and the series.

[adiva_calandia]

It's a spinoff from her Blood books, which are my favorite vampire novels! But I think it stands alone pretty well. (I've never been able to get through the next book in the series, though.)

It sounds super delightful! I may have to check it out.

[skygiants]

Let me know what you think if you do! :D

[inkstone]

No Humans Involved is my FAAAAVORITE of that series because I love me some Jaime and I love me some Jeremy and I love me the two of them together!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[skygiants]

IT'S CLEARLY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT THE BEST. Best heroine, best love interest, best wacky television hijinks! Sorry, Paige and Lucas, you're great but still come second.

[evewithanapple]

Oh man Women of the Otherworld! Full disclosure: I literally grew up with these books (started with Bitten when I was fourteen, finished with Thirteen when I was twenty-one) and have met/workshopped with Kelley Armstrong twice. My emotional distance from this series is zero. Even entirely valid criticisms (I don't hate Clay but I certainly get why people do) provoke a reaction in my fourteen-year-old lizard hindbrain akin to Ariel shrieking "BUT DADDY I LOVE HIM!" Except with paranormal romances instead of bland human sailor princes.

That said: No Humans involved is probably my absolute favourite of the bunch because I was SO. DAMN. HAPPY. that those two finally got together. I'd shipped it since they first appeared on the scene, and was thisclose to just REACHING INTO THE BOOK AND SMUSHING THEM TOGETHER. And then I didn't have to! (The tic-tac-toe scene is still . . . embarassingly high up there in my favourite comfort food scenes from literature.)

Also did you plan to read Men of the Otherworld? It might not be up your alley because Clay (although Elena's not in it at all, so that ickiness is entirely avoidable) but it's almost entirely about Jeremy raising him, aka FERAL BABY WEREWOLF HIJINKS. Although trigger warning for Jeremy's asshole abusive dad hanging around and being an abusive asshole.

[skygiants]

Haha man, I can't judge, I'm the one who was going on about my love for Kage Baker's Company series a few posts ago, which I grew up with in pretty much the same way. YOU CAN TAKE MY YOUTH BUT YOU WILL NEVER TAKE MY ANGSTY MEDIEVAL CYBORG/RELIGIOUS MARTYR ROMANCE.

But No Humans Involved is so great! AND THEY BOTH ACT LIKE ADULTS, they talk out their issues and work out compromises, it's amazing and delightful.

I was looking for Men of the Otherworld back when I binged but it turned out to be one of the few that wasn't available for instant digital consumption from the library, and then I over-indulged on Kelley Armstrong so I think I need to take a break for a while before I pick up another one. But odds are decent that I will read it eventually, because completionist urges!

[evewithanapple]

Jaime and Jeremy are very, very close to my heart because I have a lot of Feels for characters who are survivors of emotional abuse who acknowledge that their experiences have impacted them but are still allowed to grow and thrive and I LOVE that these two people who were told over and over that they weren't worth anything end up being worth so much to each other. AND JAIME IS SO NICE. I LOVE HOW NICE SHE IS. Elena is strong and Paige is organized/achieving (and they're both nice too, don't get me wrong!) but so much of Jaime's defining feature is just being an incredibly nice person. I LOVE HER SO.

[skygiants]

Yesss. And I love that it's explicitly talked about that, like, Jaime is not gonna knock anyone out with her badass kung fu magical skills, she's not a fighter and she's probably going to need help around when things get violent, THAT'S OKAY. She's awesome at what she does, and she helps people, and that doesn't make her weak. And she's ambitious, and goes after things for herself, and that doesn't make her selfish. I really, really appreciate both of these things.

(I mean, I would also appreciate if the series ever let ... someone without any supernatural powers or heritage at all be interesting or awesome, but that's a whole nother issue of mine with sff overall, so.)

[evewithanapple]

Well, the book after Personal Demon is partially about a human! . . . who is completely useless and entirely too stupid to live. Womp.

Although Kelley's new series, Cainsville, seems to mostly star a cast of humans mixed up in some as-yet-unrevealed supernatural shenanigans, and they're all reasonable competent, so!

[skygiants]

I am interested in the new series! I'll probably wait until there's more than one out, since Kelley Armstrong seems to reward binge-reading.

[meganbmoore]

OMG I HATE CLAY SO MUCH. SO MUCH. I hate that either Clay/Elena is Armstrong's favorite pairing or it's fandom's favorite, because it's the one she writes the most. I hate that Clay/Elena is clearly meant to be epic true love. I hate that Elenarightly dumping his sorry self and having relationships with other men is referred to as "punishing" Clay, and not, you know, Elena having the right to have her own life. I hate that, outside of the middle of Stolen it's impossible to get Elena without Clay. I hate that not only does Clay exhibit EVERY SINGLE BEHAVIOR considered to be a warning sign for domestic abuse, but they actually bring it up just to dismiss the interpretation. I hate that the TV adaptation is ONLY going to be about the werewolves, and probably all about Elena and Clay's Epic Love. (And that Jeremy is being whitewashed.)

NOW THAT THAT'S OUT OF MY SYSTEM.

I draw large hearts over giant chunks of these books, largely the ones involving Savannah, Jaime and Paige. I picked up a novella about Paige and Savannah on a whim from the library and it was this 6 foot tall witch going undercover as a supernatural cage fighter and her superteeny not-her-mom-ever guardian being her fake manager AND IT WAS LOVE. Then I read Stolen and met the horror that is Clay. Then I read the second Paige book and then the first, and then MOSTLY managed to read them in order after that. I never did manage to read all of Bitten.

Have you read the Savannah centric books towards the end? Because they give me very very strong FEELINGS about Savannah and her abandonment fears and her relationship with Lucas and Paige and even Benicio, and her ideas about family.

But what is it about urban fantasy heroines named Elena and abusive creepers?

[skygiants]

I'm pretty positive it's fandom's favorite -- I vaguely remember reading somewhere that people get mad when she writes non-werewolf books. Which . . . I guess I'm not surprised, JUST DISAPPOINTED. (I ALSO am so frustrated that the TV adaptation is gonna be All Werewolves, All The Time. What even is the point!)

I haven't read any of the Savannah-centric books -- I pretty much burned out after gulping down eight in a row and could not do any more! I suspect it'll be a while before I've un-glutted myself enough to go back, but I'll get there eventually.

. . . who's the other Elena though?

[meganbmoore]

Yeah, in the intro to one of the later books, Armstrong says something along the lines of her having originally intended to have more Paige books, but people didn't like Paige (WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?) and only wanted Elena. So I think it's partly writing the books she knows people will buy, but I also had the feeling that she prefers them herself.

There's Elena, the main character of Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter books (I've only read the first, and have blocked most of it, but I remember he was horrible.) and Elena/Damon in TVD.

I could go with a long, long list of things Damon did to Elena/people she loves in the 2 seasons of the show that I watched, but I'll go with this one incident. Elena rejects Damon's advances in the first episode of season 2, he responds by almost either raping her or forcibly turning her into a vampire for rejecting him. We don't know which because Elena's brother, Jeremy, walks in on them so Damon decides to murder Jeremy in front of her instead. (Neither Damon nor Elena knows at the time that their uncle gave Jeremy a magic ring that keeps him from being killed by supernatural beings, so he comes back to life, so fandom says it doesn't count, even though Damon admits to thinking he really was killing Jeremy.)

And that's just the tip of the iceburg.

[skygiants]

OH JOY. Hahahahaha I never jumped onto the Vampire Diaries; the only thing I currently know about the Vampire Diaries is that someone told me they were going to have a vampire spinoff, and I mis-heard them and thought they were going to have a bake-off. Which would probably be the one thing that could get me onto the Vampire Diaries, let's be honest.

[lacewood]

Kelley Armstrong is great cotton candy reading, haha. I think I especially enjoyed the Paige and Jamie books because Paige and Jamie aren't traditionally ~kickass~ and Paige spends most of her books WORRIEDLY FLAILING but they still get things done in their own way! And JAMIE IS JUST SO SHAMELESSLY GREAT. Also, TOTALLY UN-ALPHA LOVE INTERESTS, woah, how weird is that. (Well, I guess Jeremy is technically alpha but he doesn't really act it, so dude can stay.) I should probably check out Personal Demon one day.

On the other hand I have heard such terrible things about Clay that I have never felt an urge to check out the Elena books. >_> I quite like what I see of Elena in the other books, but apparently not enough to put up with a terrible love interest.

PS. This is YA instead of urban fantasy but I totally recommend Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes for "girl raised in werewolf family" minus the non-con and alpha jerk love interest.

[skygiants]

Yes, those are my favorites too! And they're all NICE PEOPLE who care about collateral damage. I LIKE NICE PEOPLE AND I CARE ABOUT COLLATERAL DAMAGE. (Hah, yeah, Jeremy is basically the only fictional alpha werewolf I can stand. TEN POINTS TO JEREMY for not being a dick. And fifteen points to Lucas, for not being a dick AND for being a giant nerd.)

Iiiii think you're pretty much okay avoiding all the Elena books. Like, they're semi-tolerable after the first one, but I don't really think you're missing out.

PS: Thank you for the rec! :D